I may have just stolen The North Face Company’s logo for this post’s header, but that’s tough for them. I'll let them cry themselves to sleep in their overpriced parkas...as trite as that saying certainly is, it does seem quite apt right now.
I’m currently at Cherrapunjee (or Cherrapunji) one of the primary stops on my trip, and a place I have been fascinated to visit since I first found out I was coming to India for a year and started exploring the Lonely Planet guide for adventure locales. Cherrapunjee is most readily known as the world’s wettest location, receiving at astonishing mm of rain. While this in itself is pretty impressive by any account, the fact that is receives this all within a six month period is astonishing. In fact, the area has two tourist high-seasons, those like me who come to enjoy the trekking during the dry months, and those who come to experience the wettest place on earth; let me tell you, the latter do not do a lot of exploring of this incredible(ly) captivating but topographically tortured landscape.
The power of water is so clearly a transformational force in this region; driving in, one descends to Cherrapunjee from the top of a massive canyon ridge. As one descends, it seems incredibly similar to Kings Canyon, which we visited in California this year. Much like the Grand Canyon or any similar geologic structure, the river is a small ribbon at the bottom of the canyon.
The place I'm staying is a holiday resort, and it really is pretty ideally set up for folks interested in exploring some beaten paths. I'm staying in a tent complete with a mattress, sheets, blankets and the whole nine-yards- a great budget option in my opinion. Yesterday morning I got up and watched the sunrise light up the valley, working on my computer and enjoying a cup of Starbuck Fresh brew instant courtesy of the Weavers!
I’ve met and become friends with a couple of travellers from the UK (one who is doing really fascinating medical history research in Delhi, small world).
We went on a phenomenal trek with a guide yesterday. Honestly, I don't think I've been more exhausted since the marathon. 3000 feet vertical loss going down incredibly steep stone steps hundreds of years old through the rainforest; 10 km or so of pretty wild hiking THROUGH this river, and then 3000 vertical feet back up a worse set of steps! To say I'm taking it easy today would be an understatement...just getting too old for this!
The whole hike though was just absolutely fascinating; the area is pretty lush rainforest, not surprisingly, and we passed through these "villages" of 1-2 houses in the middle of nowhere, like 2 hours into the woods. What they survive on baffles me. The river itself was breathtaking as well.
Beautiful turquoise clear water in the magnificent pools that were ringed by house-size boulders that had been molded as if like clay by eons of monsoon floods.
Walking through the river was great fun; a third boulder hopping, a third wading through the pools (see photo above), and a third jumping in and playing around!
The way back up was truly humbling. I can probably make up all sorts of excuses as to why I was huffing and puffing: delhi smog, out of shape, etc. but those aside, I got my bum spanked by that mountain.
We didn't see any root bridges on this hike, but we did see some crazy wire bridge:
and No! we didn't cross it.
Well, now it's time to head off for a MUCH more mild hour long hike to one of the fabled root bridges...check back soon for more updates.
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