INTO THE WILDERNESS OF KAZIRANGA-INDIAN RHINO'S LAST REFUGE.

     INTO THE WILDERNESS OF KAZIRANGA-INDIAN RHINO'S LAST REFUGE.

The Hornbill .

A herd of elephants or a family of rhino,passing by suddenly breaks the serenity of Kaziranga National Park in Assam & makes one aware of ones presence for a moments,before he chooses to immerse again in the awe of nature. The innate beauty of the placetransforms even the devout city person to marvelous nature lover...All this on the bank of the majestic Brahmaputra river.... spread over verdant green flood plains of 470sqkm in the Golaghat & Naogaon district of Assam, the UNESCO World Heritage site is renouned for its successful conservation of one-horned rhino. The park has 4 main areas.... The Agoratoli range, the eastern part comprises of forest dotted with grassland & water bodies.....its the longest stripe in the forest. The Kohora range is the most accessible area. The Baguri range in the west is the shortest circuit but has the highest rhino & buffalo density. The 4th is Burhapahar range includes the additional area attached to the park.  The park is home to Big5- 1 horned rhino,Asian Elephant,Wild buffalo, tiger & swamp deer.............Its dream destination for bird lovers. Almost 500 species of birds are found here.... the great -wreathed hornbill, fishing eagle, vultures etc.etc.

MYSTIC SHILLONG-CHERRAPUNJEE.

                MYSTIC SHILLONG & CHERRAPUNJEE IN MEGHALAYA.

Though it was my first visit to Meghalaya region but I happened to come across lot of beautiful snaps of my friends  taken in this region...............So, my impression in my mind was" a land amongst the clouds"............. As we hit the meghalaya region , i was very much disappointed by the sorry state of affair.............trees being trashed down, beautiful green mountain slopes cut down by bulldozers....& dust engulfing us as we moved on.....Yeh , i can understand for development of the region ,roads r required BUT ............................this is just painful to see;
     Since its end of winter season, the region  looked very dry with falling leaves,making the trees look naked....We stayed in the heart of the city ,so could easily go round the market place at Shillong....Nice place to go round shopping for jackets & lovely boots but we hardly need any such stuff here in mumbai ,so it was a better idea to drive upto the Shillong Peak to capture the glance of the whole SHILLONG City...............It was indeed a lovely place to see the city from top.... But truely speaking ,people in Meghalaya have very well learnt to loot the tourists pocket. At every spot we went to see ,we had to shell-out 30/-Rs for individual,100/- for a small digital camera ,20/- for car parking & 300/-+ for video camera.............. Just crazy!!!!!! We thought to stop using our video camera; Next we went to see the" Airforce Museum"............... lovely collection indeed.... But as it was mention:"NO PHOTOGRAPHY INSIDE" ,we left all our cameras in the car ; later learnt that we can use our cameras.............Felt bad; Sign boards shouldnot have misguided people.....
    The Elephant Falls ,was good one ....but we didnot feel like going upto its lowest level....

 Next we started off for CHERRAPUNJEE................As we entered Cherrapunjee,the roads were not good upto few kms....moreover, it was a single road for both up & down traffic........... than the road start on a twist & turn curves thru' the jungles.... everywhere,the road construction work was on ,along with limestone cutting & coal extracting sites(open cast). Warden Falls site was quite good,but since it was winter,only a narrow strip of water was flowing down. Nohkhalikai water falls site was lovely but not upto my expectation...................Had lunch at a nearby dhaba at Nohkhalikai waterfalls site............ We walked almost 1,5kms stretch inside the table top to capture the glimpses of the falls from various angles..............At RK MISSION Anthropological museum,photography was prohibited. Then we moved onto the Eco-park point, Mawsumai caves, Seven Sister's falls sight & at lastKhoh-Ramhahor Maw trop from were ,Bangladesh's town& rivers were easily visible.
   Next very day ,before we left for Kaziranga, we visited The Ward Lake, & St. Mary's Cathedral,Shillong..........................The dinner at Baba lodge ( bengali food) at Shillong was really at treat after all those momo frys & chowmein all day thru'....

A CHILLING NIGHT AT KAZIRANGA NATIONAL PARK.

                         CHILLING NIGHTS INSIDE THE JUNGLES OF KAZIRANGA.

A beautiful sunrise inside the Kaziranga Kohora Range.

The Karbi Anglong jungles.

The cottages at ARANYA GUEST HOUSE.

THE ARANYA GUEST HOUSE,KAZIRANGA.

My dad,at the reception,ARANYA.

My parents ,at the dinning hall at ARANYA.

My husband,at the Aranya guest house.

The Karbi Anglong Village.

The Rubber Plantation at Karbi Anglong.

Though its almost end of winter season ,that we planned for a 2N stay inside the Kaziranga National Park( Assam), It was pretty cold with the dusk..... We were having a booking at ARANYA Guest House( ATDC) at Kohora rage of Kaziranga.By the time we reached the guest house it was 5:50pm( almost dark) & we were damme tired after almost 8/9hrs of drive from Shillong. Aranya guest house is located  amidst dense jungle & Hathikuli teaestate. The Cottages were really good,even the other rooms at the guest house are really huge in size  & quite comfortable.We thought to have an early dinner & go off to sleep....It was simple Dal,sabji,Alubhaji,roti & soup after a cup of green tea to satisfy our hunger in the dense jungle.We couldn't realise the extent of the dense jungle area surround us, amidst darkness.....After the dinner,my husband asked me to go along with him for an evening walk around the guest house. I thought,its really a cool idea to experience the surrounding...... It was really cold & we covered ourself with lots of woollens before we started off.............. Oh,God the buzzing sound of the beetles really added to the charm of the atmosphere... As we walked out of the main gate of the guest house, it was totally a narrow zigzag road...though was feeling bit uncomfortable but I walked along.................. Good lord ' the electricity  went off...................; its total dark now & I feared for any animal to pounch onto us......the Kaziranga postoffice showed a small emergency lit light & rest total darkness..... though,my husband wanted to walkon but I stopped & wished to return back just before the Hathikuli teaestate begin ....its a crazy idea to take chance as we aren't familiar with the place.We returned back... Thank God ,our guest house had backup power service ,So I was happy that it won't become difficult to chargeup my cameras & mobiles for the next thrilling day inside the dense jungles of Kaziranga.
    It was becoming very difficult to sleep,the buzzy sound of beetles ,nutcrackers---- just crazy atmosphere!!!! It was 4:30am as i wokeup from sleep & thought to  enjoy the break of dawn atmosphere amidst the jungles....It was 5:15am as it started to clearup...........Oh my god ," wakeup goutam" .....i shouted to my husband,......our guest house is located amidst the dense jungles of KARBI ANGLONG..." was my first expression. I heard of this place many a time earlier but never realised we are in its vicinity......Watched & filmed the sunrise from our balcony.The day ahead was quite exciting & thrilling as we were to take onto our jeepsafari into the Kaziranga's Kohora rage jungle(35kms inside).
        By afternoon,we just felt so lazy---just eatting & strolling around; Our driver, lal ,wanted us to drive into the Karbi Anglong villages & enjoy the ways of living of the local people. It was really good idea to visit the place..... Saw an ethenic village type of display of lovely huts amidst the jungles.(it is often hired by people for a stay experience in this thatched huts :Courtesy the forest deptt.)..... Visited 2 more resorts in these jungle areas...IORA RESORT is quite familiar with foreign tourist & looked quite expensive for a stay..... I found,Aranya ,a better choice for a stay...even there's dormatories & less priced rooms in its vicinity..... We ended the day with our shopping spree of HATHIKULI GREEN TEA(just Rs 120/half a kg)......
     As the darkess poured in , its time we enjoy everymoment  of our leftover time in these jungles.....

MY ROAD JOURNEY FROM SHILLONG TO KAZIRANGA.

                     MY ROAD JOURNEY FROM SHILLONG TO KAZIRANGA....

On the way to Jorabat from Nangpoh.

Plan of trip : GUWAHATI-SHILLONG,CHERRANJEE,MANSYNRAM-SHILLONG- KAZIRANGA (via NAOGAON)-GUWAHATI.

At Nangpoh.

At Salmara.

Around Naogaon.

While we left from Guwahati to Shillong ,it was almost dark...roads were very much chokked with dust from the road construction site ;So, I made it a point to enjoy the road journey across from Meghalaya region into Assam region on our return journey.We had to start very early from Shillong around 7:30am. ; We made three stopovers on the way - The St. Mary's Cathedral,Shillong, Ward Lake Shillong , before we hit the road on,for our journey to Kaziranga.....There was huge jam on the road due to election result declaration( people here seemed ,very much involved with the electoral process).We stopped at Woodland Dhaba,Nangpoh.....Its the only option on the way in this region. But truely,enjoyed the fried Momos & a cup of tea to continue on..................
    We continue thru' the newly constructed road across the high mountains covered in Bamboo shoots,dense jungle areas which have been, often cut thru' to make passage for double lane road construction..................... Its end of winter & the region looked dry & dull except for the greenary around to cool off our journey; The dust often engulfed our Inova car & we could hardly see anything infront. I had a very different imagination of this land,But.................Maybe after the double lanning work gets over people travelling thru' this region can enjoy their drive ,but till then its a mess & suffering ; But I wonder!!! with this massive infrastructure development work ,will come a lot of destruction of the beautiful landscape of this region....already its showing up; Hope the authorities take note of it to protect the serene landscape alongside the development work.
      The Barapani lake was really a lovely site....Since we didn't have time,we cancelled the idea of boating in the lake & moved on; We continued upto JORABAT from were we took the diversion onto the newly constructed JORABAT-NAOGAON-TEZPUR EXPRESSWAY.At Jorabat, one side of the road is Meghalaya & otherside is Assam.....each have its unique look; After Jorabat,came SALMARA.

At BAGURI RANGE OF KAZIRANGA.

 SALMARA-NAOGAON is 12kms distance on the expressway;SALMARA-KAZIRANGA is110kms distance. We had lunch at a newly constructed punjabi dhaba close to naogoan.We saw only 2 eattery by the side of this expressway(AH-1).Upto Tezpur this road is too good to drive thru'( yet no toll to be paid)....After Tezpur,its a single road(NH-37) & the traffic was really hapazard.....until we entered the Kaziranga Forest area at Burapahar range.Since we had booked our accomodation at Assam Tourism guest house"ARANYA" we had to continue upto the Kohora range of Kaziranga National Forest ,crossing thru' Baguri range too...It was almost 5:50pm when we reached our guest house....

Total Journey time : 8/9 hours on the road (depending on the traffic flow from Shillong-Guwahati).

MAWSMAI CAVES TRAVERSING AT MANSYNRAM(MEGHALAYA).

             MY CAVE TRAVERSING ACROSS THE MAWSMAI CAVES,MEGHALAYA.

MAWSMAI CAVES ,located at Mansynram ,Meghalaya is a must try for every adventure enthusiasts....Each entry ticket is 30/-person + camera charge extra+Parking. In the beginning ,I was bit hasistant to go upto the caves...as i climbed the steps to the enterance thru' the deep jungle ,it increased my adrenalin level. Now its the caves.....after clicking few snaps at the entry point,its time to move on...Oh, God.... the caves opening is really narrow......Big bolders soon confront us, either we need to climb on it to cross over...Atleast a bit tubelight hanged up here there ,made us help our way ahead.Slowly ,I started giving up..... "I cann't go ahead anymore......cann't see the other end-----"I shouted;My voice echoed back ...there's no escape...already we had cross 10mins path. Oh ,its water on the floor----- I was sure,I cann't make it further; My husband Maj. Goutam,help me & my mom to cross thru' & put us on top of a big granite rock . I was wearing a jeans but my mom (70yrs+) was wearing a saree...Now her shoes are in her hand & she moved on...I was inspired by my mom to go ahead;She kept on telling me ,that we reached the end of the cave..... But that's like a mirage inside a dark cave. Now ,there's no more light.....I hit hard on my head onthe roof top of the cave..... I was giving up....My husband ,who was ahead us, soon shouted that , We cann't move ahead without crawling, gliding & sleeping..................What a crazy act!!!!!! We moved on for 30 odd mins. untill we came to the other end almost.Now the path thru' which one need to come out ,is naturally blocked by a bolder ---Its the last hurdle we have to cross thru'.... What an adventure indeed .......... Just loved it !!!!!! & would recommeded everyone going thru' my blog to give it a try atleast ones...It is considered as one of the toughest Cave traversing & So much a natural formation.................... GIVE IT A TRY!!!! I DID IT & SO U TO CAN.

AN EVENING ON THE BRAHMAPUTRA(GUWAHATI).

                                        An Evening On The Brahmaputra River....

We were on our 2nd trip to the NorthEast India. But instead of Arunachal ,this time it was Meghalaya & Assam that we were to cover.Guwahati City was a stopover from Kolkata, to move into Meghalaya... It was 2nd of mar'2013 ,we reached Guwahati city on our way back from Meghalaya.  We checked into Hotel Rialto at Pan Bazar,Guwahati City around 1:30pm...After a stomach feeling lunch at the hotel's resturant ,we waited for the evening as we were offered a cruise across the Brahmaputra river by our close friend ,presently posted at Guwahati....We were really excited ,& asked our driver Lal to be at the hotel by 4:30pm,as evening breaks in fast in this city lying in the fareast  corner of our large country....

     It was 5pm that we reached the bank of Brahmaputra from were the cruise ship starts.... The mear sight of the massive river just mesmerised us all. The setting sun added a state of calm in the atmosphere.... We kept watching the sunsetting by the bank of Brahmaputra...Its just an awesome experience................. I kept capturing each frame in my camera lens; Soon  our friend,Chandana along with her family joined us & we headed towards the Ship. Oh , God ...its pretty costly,I mean the cruise ship ride.... Each person had to pay200/-Rs for an hour ride....
    We climbed the upper deck to enjoy the beauty of our ride.Occupying our sits we couldn't stop chatting amongst each other as we met after a long while.....The view around was mesmerizing,though mosquitoes were disturbing us a lot..... Soon ,our order for tea& chicken pakoras+ colddrinks were served at our respective tables on the deck.It was almost dark, but Guwahati City view from the Brahmaputra looked awesome....We passed thru' the Umananda Island ,also known as Peacock Island in the midst of river.We could realise,how time flew off .... Soon the rock band started playing & people were all on the dance floor......It was just a lovely evening on the Brahmaputra.Now it was time to get back to our respective places. We thought to enjoy a lovely Assamese dinner at Khorika resturant,(famous for its thalli) at Ullubari.