Namaste India: सुंदर सांप और एक नदी (Beautiful Snake and a River)

Namaste Readers!

I have just returned home from a wonderful five day trip up and around the Tons river in the Uttarkashi District. The trip was simply fantastic and I want to share some of my highlights with you all. The days were filled with hikes, rafting, swimming in river pools and capturing the most gorgeous creature I have ever seen on camera.

We were based in a camp set up by the Himalayan River Runners company on a little beach alongside the mighty Tons river. The camp provided awesome tents to sleep in which were comfortable and home to some lovely big spiders and scorpions. We were treated to delectable food, an array of sports to play and a nice little rope course. The campsite was littered with some fun boulders to climb and was a sea of cannabis plants filling the air with their sweet aroma and attracting some fine creatures (especially extra large wasps) to their enticing scent.

Our campsite!

Sea of green.

From here we set out on day adventures to soak in the beautiful surroundings of the Garhwal Himalaya. On one of the days we took an excellent hike through many villages to a freezing cold waterfall surrounded by cliffs and a huge variety of wildlife. I spent a long time swimming and making the most of this wonderful place. Of course the highlight for me was finding a Himalayan Pit Viper coiled up by the rivers edge, however I did not manage to snap any photos of it in time. Watching the villages live out there day to day life and trying to communicate with some of the hard workers in my very poor hindi was also a highlight!

Approaching a Village

As always a gorgeous couple of village children!

Sap catcher to make glue!

Ladies hard at work in the fields.

The lovely waterfall and swimming hole.

I was lucky enough to get three wonderful runs in the rafts down the Tons river. The river was world class and provides over 90 km of grade 3,4 and 5 rapids. However due to students we stuck to the grade 3 section which is around an 11km run. The scenery on the rafting trips was spectacular with stunning peaks rising from either side of the river and a never ending maze of beautiful rapids gushing over never ending boulder fields. Great fun for all!

Students preparing to jump on the river.

Now my highlight of the trip was most definitely the incredible wildlife spotted on this trip. I got nice and close to four jackals, found the smallest frogs I have ever seen, sited two snakes (caught one), played with giant toads, was dazzled by an array of multicolored dragonflies, saw more species of butterflies than you could shake a stick at and dont even get me started on the number of incredible birds we saw! However the best find was the White Lipped Viper. This incredibly toxic snake was found in our wood pile when collecting fire wood. I heard one of the cooks yell Saap and run at full speed away from the pile. Of course the word Saap (snake) was a clear calling for me to run as fast as I possibly could TO the pile. I was delighted to see a bright green snake with golden eyes gazing up at me hissing its tongue out. We managed to pick it up with a stick and take some lovely photos of this creature without getting bitten which could easily have been fatal due to the fact that there is no antivenum within five hours of the camp site. The most interesting thing to note about this snake is that it is not only very rare but supposedly found only in the eastern parts of India. I have sent photos to some famous snake experts in southern India who are very intrigued by this find. Well enough ranting about this beautiful snake and on with the photos I say!