Rafting on the Zanskar River

We met the Splash Adventure guys in the main bazaar in Leh at approximately 8:45am. It was a 2 1/2 hour drive to Chiling, where we were to start the rafting. The road was quite narrow, with a steep drop off on one side and rock on the other. To make it even better it was still being constructed, so there were many workers on the road still building as we passed. The guys started by blowing up our raft (ofcourse Ian had to help!) and giving safety instructions...I asked what the probability of falling out of the raft was and our guide said "very high". Since the water was only about 5 degrees and we had never rafted before I was not keen to jump in to the boat. But off we went! (there were a Frenchman and an Israeli paddling with us who had both been rafting before). The route was rated at level four (five is the most difficult for rafting), but they assured me that we would be safe as we had a kayaker following us who would keep us company if we fell in the water (to talk us through the stages of hypothermia!). It turned out to actually be quite a lot of fun! No one fell out of the boat, and we only had to stop once on a rocky outcrop to pump up the leaking boat. By the time we got to Nemo (our final destination) we were frozen from the spashing of the water and the lack of sun to warm us up. We quickly changed our clothes and hopped into the Jeep waiting to drive us back to Leh. We spent the evening re-packing our bags for the trek leaving the next morning.