Thursday, April 30, 2009

Day 50 - April 27 - Kaziranga to Bomdila

April27 at EveryTrail

Map created by EveryTrail:GPS Geotagging

No power the whole night. Had a disturbing sleep cos of the heat. Morning came to know that the care taker had royally forgotten to switch the lines from generator to main! The plan for today is to get to tezpur, get permit for Bomdila Tawang and ride out to Bomdila, if possible to Dirang.

Take my time as the roads are good and Tezpur is near by. Start by like 7.30 pm. Ride casually at 80-90 till Tezpur. Cant believe i ride like this. This ride has changed my riding style. Else i do be ripping to max on these kinda roads. Get to Tezpur by 9.15 Luckily the city is not as crowded as south Assam cities and also that the Arunachal Office is in a very peaceful area. But thats just the good part. The bad part is it start from 10 am and permits will be given only by 3 PM. Man dont want to waste one more day on the permits. Thought what ever the time i get it will push to Bomdila. Try convincing the clerk my predicament as in i am not staying locally and need to be in Bomdila by evening. I was told to check out with Bade sahab. Who came in his own sweet time by 12PM. On request he told me to come and collect it by 1 PM. Hmmm... i heard some people say that Tezpur to Bomdila is 4 hours journey so guess that should be a lil tight but ok. Managed to find a place to eat by that time. At 1 PM got into the office of the commissioner again and he told me to followup with the clerk. she was busy doing permits of people who will come only by 4PM. Was lil tense as i had left all the things on the bike itself. Finally after one last sign from the commissioner, i got my permit and was free to go by 1.15 pm

Wasting no time started towards Bomdila. Or should at least reach Tenga i thought. After like 20 kms, the good road turns right towards Itanagar and the Bomdila road to the straight was like narrow bumby 1.5 laned road. The fone charger has started giving lot of trouble now. With bumpy road the charging stops due to loose contact. Stop quite a few time to connect it else fone would run out of charge and will not get the GPS route for the day. Missed a part of the route any way due to application crash. In no time i see dark clouds in the direction i am heading towards hills. To the right i see storm shower in progress at a lil distance. Rain will surely hamper my progress and Bomdila for the day would be tight. Continue towards the border. Make entry and its narrow hill climbing roads. Boy does the road climb and drop! The road goes along pretty steep mountains and the accent and decent is quite sharp. Much much more than what i experienced in bhutan. The road was in pretty much good shape and i also see sunlight. Ride at a brisk pace taking a few pix. Get into my textile jacket as it will only get colder going up. Wish i had more time so that i could soak in the views and take more pictures. But would like to get into Bomdila latest by 6.30. Else it will get pretty cold and dark here. But still manage a few pix thanks to good weather.

Then there is drop in the road till Tenga. In no time am riding at the valley floor river level and reach Tenga by 5.15 pm. Now more than a town Tenga has a huge settlement of army. Had lot of personnel, training camps, Vehicles and even saw a line up of Bofors! At the end of it all Tenga actually is a small village. Now looks like i can make it to Bomdila comfortable. But the road starts a sharp climb. Goes up and up all the way to Bomdila. Even Bomdila is situated on steep mountains kinda like Aizwal but not as developed. Quite a few mud sections. Looks like no rain from few days. Lot of land slides had been cleared. This is the only road back and if there is a land slide i would be stuck. Any way get into the town and go up and up till i find the Tourist lodge. They have rooms. A big two bedroom just for 150 Bux. of course no TV, geyser does not work and it does not have a sink! Will do for just a night's halt. Airtel does not work here nor in Tawang. Once again i have to run around for fone calls. Gosh i miss my BSNL sim. Its pretty cold here and its going to be only much more colder in Tawang. Getting into my cozy blankets now.

Chikuni Bhavan where i stayed...

My big room there..


Check out the Insects on the floor...

The main entrance of Kaziranga...


Long bridge crossing the Mighty Bhramaputra..


Road narrows up going towards AP...






Typical himalayan roads going up and down...








Pretty steap climb ups and downs...
















Reached Bomdila...

Sunday, April 26, 2009

Day 49 - April 26 - Kaziranga Elephant & Jeep safari

April26 at EveryTrail

Map created by EveryTrail:GPS Geotagging

Got up at 4am and get myself to Bagori by 4.45 am. Elephants already lined up to take the people around. Was just wondering with the slow moving elephants, how much deep will we go and what Rhinos will we see. Since i was a lone person had to wait for adjustment to hop on with some others. And did so on the last elephant. While the rest of them had left a lil while earlier. So missed taking pix of the group of elephants in the safari.

Sitting on the elephant is anything but stable. Very hard to take photos while its walking. I use flash in the day light so that the cam captures instantly. Manage a few pix like that. soon we walk in between the tall Elephant grass. which came up to as high as the elephant. The grass is generally burnt in the jan feb by the forest guards. Now the new shoots are sprining up due to the rains. But still there are quite a few stubs of high grass. Soon we find Rhinos. Many of them. They are quite comfy with elephants around. Even saw a group of 3 Rhinos roaming together. The path kinda roughly parallel to the highway. And all the animals are freely roaming around here. The wobbly ride on the elephant getting to people. Din really feel like going deep into the forest the whole day on the elephant. Not that we could. The early morning outing was pretty refreshing. The sun already getting to get hot. Good that i insisted for the first ride. There was a second batch after this but i guess they would be feeling the heat. By now all the cars came through the road to a point where the elephants congregated to take people back. Now i had to find myself a lift till the main gate to get to my bike. Find a sumo and i get back to the bike.

Get back to the room to catch up on the sleep. Thought of going to the after noon jeep safari, which was supposed to be bettor for animal spotting. Get to the booking counter by 1pm and had to wait quite some time for the adjustment again. Else had to pay 1000 bux if i hired the jeep alone. Finally got into one kinda unofficially as i was asked to pay 200 bux to the driver, so that he would take me as his person. This way i got to sit beside him in the shade ;) Whole groups of jeep started together. It was a bumpy ride through the forest. Not many animals seen. The Rhinos were pretty far. Deers are easily spotted. The elephant ride in morning was much bettor. It kinda got boring and was waiting for it to get over. Funny how we build up ideas of a place and when we get there it may not meet the expectations.

That was it for the day. Mainly ate properly and relaxed to build up on some energy reserves which i had lost in the last few days. Thought boring compared the the places i have been so far. But feel kinda relaxed after riding in some sensitive areas. Of course no place is completely safe. After all our experience is just a sample in the statistics. So in a indivigual's point of view, its 50 50 every where.


Elephants lined up for the Early morning safari. Its 5am.




Its the common composition. People ignore the background and concentrate fully on the person, zooming in. Man!






The ride starts in the misty morning...


Try to catch the sun riding bumpy walk of the elephant...


The elephant grass is so tall that its touching my foot while i am sitting on the elephant. Its even taller around November...


The elephants wading through the tall grass.


Ok its me...


Crouching Rhino, Running Buffalo!




One of the elephant's calf accompanies the safari...


Not sure the name of the deer species...


Rhino's spotted upclose...






They are having a chat...


The three armed soldiers!!


cars coming to take the people back...


Mirror mirror, whose the prettiest of all ? ;)




Again! wanted pic of me on the elephant, but the guy just frame's me! They just dont get it. Their argument is that the person should be visible screw the background ! hehe.


Nice walk to the tourist complex through the tea estate...


A brave goat!..


Get on the boring jeep safari...


The best shot one could get in the jeep safari....


Muddy trails...


Those are wild btw...




A nervous kitten in one of the forest watch tower...






End of the jeep safari...


The elephants venture into the forest in the morning to collect grass. Guess they get to see much more...