Monday, August 24, 2009

Demian - Temples

"Imagine a temple in your dreams
Where even all my fears won't make you disappear

Imagine these feelings we could share
You'd keep them in your head, even when I'm dead

Imagine now, imagine now (but you can't), Imagine...

Remember this ringing in your ears
Sounded like my biggest fear and you made it disappear

Remember now these feelings that we shared
How they whisper in your ears even when I'm far away

Remember now this temple in my dreams
Where even all your fears won't make me disappear

Remember now these moments that we shared
Now they will stay in your head even when I'm dead

Remember now, remember now

I won't say goodbye this time
I won't let you die inside my mind"

Dark but beautiful song from a French Band. Check it out here

Monday, August 10, 2009

Sphering, WWRafting, and Bruar Canyoning, Scotland


Well, what can be the perfect way to end a two week long trip to UK and scenic Scotland than two days of extreme adventure. This time I was with my family which is generally expected to be more of a sight-seeing trip. However, I seem to have given my brother-in-law the adventure bug and he also convinced my sister to take part in our adrenalin shots.

Nae Limits near Perth in Scotland is an award winning Adventure Club and is known for White water rafting, adventure tubing, zorbing and extreme canyoning among other things. We tried Sphering (zorbing), white water rafting on the Tummel River and Bruar Canyoning.

Sister and BIL posing before their roll

Sphering is this gaint rubber ball that they strap you inside and roll it down a hill. It was a weird and bumpy ride and lasted all of forty seconds. The second time around, my sister decided to give the ball a very hard shove before it took off. BIL and me were strapped inside and screaming as the ball made us do somersaults at something like ten kms per hour. Which is quite a bit of somersaulting. Overall, different but not worth the money.

The Sphering site, Nae Limits


Negotiating rapids on the Tummel River

The afternoon was spent white water rafting on the Tummel River. The last time I tried this was exactly a year ago on the Sita Nadi in Agumbe and I was disappointed. I volunteered for the front seat in the raft and got it without much trouble unlike last time. :) Most of the rapids are a grade 3, but there is two tier waterfall right at the end and is rated grade5. That fall was amazing and we took it going backwards! Apparently, in every rafting trip, atleast one of the rafts capsize on that rapid but ours was a record of sorts with none of the rafts turning over. Again, rafting was good but nowhere close to the adrenalin shots that me and BIL were expecting to get high on.


Going down a Grade5 rapid in Reverse!

The best part came last. Bruar Canyoning. This involved one and a half hours of high octane cliff jumps, waterfall slides, scrambling and rappelling. All this on a furious river rushing down a gorge. There are very few places in the world that offer this kind of an experience I reckon. It was just mindblowing. It was like this natural water amusement park ride laid out by nature. In an amusement park, its perfectly safe. This has a high degree of danger to it and thats what made it all the more exhilarating. I volunteered to do a cliff jump first and ended up getting swept into a cave. Finally, I had to be hauled out by a rope. That was scary. Luckily, the cave was a dead end! BIL and me couldn't stop grinning after the experience. We thought it was totally worth the trip. All in all, I would recommend Canyoning to any guy who is not scared of water and has good swimming skills.


BIL executing the jump


Our Canyoning guide Mia, hauling me out of the cave!

Whoa, thats high! Gotta be mad to jump off from there.