Forwarding! Forwarding! We paddled hard, those to the front soaked by the cold clear river water. The nose of the raft buffeted violently from side to side as we hit yet another ‘Ganga’ rapid. We waited for the next instruction from our guide. He knew the Ganges well and where he needed the raft to go to get us safely downstream. Stop! Stop! And relax! We shipped our paddles. The river became calm again. We looked to our new Indian crew mates and smiled with relief. The guide shouted a new instruction from the back of the raft and we all stopped smiling. OK. Everybody over the side and into the water!