Dzukou had been always one of my personal favourites and I have always wanted for an excuse to go Dzukou,be it a mini vacation or guiding a group from my company - Jungleflit
I have been to Dzukou once on 2018 but that was not enough for for me and i couldn’t stay there to my full satisfaction.So I promised myself that i will return to Dzukou whenever i find possible. Finally I got the occasion to head Dzukou as I had to guide a group who booked a trip to Dzukou through my company.So I started from Jorhat on 13th morning towards Dimapur along with 4 of my guests.My plan was to meet the other group members and my partner from the company who will accompany me on the tour.The other group happened to reach Dimapur early in the morning because of an early train.I was expecting to reach by 10 in the morning but unfortunately we reached at about 12:30 in the afternoon since the train happened to be a late one.
Finally we started for the other half of the journey from Dimapur to Kohima through a bumpy road.We had booked 2 altos or us but the vehicle could not help us throughout the bumpy road. We had a light lunch at a roadside hotel near Pherima and then continued to Kohima.
As we were only a few kilometres away from the town of Kohima,our drivers informed us that the road to Kohima town is blocked due to landslide and so we have to take an alternate route that would take us an hour more.So we turned towards Zotsema road and continued to Kohima and then finally reached the Kohima taxi stand at around 4 in the evening.
Our driver Milton who was supposed to pick us up in Kohima and drop us in our campsite in Jakhama was already waiting for us at the taxi stand.We quickly loaded our luggage into the Sumo and started to Jakhama right away.We reached our campsite and the campsite owner Ms. Ketu greeted us with some hot tea .We made ourselves comfortable after the day long bumpy ride and treated ourselves with a heavy dinner.We slept early as the next day was going to be a thrilling day.
I woke up at around 4:30 in the morning and along with the other group members.We got fresh and packed our bags since our driver “Michael “and our guide “Ato” had already reached the campsite to pick us up. We hopped on some light breakfast and tea and loaded the bags to the Sumo.
We didn’t waste any time and started right way to Viswema entry point.We stopped halfway for the paperwork and entry into the valley and continued our journey to the trek point.The road to the trek point seemed like some kind of advanced off-road track and Michael faced some difficulties in dropping us to the last motorable point.
We had to stop midway to help another Van stucked in mud and gave a helping hand to the driver of the Van.
We reached the trek point at around 8:30 and started the trek by 9.
The group was all hyped out and excited and they pushed themselves hard to cover the trek in less time.
We faced some light drizzle in the beginning but later all we could feel after climbing the stairs was the foggy view of the hills surrounding the valley.
We were tired to some extent but the view of the valley and the urge to see the valley close pushed us faster to reach the base camp.
We finally reached the base camp at around 1 and had a quick maggi platter to satisfy our hungry tummies.
We pitched down our tents at the base camp and started down to the valley.
We started walking fast because of the excitement and the downhill trail .We reached the valley in less than 40 minutes and what a light drizzle welcomed us to the valley.
The valley looked so pure and green after the shower and i couldn’t stop myself from taking out my camera from the bag and capture the beauty even after being aware that the fog might spoil my camera.I started taking photos of the valley to my full satisfaction and spent the evening wandering around the light bushes and the cold stream.
It was getting dark slowly and Ato suggested that we should start our return trek to the base camp.I didn’t wanted to leave but the group was tired after the day’s trek and so was I. We started to trek back to the camp and made ourselves fresh with some tea and snacks up in the camp.
We rested for a while and waited till our dinner was ready.My group mates started sipping the rum they bought with them to make themselves warm .It was a typical July night but the temperature was surprisingly less than 15 degrees.Ato called us for dinner after some time and we had our dinner which had steaming rice,dal and sabji straight from the kitchen.
The rest of my team was tired and went to sleep early but i didn’t wanted to miss the time sleeping even after being tired.I took out my tripod and tried to capture the night sky but failed due to the dense fog.After lighting a cigarette alone in the camp and feeling the silence of the night,I dozed off to sleep too.
Today was the last day of the trip and we had to cover from the Base Camp and reach Jorhat by the same day.The plan for the day was quite long and so we decided to start early. We got up at 5 in the morning and had our breakfast with cup noodles and fruit juice and packed up our tents.
We gathered all our plastic wastes in a couple of cloth bags and tied it to our rucksacks along with the tents and mattress and started our return trek towards Viswema trek point.
It didn’t took us a longer time since we were already acquaintanced with the trek and didn’t fin much difficulties in coming down through the stairs.
We reached the trek point at around 11 and Michael was already waiting for us in the trek point.We quickly loaded our stuffs into the vehicle and cleaned ourselves .
We decided to head directly to Kohima instead of stopping by at Ketu’s place to make up the time.
Unfortunately we didn’t get any available taxis to take us to Dimapur and there was less time as our train was supposed to reach Dimapur station at 6:45 PM. Luckily Ato managed to find a known Sumo for us and we had to hire in to reach Dimapur since that was the only option left.We bid goodbye to Michael and Ato and started the journey again from Kohima to Dimapur,again by the alternate route like before.We somehow mananged to reach Dimapur by 6:30 and booked our train tickets to Dimapur and kept waiting for the train. We reached Jorhat at around 10 PM ,and slept rightafter.The hectic journey,yet exciting thus ended and I cherished the moments as memories.
All pictures are clicked by me and should not be used anywhere without any prior permission.