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just to start a new thread. i am now back in tinsukia...not by choice i'll have you know!

i tried to cross the river from roing to pasighat today and was beaten twice. defeat is hard to take. lol

at the first point, the water level was about 4'. much too deep and a strong current to boot. crossing through the dry then muddy river bed after the bad but beautiful road cost me an hour and a half.
then, i entered assam to chapakhowa and tried to do it there. after 20+kms of absolute horrid roads( i would HATE to try them in the monsoon!!) at about 15kph average, i came to a point where some guys were literally hammering planking across 2 boats to make a platform for a truck. the truck's owner assured me i could go across with him and there would be a nice road up to pasighat from there. after waiting an hour and the truck loaded the boat guys told me the bike couldnt come. maybe another boat would come later this afternoon or tomorrow. so, off i go back through that little hell and then the real pain started. the highway turns really bad, broken and rocky for about 60 kms and then you have to wiggle through mud and 1'-2' soft sand to get to the ferry point.

i and the bike took a real pounding today. hot, dehydrated and frustration to the boiling point.

basically, in arunachal there are no road connections when it comes to rivers. i have 5 maps and they show different towns, roads and tracks that either are not there/never existed or dont show roads that DO exist. and they have been there for years. the best maps i get now are from the people i meet in the guest houses i stay in or the restaurants i eat at. but even they dont know the water level of the river on any day.
like today!

to top it off, from all the bouncing we(me and the bike) did today, somehow the jerry can jumped out along the way. and it was wedged in tight too!

all in all, took me 9 hours to cover 175 kms with no mountains.
gruelling hot

looks like i will have to goto dibrugarh to get up to pasighat. and then, who knows if i will actually be able to come west from there staying in arunachal ! lol

will enlighten you all when i know/do more
mitch

Am planning to be in your area in the week starting Apr 20. My route is: Guwahati (Apr 21)-Tezpur-Itanagar-Ziro-Tuting-Along-Pasighat-Tezu-Kibithu-Tezu-Tinsukia-Dibrugarh (Apr 25).

Poor soul, I feel so sorry for you and the trouble that you had to go through, I could feel the frustration that you had to go through when i spoke to you yesterday. Mitch I would have forced you to come to spend the night in my place yesterday, but after hearing you, I knew that you are in no mood to hop on to you bike for another 25 odd kms to my place.

It is raining cats and dogs now and I wonder how are you going to cross the river at Dibrugarh. I pray to god that the weather clears up and am also waiting for you phone call.

Best wishes

lifewater

Mitch,

That is one hell of an adventure! Hope to hear more of your travel. If possible, do put in some pictures.

:thumbs up

Bar tending in Florida is definitely an easier option. ;) To steal a phrase from Johny Walker - "keep walking" brother! You are doing great. Where there is a wheel there is a way. Just don't get trampled by elephants. Day before yesterday a Dutch birder did just that in Kaziranga. Be safe.

Hey Sudipto, both mitch and your bike are safe and sound --- at least till today morning. He stayed the night with me and have left my place at 9.30 A.M. on his way to the ferry point at Dibrugarh in an attempt to cross over to Arunachal pradesh (PASSIGHAT).

He will call me in the evening, then I will know more.

Best wishes

Lifewater

I have only always associated Arunachal Pradesh with Apples ;-)

Dear All,

Just to inform you that Mitch has reached Passighat yesterday at around 5.30 P.M. All well and in one piece. He called up after reaching there.

Cheers

lifewater

P.S. Any news of Hvkumar ??? he was supposed to be on the road by now

it is not Along as i am told here. quite a spectacular area for driving. went from pasighat to pangin...horrible road and then, expecting to go on to aalo after viewing where the silom river empties its black water into the mighty blue siang river, i discovered that the road on up to yingkiong was a nice paved one! only 95 kms, not 200 like my stinking map says!!
a note on maps. for arunachal pradesh there is not a good one. roads are shown that do not exist. roads are not shown that DO exist!
stayed in yingkiong for a night only. now in aalo my second day. took a little daytrip up north on the road to melchuka (175kms from here) with the silom river on my right all the way. beautiful.
will head for north lakhimpur tomorrow. 244kms from here according to the sign out of town. then prob kaziranga to bomdilla to tawang. will come back through from seppa to itanagar and then to ziro after that...roads and weather permitting.
kumar. be prepared to change your plans. the rivers are getting higher.
will write later

Completed the Sikkhim circuit, in BHutan (Thimphu) now, hoping to get the permits for Central and East Bhutan tomorrow. And reaching Guwahati on 20th, to start my Arunachal circuit on 21st, going via Itanagar to Ziro, en route Along and Tuting.

mitchonroad, the river situations sounds alarming, thanks for that update.

Great going Mr Kumar, sure do keep an eye on the river situations as more rainfall is predicted for the north east.

decided to take a rest here after a beautiful but long day yesterday from aalo to here. took me 8 hours to do 235kms. the last 50 kms north of north lakhimpur on hwy52 were an absolute dream. 15 meters wide and newly laid asphalt and nobody on it. lots of villagers all dressed up to celebrate the last night of bihu. quite a pleasant ride.
rained heavy this morning. i'm thinking its the tail end of that cyclone which hit tezu a few days ago.
will head for balukpong tomorrow. then bomdila and then tawang on sunday. will decide my next course of action from tawang.
kumar sir, i'm thinking you'll have to go from aalo to tuting. you could then come back from tuting via yingkiong and down to pasighat. the road from pangin to pasighat is not good. i am told the road from ziro to daporijo is also not good, but ive no details on it. ziro to aalo should be something like 12-14 hours depending on the roads the people in aalo told me. this is why i came back down to assam to continue my trip.
and lifewater, you would not have to force me to come back! it was a most pleasant stay, thank you!!
it seems all the people of arunachal say daporijo has a reputation as a tough town. lots of drinking and fighting stories there. and, since its election time, most of the circuit houses (etal) are booked up for the election observers. and daporijo only has one and its reported to be in sorry condition.

wasn't prepared for the internet today. but here are some shots from Nagaland.
ok, i give up. i have tried many times on this site to post photos and always get an error message. i copy and paste a photo onto the desktop and try to upload it from there.

this time i get this one:

' Invalid Post specified. If you followed a valid link, please notify the administrator. '

so, if anyone can tell me in simple (i said simple!) language how to do this seemingly easy thing, please let me know. otherewise you can go to the photobucket site i have under the same screen name.
i tried but i give up.

Can somebody help him please

Oh no not a problem at all. Feel free to visit me whenever you wish. It was a pleasure for me and my family to host you. In India we have the saying "ATITHI DEVO BHAVA" roughly translates as " GUEST IS LIKE GOD"

Best wishes and hope to see you soon,

Lifewater

Are you resizing the images before trying to put them up? You have to change them to 800x500 at 72 dpi and then try to upload. Upload is simply clicking on the icon called "attachments". You get to see the word attachments only when you take the mouse over the icon which is third from the left after the crossed AA and smiley. Next few steps are pretty logical and intuitive.
Don't click the insert image icon to insert image !! This may sound paradoxical but that's what it is. The insert image icon is basically to allow you to insert images that are hosted on some other server like flickr etc. But team-bhp does not allow that. Here you host the image directly on the team-bhp server.

Hope this helps.