Tollway to Track.

Frank, Ross, Julie and I left the rest of the group at Guwahati for what Ross said was a 250 k drive with heaps of hugs, best wishes and jealousy.

It was a different feeling turning right out of the hotel gate and no Route Book to follow with tulips and directions all the way to the next hotel at Kohima.

We pulled up down the road a bit and planed our route with Ross using his Garmin and my iPhone with a local sim, and decided on our chosen route.

The first 100+ks was on dual carriageways was classed as tollway however the tollbooths were unmanned. Being a tollway doesn’t stop the Indians driving against the flow for the short cut so you need to be alert all the time.

Around 1100hr we stoped for a cuppa and decided we’d meet at Lumding for lunch, the locals at the cuppa stop said we should be going the other way, however Ross assured us his Garmin route was shorter.

Lesson 1 “Never distrust local knowledge.”

Just before we reached Lumding the Tollway changed to a construction site then degenerated in to a very back road. I wasn’t watching the road and not the map so this lead to Julie and I entering Lumding and diving through some very narrow market streets with the fear that Penny wouldn’t get around the next corner to get out, however a quick look at the phone revealed that we should have turned left about 5ks ago, in about 20 mins we were heading on the right track, and track it was. The 50 k to the next town and the drive was a bolt rattling, body shacking 1^st gear trip over broken Black Top and Pot Holes.

At 3 o’clock we checked with a Local Forestry Officer that we were on the correct road and yes we had it right however, he told us we still had 4 to 5 hours to drive to Kohima. Once again I disbelieved the local. How was it going to take that long to drive the 120ks left as we were only 5ks from the main road?

Lesson 2 “Remember Lesson 1”

In India the term main road is used pretty loosely. It has no relationship to the road quality just the amount of people using it. The main road was a veritable minefield of potholes and rough bridges.

The other thing we forgot was on this side of India it gets dark at 4.45 so our drive soon became a pothole-dodging event in the dark. A couple of checkpoints and we were lost in the town of Dimapur, during peak hour. What fun that is with the horns tooting and traffic everywhere. As I tried to ask a man on the side of the street the way to Kohima a very nice man on a motorcycle pulled up and asked where we were headed. He then offered to lead us to the road out of town. He was our Knight in shining armour as this got us out of town and on the last leg of 80ks to our hotel.

Progress was going well but slow with the traffic. We entered the state of Nagaland then headed up hill, the climb up to 900metres elevation was fairly trouble free. Then thing changed, in India the trucks are not allowed on the road at certain times. We must have timed the last 40 ks into town with them all being let off the leash as they were coming at us like packs of dogs in groups of 10 or 20. On narrow rough windy mount roads this was a challenge when you are meeting hundreds of trucks with every combination of light imaginable and point all the wrong directions.

After 388ks for the day and a bit more local help we got to our accommodation at 7.45pm, 4 3/4 hours after not believing 4 to 5 hours.

As we departed the hotel in the morning a friend said to us “Max don’t go of the main road and don’t drive at night.” in this part of India. Somehow we broke both of these.