Journey to some of the less known destinations
-An episode of Survival man...
This time the journey was to some of the least
known but nature’s blessed places. People who boost exotic places like
Switzerland, Canada etc should visit these places. India has got some of the
beautiful places which are less explored and thanks to god that these are least
explored. Otherwise even these areas get commercialized. I might be biased. But
I’m true and stick to it. The places are Anini, the district head quarters of
Upper Dibang Valley district and Mehao Lake of Lower Dibang Valley District of Arunachal
Pradesh, India. This time I would like to narrate you people about the beauty
of the places as well as my experiences. Plz try to read some info on Anini in
Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anini)... It’s Interesting... Let me split the
narration into two parts. Part one will be about Anini and Part two will be
about Mehao Lake.
Part 1: Travel to Anini:
Our journey started from Roing town to Anini
in a Tata sumo as it is the only means of transport to reach the place. Total
distance is approx 210kms. It was a packed sumo and we got 4 seats in the back
row. The road passes through Mehao WS... Beauty of Mehao WS is that it has got
so much of variation in its forest type from being to tropical in lower ranges
and to temperate in its higher ranges. One can see the variation within few
kilometers and I think it is the only sanctuary with such variation that one can
get within few kilometers of travel. One can feel the sharp variation by
looking at the vegetation and weather while travelling uphill. The excitement came
to me when I experienced the 1st snowfall of my life at a place
called Mayodia. Snow capped mountains stole my heart. It’s a beautiful place.
After crossing Mayodia, the sumo travels downhill. In the middle of the
journey, the sumo met with a puncture at one point. Luckily it was carrying a spare
tyre, but was in a very bad condition. However the driver promised us that
he’ll drive safe and will make us reach the destination. It was about 2.00 P.M.
in the afternoon and everyone was so hungry. The only place at which sumo
stopped was at a place called Italin. What a lovely name right. The food over
there was still good. Such a nice food we had. I still remember it. Finally at
around 7.00P.M., we reached Anini and were accommodated in VIP rooms at a circuit
house as we were on an official work.
The
morning welcomed us with the warm rays of sun. The town is surrounded by rows
of hills with pine and bamboo. Few hills at distance were covered by snow. One
can see the town name ANINI carved on a hill where the army bunkers are placed.
The place looked like heaven. Let me put some pics.
Ok let me not extend more about this journey
as the next part may take a little longer time to read. Let me shorten because
more paragraphs may exhaust the readers.
Part 2: One of the Epic Journey’s of
my life... Trek to Mehao Lake... An
episode of Survival man
Mehao was one of my dream places to trek as I
used to hear a lot about it from the tribals where I used to work. Their words
are true. There are no words to express the beauty of the place. I completely
fell in love with the place.
Our journey started on 1st of Jan
2012 to a place called Abango near Roing town from where we had to start the
trek to reach the lake. Our trek started on plains initially and was ok. But
after 4-5kms of travel, the collar bones, calf muscles were asking for rest as
we were carrying more than 25kgs of luggage and also didn’t had the morning
breakfast even. So we rested at a place to have the plum cake that we bought
the previous night and drank water. Ooops I forgot to tell you people one more
thing. As we were in hurry that morning we forgot to carry bottles of water. At
last all we had is a bottle of water borrowed from locals at Abango. So we
drank the water without wasting even a drop of it. Trek continued... After few
minutes, we had to trek uphill literally at an angle of 70 degrees forcing our
knees to do the job. Initially the body co-operated moving forward in 2nd
gear but later we had to shift it to 1st. Lactic acid was building
up. Body started losing water and salts. We rested now and then. The luggage
was pulling us down due to gravity. At last we reached a small plain area where
a small water source was available. It was almost afternoon and the guard who
came with us told that we covered only 20% of the distance and had to move
still faster. As everyone was hungry, we took out Maggie and cooked and had it.
Trek continued. Guard with the other two of
his friends told us that they’ll move ahead to the lake fast and make
arrangements for us so that we’ll be comfortable when we reach the place... He
told us that he’ll leave signs for us in the trek path in which we had to
travel at the bifurcations. We agreed for it and they took and went the ration
that we brought with us to make the arrangements for us. I, Kuldip, Parimal
along with Biron continued the trek. Our body got exhausted and the energy
levels went low. The Water which we carried also emptied. We continued our trek
and the inclination kept on increasing though few plain paths were there here
and there. It was about 5.30 in the evening and was completely dark. We switched
on our focus lamps and trekked further. Finally we decided that we should camp
at some place as we might lose the path. We rested at one place and gathered
firewood and had a camp fire as it was too cold even. Two of us got busy in
putting up the camp fire and other two in arranging the tent. We had a doubt if
we were lost in the jungle. Thanks to BSNL here. One of my frens had network in
his mobile. So we thought of calling a senior at my institute to know if we
were on right path are not. I took out my GPS and took the reading of the
location. Then we called the senior and asked if we were on right path to the
lake r nt. Bad luck the mobile got switched off due to low battery. Luckily
parimal had an extra battery and we were happy. We called the senior again and
he told us that we were on right path and had to cross one more hill to reach
the place using Google earth. We were happy. But the mouth was getting dried
up; lips were getting cracked due to lack of water. Stomach started growling.
So we took out potato, burnt them in flames and ate. We also had a bit of
glucose powder and chera (Atukulu in Telugu made out of rice (Rice flakes))
though we knew that it dries out the mouth. Upay nahi hai. Bhook lag raha tha.
After which we slept in the tent. I was a bit scared because it’s a Sun bear prone
area. Bears and elephants are the two things that I’m a bit scared off. So I
had a very little sleep. I kept an eye on the camp fire throughout the night.
Next day morning, we packed everything and
continued the trek. Our body was not at all co-operating. If one can remember
the heavenly rays falling on tom in cartoon Tom & Gerry, such was the
situation. We felt the heavenly rays were welcoming us. Mouth got totally dried
up. After few minutes of uphill trek, parimal got a bottle of water which
slightly had a smell of kerosene (Hunter’s usually keep bottles of water hidden
at places in jungle). We had no other option to keep ourselves alive. So we had
to cut a bamboo, pour water into it and boiled it after which we had few sips
of hot water. Then we collected some leaves which are edible and that
supplemented a dose of water to our body. The area looked very dried up. After
further trek, we reached a place called Gahori (Gahori meaning Wild boar in
Assamese) camp and we were tracking the route using GPS this time. We heard the
calls of the guard and the other two in response to our calls. We felt very
happy and rejoiced thinking that we almost reached the camp... But the tragedy
was that the guard in search of us was returning back. We were upset hearing it
as he wanted to leave the place. After a talk, he understood the situation and
took us to the place. There we had to stay in an old wooden hut constructed by
forest department and was in a very bad condition. It just had single room
where we had to cook and sleep. The next day morning the guard and the other 2
frens of him left. We four stayed and enjoyed the place.
"Experiences Have To Be Experienced..."
- Murali Krishna.
