Waterfalls and Ambulances

Tags

Ambulance, Hikes, Hiking, India, Neer Waterfalls, Patna Waterfalls, Rishikesh, Travel, Waterfalls

It’s only my third day in India and I find myself sitting in the back of an ambulance … I feel a mixture of relief, exhaustion and hilarity. My day started out normal enough.  I decided that today would be a go check out the temples and sit on the beach kind of day. Simple enough, so I settled on wearing almost all white and water shoes.

I checked out a temple and then decided on a little refreshment before hitting the beach. This is where I met Reju, who recognized me from the Aarti the night before. We chatted and devised a plan to go the Rishikesh Waterfalls.

Our first stop was to the RajaJi Forests by taxi. A quick 20-30 min. walk from the road we reach the Patna Waterfalls. It was magical! I don’t know how else to describe it! It was a bit of a hike to get to it, with uneven and narrow paths, (sometimes shared with donkeys), but so worth it! 

It was just absolutely gorgeous! The water streams are so thin you can almost see every drop of water. I’ve seen many waterfalls, but this was just different from all the others I’ve ever seen. The water was clear and cool and the whole waterfall just seemed like a curtain of mist! This was my favourite place in Rishikesh!

Our next stop was a very long walk to the Neer Waterfalls, which actually has multiple waterfalls, making it rather difficult to tell when you’ve reached the top. On one of our stops along the way we decided to climb the fall…

Regu and I made it this far, which we later found out wasn’t actually the top, but it was still lovely!

  

It was a long day, and the sun had begun to sink. We were desperate to find a taxi, but when you’re out near the woods, there aren’t too many… So all you can do is improvise… our awesome ride back to the town… an ambulance.

It was a hilarious, random adventure, but I would caution that any hiking trip taken, should be well timed so that you can make your way back while there’s still sufficient sunlight and taxi’s running!