Tour of Nagaland 2022 | Prologue

I fell in love with the North East when I first visited back in 2019 to Mizoram. I liked both, the people as well as the raw nature beauty. The visit had impacted me so much personally that I longed to visit again ASAP. The good friendly nature of the people had made a profound impact on me. The easy and simple life of NorthEast people had me think twice about how one should lead one’s life and that it’s these small basic things that add up to our life and not materialistic things. The Mizoram tour was only for 3 days back in 2019 but I knew that I would need more than that to explore the beauty which NE offers.

We belong to the biker community. Every year, we have our annual meetup of bikers from all over India who gather at a common place in any one of the 7 NE sister states (The states are rotated every year) for a 3-day event that is filled with Fun, Music, Food, and Brotherhood camaraderie. It’s a jolly event that should not be missed by an avid motorcycle enthusiast. Almost 2000 people converge to this event where 98% of people are from NE. The event generally takes place at an open ground which can accommodate such a huge number of people and almost everyone camps in their tent. It’s a great event where people meet after a gap of almost a year and common interests are shared and enjoyed. The local cultural activities of each state also become a part of this 3-day event.

After the 2019 event, a global pandemic struck which caused the event to cancel out in 2020 and 2021. On the last day of the 2019 event, it was decided that the next event would be held in Nagaland which was going to be hosted by the Nagaland Motorcycle Club. But since the COVID pandemic had struck the event got skipped for straight 2 years and finally in 2021, we had a date for the 2022 event which was 3-5 Dec.

In 2021, I completed my Coast to Coast ride spanning more than 8000 km and 22 days which went very well I had traversed the entire coastal length of India running from one coastal village to another. This ride really showed me another part of India that one generally doesn’t see. And so for 2022, I decided that I would be spending my once-in-a-year long trip riding from Pune to Nagaland which would cover the event at the start and also I would be able to witness the world-famous Nagaland’s annual cultural fest called “Hornbill Festival” which happened to be going on at the same dates from 1st to 10th of December. And whatever days were left in my leave would be spent exploring Nagaland to the fullest after that. I had conveyed plans to all my North East friends and they were excited to meet and welcome me. The same case was for me. It was going to be a thrilling ride as whatever roads I would be taking from Day 1 would be the roads I’d never trundled upon.

All the planning was done as the dates for the trip came closer. My trip would start on 26th Nov and end on 18th December. All the groundwork had been completed. The bike had been serviced and ‘AVRIL’ was all set to hit the road after a long time. Since I would be camping at the event, I carried my camping gear and my portable stove burner along with basic utensils. Basic route planning day-wise was done but I had kept it flexible owing to any hiccups during the ride. It is for this reason that I had not booked any hotel along the way and I thought of relying solely on local people and my friends to rescue me. I had planned to ship my bike by train once the journey was over and I myself would be catching a flight back home. Like always, the tour sticker was ready and already pasted on the bike.

So with everything set and the date of the journey nearing, it was time to take on a completely new set of roads and explore the beauty that the North-East has to offer. I was desperately waiting for North-East and at the back of my mind, I thought, even North-East was eager to receive me.