Got Lost in Dzukou Valley

The story starts with 4 friends, Me(Sagar), Debarshi, Dheeman & Debashish. After our first trek to Nongriat in Meghalaya,  Debarshi and i planned to go an extra mile and do the Dzukou valley trek. We gathered everything we knew about the place from google, ofcourse Dheeman did most of the R&D stuff. But we had no idea whether we should rent a tent or we would be getting shelter somewhere in the valley. Debarshi came in with his own personal reasearch and assured us we would get tents for rent in Nagaland. So we took his word of advice and started planning everything. A few days just before our trip Debashish came along and we convinced him to join the trip as well. Now we 4 with as minimal budget as Rs 3500 each planned the itinerary. And so the final day came we booked our train tickets to Dimapur which leaves from Guwahati station at 11:30pm and reached Dimapur station at 4:30-5:00am in the morning. So we boarded the train and played online Ludo all night, laughed shared stories all through the night without realising how important sleep was until we started the trek, well i am getting too ahead of the story. So we reached Dimapur station at 4:30am and waited for another hour an a half as it was still dark outside. When we saw that the sun is slightly making its move and we boarded a Sumo till Kohima which was around 100/person. The roads were in a very condition and it took us another hour and a half to reach Kohima. On reaching Kohima our driver suggested if we pay him another Rs. 100 each, he will drop us till Vishwema, which was one of the more scenic route leading to the valley. We had planned to trek up the valley on Vishwema route and trek down on the Jakhama route which was considered as more challenging route. On reaching Vishwema we paid the driver and he showed us the way to Dzukou valley. We thought before we start the trek we should eat something and get some energy because we couldn't sleep on the way till Vishwema because of the conditions of the road. Four of us gathered and had puri-sabji for breakfast and this was around 7:00am. After finishing our breakfast we started read a signboard which said "Way to Dzukou Valley" so being our very first time we got excited and started walking. We walked for around 5-6 Km uphill with no clue of the valley but we enjoyed the scenic beauty of the route. It  was around 10-30-11am when we reached a certain point where it said again "Best of Luck for your trek" And "This way to Dzukou valley". Now we thought did we just trek a whole road on foot which was to be done on a car. Anyways being our very first trip we expected some goofups to occur. So a disappointed but still enthusiastic enough to do it we finally were on the actual trek start point to Dzukou valley. Another reason we didn't know about cars taking travellers to the trek start point was because it was January and most people visited Dzukou valley on June or July which is the flowering seson of the famous Dzukou Lily, so there were nobody to ask around for any help or directions. So we started the trek and reached the top of the valley  and it was around 4:30pm. We stopped in between to take rest and ate biscuits and juice that we had packed. Now i wasn't aware of the fact that it would get so dark so quick. I took some photographs and in the meantime we got back on our feet again but it was too dark. Only i had brought a torch light with me the others thought it wasn't necessary (Jokes on them), we walked 200-300m and Dheeman had slipped and sprained his ankle. Now he was unable to walk, so Debarishi suggested we should halt for the night. Luckily we saw a shed and quickly we went up there, it was freezing cold at night and all of us started panicking as to what next. Debarshi still had network left in his phone so he started calling an old school firend who had recently visited the place and asked for advice and as to how far was the guest house from the point where we were lost. The friend(Adap) said even he and his group got lost and stayed there for the night in there camps and next day started the journey again. Now as we know our friend Debarshi had mentioned about renting tents in Nagaland, which never happened btw. Because we were all so sleepy and tired on the Sumo journey we literally forgot to rent tents. He also asked Adap about if there are any chances if wild animals showing up. While this was going on, i quickly started the fire and thankfully we had enough firewood for the night. So we sat around the fire and started discussing who will sleep and who's gonna watch over. After deciding we agreed Dheeman should take rest while we would stay on guard and watch the fire, around 30-40mins later Debashish had a terrible headache and stomach ache and went to sleep as well. So it was me and Debarshi who were in charge for the night. All our stocked up dry food was over and so was our water supply. We kept watching the time and it just won't pass. Now let me tell you something which me and Debarshi saw,  this might be our brain playing crazy games with us due to our empty stomachs. I will just describe what i saw, i was looking into the vast sky full of stars felt a bit sleepy and my eyes went towards a few meters away from where we had our bonfire, i saw a a couple and a child peeking at us, not moving just peeking from a distance. I got scared and turned my head away and asked Debarshi whether i can take rest for a while while he keeps guard. I dozed off and had an weird dream which woke me up in a shock and i was screaming in my sleep, which scared the shit outta everyone. I quickly got my myself together and realised it was just a bad dream and asked what the time was, it was just 8:30 or 9pm.

The time wasn't passing at all and all of us were tired, hungry, injured and demotived to the very core, also as the night got darker the cold winds made it difficult to breathe properly. We weren't ready for these challenges. A few moments later Debashish who had a gas problem due to not eating on time and surviving solely on biscuits alone started vomitting. I didn't sleep at all after that, and attended the fire and made it as bigger as possible, even broke some bamboos from the shed to keep the fire going through the night. After waiting for hours i finally saw some light shining on the valley, it was 3am and it wasn't the sun, it was the moonlight shining and lighting up the valley just few hours before the sunrise. I took my camera tried to capture the scene but my fingers were numb due ti the cold, i somehow managed to take few shots and kept it inside. I went up a bit higher from the shed to take the picture and man-o-man it was such an amazing view. I knew at that moment it might not be special, but when we return home its going to be a hell of a story to tell. I got back into the shed and asked everyone to get ready as we were going to start searching for the right route of the trek and reach the Base camp as soon as possible. Dheeman had problems walking straight so i knew its going to take time to move so we started as soon as the first light hit the valley and the paths were slightly visible, we brushed our way through snow covered thick bamboo paths and crossed one hillock after another, we could see the Base camp from a distance and we also figured out where we lost our route last night. So we made sure to maintain a steady speed and keep walking. The hillocks never seemed to stop, one after another and it continued, we reached a point where we could see the white coloured guest house all we had to do is cross one last hillock, as we were crossing the hillock we saw a sign saying " Jakhama Route" i.e. if we would have chosen Jakhama we would have reached our destination faster but there were some issues in this route too, will get to that later. So finally we arrived at the Base camp, washed ourselves had something to eat, had some chai which wasn't that good but on what grounds would i have complained. So we quickly ate till full and  some of us took a nap on a bench facing the valley. This was around 7:30am. I wasn't sure though whether to sleep or trek down further the valley because it was so irresistible. But nobody had any energy to do that. So i was a bit upset but it was unfair for me to put pressure on the guys to do it just for me, because they were not feeling that great. After seeing the circumstances of the group i asked Debarishi whether we should stay back for the night and head back tomorrow. But he said we have our train tickets booked tonight at 8:30 which leaves from Dimapur station. After arguing for a few minutes on this i finally decided we cannot stay back, there aren't any medical facilities around and if anything is to happen who would be responsible. So after having a meal at around 10:30 we packed our bags and went ahead, but this time we chose the Jakhama Trail to trek down. Things will just get worse from now.

So we started trekking down the trail, and realised it was a pretty tough trail if we were to be climbing up thankfully we were just going down, we crossed thick forests, dried up rivers, slippery paths and what not. Finally at a point of the trek all of our mobile started to receive network and that was a good motivation for us, but it was still a long & difficult way down. We called up everyone we needed to inform about us being okay and getting back safely. Finally we reached the bottom of the trek but Dheeman could barely walk, he limped through the trek and he is 6ft guy so its very difficult to carry him around as well. On seeing a road we started to stop passingby cars for lift and it was a Sunday so it was difficult to get cabs and sumos on sunday. Finally a guy stopped and we hopped on with all our backpacks and went straight to Kohima where we booked another small cab with double the rate than usual and got to the railway station sonehow. Got into the train and took quick nap.

The quick nap we took turned out to be a long sleep. We woke up at 5am, as soon as we woke up one after another we realised we had reached Guwahati Station. We took our luggage got down and went back to my place and slept till 1-2pm. To be very honest it was an unplanned-planned trip. We learned alot from our mistakes and made sure never to repeat that ever again. Well this was my first experience of Dzukou valley expedition. I was sure i would come back again to touch the valleys again, which i did. I did Dzukou 4 times over the years and all of them worth it. Also i realised if these things didn't occur this wouldn't have been such a memorable trip. Adventure starts when One looses the given path  of journey.