Tour of Nagaland 2022 | Day 13 | Kohima- Khonoma- Dzuleke – Heunambe- Kohima | 120 kms

Had a good night’s sleep. By the time I got out of my tent, it was sunshine everywhere. The time was close to 6 am. I was amazed by the number of tents being pitched up. Yesterday, when I came, I didn’t bother to count but today the number seemed like 20 plus. The tents were staggered based on the mountain slope and each leveled section of the slope had 4-5 tents. My tent was situated at the topmost level.

I got ready quickly and thanks to the guidebook which I had received yesterday from the tourist information center. I had already planned my day today. I was going to explore the nearby villages of Khonoma and Dzuleke which were mentioned in the guidebook as one of the must-see places. The bathroom and toilets were shared amongst others. Male and Females had their separate sections.

Hot water was a luxury and was being provided by the campsite owners. I was ready to leave by 7 am carrying just a small bag. I’d planned to cook some breakfast myself along the way and carried a stove and other necessary stuff. It was going to be a pure raw exploration today.

Along the way, I stopped to buy some eggs, bread, butter, and some milk for my tea! The roads in the morning were empty as I was following Google Maps. I let my fate be decided by it. I passed through villages, riding on their narrow lanes and most of them were unpaved with just hard-packed mud.

I was riding from one mountain to another. The villages became distant and could only be seen on the next mountain. The muddy roads were unpaved with broken sections all along the way. To my one side were the mountains while to the other side, the valley. The temperature was still low and cold.

Around 8:15 am I reached the outskirts of the village of Khonoma. There was a board proudly calling “Welcome to Khonoma”. Next to this board, there was a viewpoint overlooking the valley and the good part was that the chairs were made out of wooden logs. This was looking like the perfect place to prepare my breakfast and enjoy the view as no one was there to disturb me. I parked my bike and walked inside the conical-shaped roof viewpoint.

I first butter-toasted the bread followed by omelettee. Finished it off in hot condition. It tasted really good as I had prepared breakfast myself first time on this trip. Everything worked well as I washed everything down with a good milk tea. I packed all the things and put them inside my bag. It was time to head towards our 1st destination of the day.

I arrived in the Khonoma village soon after breakfast. There seemed to be something magical about this place as I parked my bike at the designated parking lot. Everything was in its order and place. This place resembled some village in Switzerland. As I walked towards the immediate house in front of me, I was greeted by a kind and smiling gentleman who was introduced to me as a guide. A guide was compulsory for the village tour as I purchased the ticket to see the village at the tourist information center which was set up in one of the houses. They presented me with a ticket and some stickers!

The specialty of the village was the centrally located fort. This fort had been a part of many wars since the bygone era. The guide was very knowledgeable and showed me all the places in the village and explained every item in detail. He also told me how the villagers maintained cleanliness all around. They very well knew the importance of natural balance living in harmony and not creating waste. Even the trees that were used for wood were not completely cut and only the branches were chopped off so that the tree could grow again with new branches.

Some village ladies were selling some of the locally made handicrafts and other small decorative items which looked interesting. I glanced over them but shied away from buying. I did try some of their locally brewed wine made from fermented wild apples and peaches.

I could see many different varieties of trees which I was unaware of before. The most striking to me were the Tomato trees which grew like mangoes on the the trees. Only the shape was a bit elliptical. Other than that, I noticed lime fruit trees which were quite big, the size of a muskmelon. Red Naga chilies hanging by the thin branches caught by eyesight.

I left the place around 11:15 am towards Dzuleke. I had heard from others that it was a village which was surrounded by picturesque mountain views and so I wanted to experience it first hand. Someone even told me that on the same path lay an underground waterfall, which was some kind of an off-beat place.

Leaving Khonoma, the road condition stayed the same as I cruised past towering lush green mountains. The surrounding air was cold and there was complete silence all around as no one was present. Some km ahead, I was made to stop owing to rolling boulders down the mountain slope. Up above the winding road, people were busy widening the road with heavy machinery and all the rubble was being rolled down the slope. A person confirmed to me as he spoke to some gentleman over a walkie-talkie that it was now safe to pass as they had stopped the work to let a lone man pass through so that they could resume the work.

The scenery just kept on getting better and better. At one corner of the bend, the scene was so dreamy that I stopped and thought of making myself a cup of tea and just sitting back and soaking in nature. Just as I was starting to prepare, a car stopped by. Some people got out and started to mend one already stationed vehicle which was present when I’d stopped. They saw me making tea and instead offered theirs which they had brought in thermas. We all shared the hot milky tea as they resumed on their maintenance work. I sat there for a while and decided to leave waving them thanks and goodbye. It was a wonderful gesture shown by them to a stranger. I wondered whether the same would be reciprocated in my state.

Sometime later, I saw the sign for Dzuleke village. As I passed through the village, I understood why it had got the importance it deserved. The village was surrounded by lush green mountains and the clear blue sky with the sun blazing made the scene even more out of this world. I could hardly see anyone out on the road as I passed by. Not even a single person could be seen. I pushed ahead in the search of the cave waterfall and knew that it was somewhere along the way, not far ahead.

I must have ridden straight past the sign reading ‘waterfall’. When I went a little too much further, I started to doubt myself and made it clear that I might have missed locating it. Up ahead, some workers were repairing the road so I asked them. They first discussed amongst themselves and then one of them pointed in the direction from where I had just come. The hypothesis was correct. I backtracked the way I had come to a village called Huenambe. As I stopped at the intersection, I saw a blue small board and on it was written in white bold letters “WAY TO HUENAMBE VILLAGE CAVE”. I was happy that I had finally managed to locate it. With the kind shopkeeper who agreed to watch over my bike as I made my way towards the falls.

The path was not easy and I had to make one going down and down. It looked like the path was not frequented by people as there was dense foliage all around. I could hear the water rushing over the rocks in the distance owing to the complete silence in the surroundings. I was listening to birdsong. I had to use slender tree branches to hold as I slithered myself down slowly. I was completely aware that I was taking a big risk by venturing out alone and if something would ever happen to me then it was going to be difficult to locate me as no one except the shopkeeper knew that I had gone to the falls.

I finally managed to get to the level of water in about 15 min and the feeling was literally like a paradise. A completely raw nature with no one around me. It was a true wilderness kind of feeling. The water seemed to come from somewhere underground where it flowed through the water-cut rocks and eventually flowed further down. I tracked the flow of the water to my maximum physical abilities and stopped at one point to gaze at this beautiful waterfall hitting the flowing water below. My mind was itching to take a dip and just relax which could have been a one large bathtub and one one to disturb.

The Amazon forest moment was captured by my eyes to the fullest and after a brief time sitting at the waterfall, I made my way up towards the bike. Hiking up was a little challenging owing to the heavy winter clothing that I had put on.

The time was around 2:15 pm as I started my return journey back to Kohima. On the way, I met one of my close friends from Pune, Col Aveek who was going in the opposite direction on his Force Gurkha car with his wife. I wished him a safe drive and pushed forward. I had to reach Kohima before it got dark and didn’t want to end up in some unknown place.

While going back, I took another route which bypassed the long twists and turns and sent me directly to the base of the mountains. This route was made as a temporary arrangement as some kind of road maintenance work was being carried out on the main road. The new road was made by leveling the slopes of the mountains. The track was full of loose sand and was steep. I had to concentrate on my braking and handling as the loose dirt was slipping underneath my tires. Moreover, there was a dense cover of vegetation all around and over me. It was like riding inside a tunnel made up of trees.

I could see many wild apple trees and many of them had fallen on the ground. I stopped to taste a few of them and they were really tasty. Satisfying my curiosity, I moved on. The bike had undergone so much off-roading that as soon as I came to the base of the mountain, the bike’s power just gave up. It was the same scenario that had happened while I was going from Dimapur to Kohima. The fuse had blown but I was not knowing its cause. I had entered a village and the mobile network was there.

I rang my knowledgeable friends back in Pune and they told me to disconnect the connection that lit up the rear brake light. Something was wrong with the wiring which ran underneath the rear mudguard. Some probable cause was established that there might be 2 wires touching each other thereby causing the fuse to get blown. The heavy suspension travel at the rear due to the off-roading may have just kindled the fire. Once the connectors were removed, the bike didn’t stall again after that.

I drove non-stop after that and reached Kohima just around dusk. I freshened up myself at the campsite and then went to the city center to explore the night scenes. The ride distance was 12 km. The city center was bursting into life. The area was all lit up due to oncoming Christmas and the area was abuzz with people walking the streets. There were shops set up selling a plethora of items and an equal number of food stalls were present. All varieties of food were available as per palate taste. I found it hard to zero in on the selection. I bought some wall-hanging souvenirs and had some roasted chicken dishes as my dinner before retiring back to my campsite.

Riding back to the campsite in the cold was the toughest part as I was riding without any gloves. Once at the campsite, the crowd around the Hornbill Festival arena had also retired for the day. I too decided to retire for the day and moved into my tent for a comfortable sleep. The day had gone well with some nice and unique experiences!