7 Daparijo

21st April 2009: We checked out of Guwahati hotel at 5:15am and after a quick visit to the Kamakhya temple, went to the airport to drop HVK's family at Guwahati Airport. Only HVK and me are planning to do the Arunachal leg of GHiRT. But the Scorpio's Accelerator started acting up as we were coming down the Kamkhya Hill, so we went back to the M&M service center in Guwahati and waited for it open up at 9:00am. This time HVK got the whole cable replaced and that seemed to solve the problem finally. We left Guwahati again at 11:45 am in heavy traffic. Our first target was Itanagar, the capital of Arunachal Pradesh.

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We headed back to the Jalukbari roundabout and then turned North to cross Brahmaputra on the steel bridge (pic above) to the North Bank.btw: Highway NH-52 is an amazing! It goes East all the way, on the north bank to Pasighat and then crosses the Bramaputra (over a non- existing bridge!) and then goes to Tezu and then loops down South to cross the Lohit River (WP533) at Parsuramkund and finally joins the NH-37 (i.e. AT Road) at Rupai, a little north of Doom Dooma!

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Ziro

At 1:30pm we reached Baihati-Chairali (WP361), where we turned right onto NH-52. And continued on NH-52 past Tejpur Airport, and past Pakke Tiger Reserve, till we reached Gohpur where we turned left (WP392) on the new NH52A, a shorter route to Itanagar. By the time we reached Itanagar (WP401) it was dark and quite late. We quickly found and checked into a DBL room in Hotel Ita-Fort, for Rs 600 a night.

22nd April 2009: We left Itanagar hotel early at 4:30am headed for Ziro. The normal route to ziro would have been to rejoin NH52 and go to Lakhimpur and then head north along river Ronganodi. But a scooterist showed us a shortcut route under construction, that is a muddy road still, but doable by our Scorpio. We took that shortcut by turning left at Bage Tiniali (WP408). The route was very scenic and lush green, though the road was rutted and slushy in many places. The clouds were floating low and giving a mystical aura to the ride. At Potin (wp415) we joined the main road coming from Lakhimpur and a passed the Ranganadi Dam site.

Crossing Brahmaputra on NH-31 near Guwahati, to reach North bank

Green countryside & tea estates along NH-52 in Assam

Misty clouds everywhere

We pass Yazali Village

Passing Hapoli (new Ziro) 9:30am

Ranganadi Dam & Hydel site (WP416) ... we pass at 7:48am

Don Bosco School, Ziro, Arunachal Pradesh

We reached Ziro at 9:55am. It was drizzling and we had a spin around the small town main streets. Nothing much to see here anyway. We decided to head out to Daparijo and so left immediately.

Plenty of paddy fields, in Ziro

Typical tribal abodes - thatch & bamboo huts on stilts

Scenic forests on way Daporijo

Daporijo comes up (WP450) ahead in the valley below at 3pm

We reached the bridge (WP451) to enter Daparijo at 3:25pm but were surprised to find the bridge closed by the BRO for repairs and relaying of new steel panels on it. From the piled up traffic we came to know it was closed since 11am and will open only 6pm or so. We just hung around until at 6:30 the opened the bridge temporarily and we crossed over and checked into a so-so Hotel Kanchenjunga for a DBL room at Rs 500. The town was asleep by 8 pm and we too hit the bed early after a long day.

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The suspension bridge we cross 12 Kms before Surya Village (wp438)