Day8:
We woke up round 5.00 and get ready by 6.00 in morning with the forest guards already present there. We found the vehicle belongs to lodge actually going towards the start point of trek for getting woods, we were offered a lift and saved almost 2/3 km journey. While reaching the point we found the actual trek would start from other side of Jiabharali river a boat was waiting for us to get in that side. The river was quite deep as mentioned by the boatman and experiencing sunrise over Jiabharali river was simply fascinating. We had to walk another km or so on sands of Jiabharali to reach forest beat office and there we had to submit our permits and got the order to start our trek. The trek was fascinating inside the thick forest, we saw sambar deer, elephants, buffalos and many different birds. At some point of time our guard was little nervous as the herd of buffalos were almost charging to us but somehow we got escaped but the chilling current of nervousness flowing through our bones, we visited so many natural parks, wild life sanctuaries in India, but none seems to be so wild and virgin like what we felt in Nameri. We finished our trek of 8kms in almost slightly more than 2 hours. Then again 1 km trek on sand to catch boat and then 2 km walk on other side took us to Resort. We had a fabulous breakfast there as after a long time I walked for more than 10km at a stretch. I gave a call to Ashim and he was already on his way towards Nameri from Tinsukia. Good news but we were so tired, we left the idea of rafting as we had to go another 45 mins towards Bhalukpong by a car and the place was too hot to enjoy the rafting at noon. We preferred to take a much sought after rest after hectic 8 days of traveling and by evening Ashim reached safely with a new Bolero, that just ran less than 1000 km as per its Odo. We were happy and gone to sleep early as tomorrow we would enter more into Central Arunachal towards Ziro.
Sunrise over Jiabharali River at Nameri:
Pet Sambar Deer:
Indian Gaur:
The walking trail:
Elephant:
The Geometry:
We continue our walking:
Lots of Birds:
Nameri Eco Resort:
Day9:
With Ashim we started with new energy for the next and more interesting leg of our journey. We started quite early and for first 10km again it was a big struggle to proceed with extremely bad roads. After 10 km, road was smooth enough to sail at 60kmph easily. We reached Balipara which is around 17km from Nameri and there we take left on to NH52 for next 200km on very good surface where you could cruise around 80 kmph easily. We took our breakfast at Biswanath Chairali and moving through right (North) bank of Brahmaputra and as I mentioned this is the biggest hurdle in exploring Arunachal as every time you have to navigate through Assam in East-West direction and that definitely increase driving time, distances and most importantly complex permit issues as you have to repeatedly come out of various check gates from Arunachal and get into it through some other gates. 30km before North Lakhimpore, we took left turn towards Kimin Check gate and once again we had to face the bad roads. Till Kimin Check gate road was bad but surprisingly improved to some extent once we entered Arunachal again. Kimin is one of the closest check gates from Assam through which you can access Central Arunachal districts like Lower Subansiri, kurung Kamey. Serpentine roads through thick forest roads over hilly region had high similarity with Bhalukpong though road was better here and as usual number of tourists were much less in this circuit. Our permits were checked in Kimin Check Gates and then we were allowed to enter Arunachal. When I have come to this topic, I must say obtaining a month long tourist permit is difficult at least from Kolkata, they refused me to issue even 2 non-overlapping permits for 2 different regions and finally I had to get one in my name and other in my wife’s name sending her to Arunachal House to get rid of this problem. So those who are planning for more than 14 days trip and covering more than one check gate and especially planning to get it done from Kolkata, please plan accordingly. We booked our stay at Ziro Circuit House, but the circuit house is actually located at Hapoli, 5 km before Ziro town. You would get some alternative accommodation too in Ziro but Circuit House seems to be the most value for money, not just because of its cost but the excellent location, you would be able to see the whole Hapoli town from the circuit house. The drive from Nameri to Hapoli was almost 365km out of which 100km was in hilly terrain and so it was a tiring day for all of us. Ziro’s height was 5500 ft much lower than even Dirang but believe me, I have very rarely experienced more colder place than this in my life, don’t know how much the temperature was but it was chilling and even more difficult to sustain that what we faced in 10K ft height at Tawang. Nameri Eco Resort Manager specifically told us about this infamous cold of Ziro but that time we didn’t put much importance to that considering it was just 5500 ft height. But certainly it was a cold place may be because of some special air circulation or for some other reason. We were tired, had our dinner and quickly retired for the day.
A quick Odo reading for the day:
104 – Nameri
121 – Balipara
173 – Biswanath Chariali
333 – Kimin Check Gate
345 – Hawa Camp
356 – Lichi
375 – Potin
383 – Pussa
394 – Yazali
409 – Yachuli
424 – Joram Top
430 – Hapoli
435 – Hapoli Circuit House
Today’s journey Map : Nameri National Park to Ziro
Just after crossing Kimin Check Gate:
On the way to Ziro:
From Hapoli Circuit House – view of Hapoli Town:
At Ziro:
