I have it in my mind to take a little boat and find myself on this river, rowing or drifting down it, far as I can go.

We are just entering Kinnaur, and the Sutlej keeps expanding and contracting as it finds its way through narrow gorges; the churning, furious water concentrating itself into searingly powerful little jet streams when there is no place for it to move, cutting through rocks, making way and then it unwinds into a broad highway when it finds more expanse … it’s absolutely fascinating to watch it change itself as it keeps flowing onward, like an unruly, energetic and temperamental toddler – a gush here, a torrent there and a raging river at yet another expanse.

Life that’s what the Sutlej teaches me, life and how to live it as it rises across deep gorges and then drops in breathtaking falls and then slowly winds its way again.

You have to see and hear and feel this river … it’s electric.