Towards the wild

 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 and 7 vegetables, a little of each.Sent back half the rice that came as part of the meal. Polished the rest. Stuffed. But, as I was not driving, it did not matter.

As we approached Kaziranga, the terrain changes. Forest cover increases. The road becomes single lane. Fortunately, there is a sanctioned and approved plan to build flyovers in the critical areas where the highway passes thru the forest. It gets really bad at night, as all the lorry traffic that heads East goes on this road. The flyovers will help prevent animal accidents.

Got a good view of a few Rhinos, even before we got to the main Park area. Also saw plenty of Hog deer in the marsh.

Checked into Hotel Wildgrass.

Heading out for dinner in a while. Tomorrow morning I head into the Agarotoli part of the forest - that is, the Eastern most part.





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