9248 kms, 12 states, 352 birds and 23 Rhinos!
It began at Miramar beach. Between the sound of the waves crashing, the yells of local boys playing football, the orange glow of a setting sun, we decided on a five thousand kilometer roadtrip. A fitting end to the pandemic years, we thought. Our destination, we proclaimed, had to be the Northeast. It had to be because of more than a few reasons. First: The more difficult the feat, the greater the satisfaction at its accomplishment. And the North East is by far the furthest, the remotest, the most unexplored region of India. A region hitherto unexplored by anyone I knew. Perfect to satisfy our thirst for adventure. Second: Birds, 70% of India’s 1400 odd birds are found in the Northeast — a paradise for nature lovers. Third: Twenty years ago, I had promised my college friend that I would visit his hometown someday. It was about time. Fourth: Kaziranga! The greatest National Park of India. The only NP in India where you are guaranteed to see Rhinos.
5000 kilometres turned out be a gross underestimation — so bad were we at geography. The journey logs extracted from the odometer of my Red Jeep showed a whopping 9248 kilometers driven. But we should have crossed 10000 kilometres, because the trip was cut into two parts, one in the Red Jeep, two in a hired White Bolero. The Jeep broke down in the middle of Arunachal and had to be towed 300 kilometres to nearest service centre in Guwahati. It spent 10 days there. Meanwhile we toured Nagaland and Manipur in a bumpy Bolero.
The trip lasted two month — exact. It covered 5 out of 7 Northeast sisters (states). It was insufficient to cover five states, six months would have been passable, but you gotta work with what you got. We got a taste of Assam, a sliver of Arunachal Pradesh, a substantial portion of Nagaland and Manipur and we were satiated to the brim with Meghalaya.
We began the trip on Holi. My mother chose an astrologically appropriate time (after 12PM on March 18th, she said). After the holi party with the family at the Hyatt, and a shower to wash off the colours, we began.
To be continued…….
