AN ADVENTUROUS TREKKING TO DZUKOU VALLEY
AN ADVENTUROUS TREKKING TO DZUKOU VALLEY
From the beginning, we were facing mishaps. We were late in starting by an hour or two from our pre-planned itenery. We reached the base station ‘Viswema’ near about 2pm. From Viswema there was a unpaved road leading to one-fifth of the destination. Prior to reaching Viswema, due to heavy rain there was a landslide. Our cars could not go up and dropped us just 1km away from Viswema. We heard no other option other than walking the steep road. We heard that the route via Viswema takes around 6 hours on an average. By our physical capability we assessed that we would make it out by 7-7:30 pm. But we didn’t have a pinch of idea what danger lies ahead. There was slight doubt in our mind, “Can we make it out?” But with level of ‘Josh’ in our young blood, we decided to carry on our journey.
We were told that there would not be food and potable water available in the whole journey. So we came prepared with sufficient amount of food and water for our to and fro journey. Our back packs and hands were full of food stuffs. It slowed down our pace and also increased our fatigue. For every half an hour of walking and climbing, we had to take a break and give our leg some rest. We continued this cycle for 4-5 times. By then the sun was setting. The sunrays piercing through the forest made it more difficult for us to move forward. Here in this farthest corner of India, people don’t get the leverage of sun setting at 7-8pm just like in western part of India.
At around 6 pm it was complete dark and by then we reached the half way mark. We were a team comprising of 11 members. The old gunnars were of the view of having a halt. Locals too advised us to halt. That place was not conducive for night stay, besides the breeze was making chilled to the bone. The young bloods overpowered in the voice vote and decided to march ahead, although serious doubts of completing the journey was constantly hovering our minds.
We lighted our cellphones’ torch and resumed our journey. Uptill then we had the advantage of sunlight, but as the sun set the task became more uphill. If that was not enough, steep slippery rocky steps, narrow path filled with muds and water and rain were waiting for us.
There was a point where the path diverged into two. One was comparatively easier than the other which had very steep slope. We took the easier one assuming that to be the actual route. But after traversing 50m or so we had to return back as the path lead to a dead end.
Never before the night was so darker and haunting for us. As we were marching ahead, the fear for our life was growing higher. But there was no going back. It is said that when there is threat to your life you forget all your pain. Similar case was going on with us. The unknown terrain was posing grave danger. Our legs were experiencing terrible fatigue but fear for our lives kept us moving.
The path along the hills was never ending. We saw a faint light from a far distant. We were not sure at first whether it was a star or a man-made light source. But when we waved our cellphones’ torch we noticed that there was some movement from the incoming light too. Then we came to conclusion that the light was actually coming from the guest house and someone might have responded to our distress signal. At that time of the darkest hour, the faint light was our last hope.
By concurring hurdles one after the other, we finally reached the guest house at around 10 pm after 8 hours of trekking. The guest house did not have much facilities. We were asked to adjust in the dormitory room along with other tourists. In the name of dinner they provided us Maggie. We were such hungry that Maggie was like ‘Amrit’ to us. Immediately after the meal, we went for sleep. Rain and freezing wind gushing through various passages tried to disturb our sleep, we were in such a fatigue condition that did not make much difference.
When we woke up in the morning, we were in spellbound. Words were not coming out to describe the picturesque view. The pain we bored throughout the journey was worthwhile. Never before we experience such a stunning view.
The view that we were enjoying was from the guest house. But to go down the valley it would took another one and half hour. Some of our members refused to go down as they were experiencing pain in their legs. Four of us went ahead to explore the valley.
By 11 am we reached back to the guest house. Without delay we started retreating because we did not make the same goof up we did the other day. While returning back we realized that we escaped death several times. Due to night we could not assess the gravity of danger we were going through. The path was pretty narrow. Just at the end of the path there was a gorge. If we miss one step or if we slip in the muddy path, our bodies would be hard to find. But somehow we managed to concur all the hurdles, all thanks to God.
By 4 pm we reached Viswema and from there on we catched our cars and returned back to Dimapur. Thus, our memorable trip came to an end.
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