Torna Waterfall Rappelling

Rapelling or abseiling is the activity that involves descending down from a height using just a rope. Add to rappelling a waterfall and you get waterfall rapelling. In waterfall rapelling, we rappel alongside a waterfall. The force of cold water makes this even more thrilling. When trekdi announced their waterfall rappelling at Torna, I registered on their website and paid the amount.

We started from F.C. College in a private van and reached the base village Velhe. This is also the start point for trek to Torna fort. The trail was lush green due to the recent rains and there was a small but forceful waterfall on the way. We took a detour from here onto another trail that will lead us to the waterfall we were going to rappel at. The actual trail leads to torna fort from this waterfall, but we did not take that trail.

After steep climb on a small hill, we reached a plateau. All of us gathered here for a round of introduction. We got introduced to the rapelling equipments and the technique of rappeling. We could see the waterfall that we were going to rappel along, so from here we got a demonstration of rappelling performed by one of the member of Trekdi.

We started the activity in batches of 5. I was in the second batch. I got tied with all the safety ropes. During the instructions, it was told that we need to hold the rope on the right hand as loose as possible and not hold it tight. I was quite confident as I was being let off the cliff. However, as I was descending down, I just could not keep the right hand loose as was told. The edge was slippery as well, so I missed one step and off I went solely on the support of the ropes. The instructor asked me to leave both the hands off the ropes. I was hold tight by the ropes. Thanks to the good equipments and safety taken by the group, I was never afraid that I will fall down. I got hold of the ropes again as required. And slowly started to descend down. The feeling of descending side by side a waterfall was just amazing. I stayed for some moments in between to just feel the gushing flow of water on me. Within minutes I was down the 125 ft fall. I trekked up back to where we started the rappeling activity. I made friends with a group of 3 other guys.

We started to explore the area around the plateau. We spotted another two big waterfalls and decided to trek to the base of one of them. we trekked down a fall as high as the one we rappelled down.




As we reached below the waterfall, we stood directly below water falling 125 ft down. The force was tremendous and feeling was awesome. We spent a lot of time over there just bathing in natural water.

The guys were getting hungry by now, so we decided to make way back to the base village of Velhe. We trekked back the trail we had started from, passing by the small waterfall that I mentioned above. We had lunch at the village and passed time talking waiting for the rest of the group to come back.

We made way back to Pune once everyone was back and done with their meals.

© Paras Doshi, 2009.