Cherrapunji. Perhaps the most famous place in northeast. People think of it as the place that gets the maximum rainfall on earth. (A while ago, the nearby Mawsynram stole the title to be the wettest place on Earth.) This is where we were going on day four.
11 of us in two vehicles, a Xylo and a Wagon R. We started late but soon discovered that it is so apt that this state has its name. Meghalaya means House of clouds. We could see clouds rising and floating among the mountains. We drove through them as they moved past us, smoke-like. The road winded along the edges of the mountains, with steep, dangerous slopes on one side. We couldn’t see clearly beyond 10 feet on the road ahead of us. Faint glows would suddenly appear in that fog, they would then brighten, then slowly come out revealing headlamps of yellow Tata Sumos coming towards us. The driver drove slowly and carefully. The car behind us barely stopped before hitting a tree stump on the roadside, in the fog.
We wanted to do Zip-lining at Mawkdok first. I was not very keen. What is the fun in sliding from one place to another? But all that feeling went out of the window when we reached there.
The road was cut through the mountain at that point, revealing jagged black rocks in a steep cliff on the right side of the road.
On the other side, perched on the edge of the mountain slope was a tiny cabin, about the size of a bathroom. That was the adventure company’s office. There was severe fog. And then someone spotted it. The zipline.
“See! There!”, someone pointed into the mist.
“Where?”, I muttered as I strained to see. And then I saw it. High above my head and a long way ahead, a faint line went away from us and faded into the fog! Where does it go? And how far?
Alas, we won’t find out then, for zip-lining was suspended at that time due to fog.
We decided to go see Lumshynna caves and the Nohkalikai waterfalls and then return to try our luck again.
