My Travel Diaries

  Was picked up from the hotel by the safari gypsy. Picked up one of Divya's team from their camp. Drove on to the Agarotoli gate, which is about 20 minutes away. It was chill that time of the morning. Had to pay the entry fee. Waited for the forest guard to get ready to come with us. By the time we entered the forest, it was 0730. The first sight was a sleeping Rhino. At first, I had a bad feeling. Then, it's ear twitched. The morning safari was full of birds. Sighted a couple of Rhinos, one Elephant at a distance, and many many Water Buffalo. Hog and Swamp deer were aplenty. Will just leave you with the pictures. There is a lot more, but then, this is just a tickle for you to get to Kaziranga. The afternoon into the forest changed the sightings. Saw many more Rhinos, a few more Elephants, some Raptors. And, a beautiful sunset. So, Pack your bags, and head to Kaziranga. More of the same tomorrow, from a different range.

 Drove out of Shilliong post breakfast. Weird for me, as I have never ever departed on a drive this late. But, this part of the run was under the control of my daughter and her husband, so went with the flow. They had work to close. The picture shows their logo - a Gibbon. The road out of Shillong meanders around a huge lake. This is a extremely popular tourist spot. Drove North towards Guwahati, then turned East towards Kaziranga. The view from the Thar was a continuous flow of harvested paddy fields, with the mountains in the distance. In the growing season, this stretch is green. Though the picture I have taken is more of the mountains in the distance. Had a near run in with the staff of a Toll Gate. Buggers have either terrible systems or have just not been trained well. Every time we have crossed, there has been an issue. Stopped for lunch soon after at the same place we had breakfast about 10 days back. The food was excellent. The standard Assamese meal had four types of dal a

  27th November 2021 The day when I did nothing active, except head out to the sun once in a while during the day to keep blood flowing. And, to the market in the evening to look for anything. The place I was to stay yesterday night refunded the money paid in with a load of apologies. Regretted not being in station and having me received by his not so helpful assistant. Cards fall the way they are supposed to. Sitting doing nothing has it’s advantages. Got to looking at the map. Organised the travel over the rivers before and in the North East. And, I am sure I have missed some in the initial run up to West Bengal. Rivers crossed before the North east River Krishna at Guntur River Godavari at Rajahmundry River Mahanadi between Puri and Bhubaneswar River Ganges at Farakka Rivers crossed in the North east from November 14th 2021 River Teesta  - between Darjeeling and Siliguri at Teesta River Sankosh between Darjeeling and Guwahati at Gossaigaon River Manas,  between Darjeeling and Guwaha

This is for the 25th and the 26th. Relaxed morning of the 25th at Guwahati as Divya got some work done and Varun drove in from Kaziranga. Spent some time getting the mud from Arunachal off the vehicle, inside, outside and underneath. Headed out to Shillong after lunch. It is such a beautiful run. Great winding roads. The air gets chill as you climb. The fun lasts till you near Shillong and run into traffic. Like any other city, traffic has boomed without any hope of roads widening. Ate and slept at a more decent hour instead of our early driving hours. This morning went for along walk before breakfast. The ups and downs are great to walk on. The air is crisp and chill. Cars are yet to start crawling. You get to breathe some good air. Walked past the site where Varun and Divya are to speak at the Shillong Literary festival. Post breakfast, headed out to the Umngot River ( Dawki River ). This is about 60 kilometers from Shillong, in the Jayantha Hills, on the border with Bangladesh. Had

 Posting for the 24th of November 2021  Woke up nice and easy. Only plan for the day was to confirm the problem in the Thar and get it fixed. Workshops did not open before 0900. Headed out after a decent breakfast. For some strange reason, maps did not show us a Mahindra workshop that was a kilometer from the hotel. It took us 7 kilometers away, where a kindly soul, early for work redirected us back. The name of the Mahindra garage is Ashok Tezpur Got in 5th in the queue of vehicles. Guys were not too perturbed by what I explained. Seemed that they had this happen all the time. Waited patiently till the mechanics came. Then started removing vehicles which were done, undone, to be done from various ramps to create space. Did my bit of pleading and sob story telling to jump queue. The khoyni chewing mechanic assigned to my vehicle gto in, started the vehicle, raised the rmp up to around 3000. The black smoke spewed on all around. He got out, nodded sagely, and walked away. At this time t

 Woke up at 0530 to be ready for tea at 0600. At around 15 minutes past, Divya went down to check. Finally found the manager. Tea came in at 0645. It was cloudy, drizzles coming in. Decided to head down rather than get wet walking the forest in the mist.   Told the manager at breakfast. No problems. By the time we were done, he was ready to see us off. Only issue in these places is that you must have a UPI method of paying. Cards are not acceptable. Some weird logic. Left the hotel at 0830 after breakfast to get into Tezpur for the night. Should have been a comfortable run. The first stretch we had done the previous day on the way to Sangram HQ. Beautiful scenery to disguise a bounce in the roads.   The going was brilliant till around 1045. Had seen a couple of guys on the road wearing these leather hats, so wanted to pick one up. Stopped at a slightly big village market where a shop had some. Got one for myself. Divya was driving till then. I took over with the new hat on. The vehicle