The trip to zuko, zuko...

‘Have cool, will travel’, the Megadeth song title, was the motto of that trip in the year 2005. I will let images speak louder than words, but here is the general sequence of things…

Me and a friend from Manipur, Bobby and his friends met at Kohima in July 2005, to get to Dzukou valley. We spent an evening buying supplies, with the adventurous thought of living up in a cave in the valley. Apart from that, more importantly, we wanted to see the valley submerged in pink with the mass-flowering of the endemic lily, Lilium chitrangadae.



The trek begins from Jakhama (12 km away from Kohima). The walk to the valley took us through a gradient of disturbed evergreen forests; initially up heavily human-modified forests and later into rhododendron patches and then down to the valley that was relatively less disturbed. 'Bro', our friend who likes to be called so, told us we need to keep shouting "Juko juko" along the trek so we don't feel as tired!

Amateur trekkers that we were; the walk was indeed tiring and took us six hours, I think the valley is about 10 km, not counting the slope-effort from Jakhama. We reached, and lo the valley was breathtaking, take a look...Mount Iso from Manipur is hidden behind the clouds.

Once we saw the valley, everything was relaxed and it was as if we just switched into a zone where time stands still! We walked on and on looking for caves to stay. The ones nearby were all taken since July is the prime season when local young folks visit the valley too. Here and there small shrubs were in bloom some white, some yellow and most pink, for the lily was in bloom. Everybody we met seemed happy; it was as if in the tranquility of the valley everyone was at peace. We moved on and found a small cave, enough for the four of us and we parked. Here is the cave, more of a cavern, we booked for two days!

Next, we needed a bath, enough to override the fact that the water was chilling. We braved in and bliss drowned us. Thats bro and me, literally chilling out.

The night sky was decorated with a million stars and we saw three satellites moving together in a triangular shape, and we could hardly believe it was happening. Bro had taken some smoke before and we were wondering if we were affected too! We cooked noodles and in the small fire we made, bro dumped in the corn we bought. It was only then I realized that corn, when put into fire without peeling gets boiled and not roasted. We had forgotten chillies, but in the cave somebody had left behind salt, masala and chilles in a cover; serendipity. After the corn was ready, with the dao our local friend ‘Pashchata’ carried we cut in strips of corn into the maggi and it was a sumptuous meal.

Morning was full of walks along gentle meandering slopes around the valley. We did see the lily up close and it looks elegantly beautiful, check it out.

And in the undulated grassy slopes, Bobby was occasionally meditating; best place in the world for meditating.

We spent another two days in the valley, meeting and greeting people and occasionally grabbing a bath from the nearby dzukou river. The river freezes in winter and me and bobby promised ourselves we would be back some winter of our lives; that hasn’t happened yet. Whatever food and ingredients we could not finish, we left behind for the next set of people who would live in the cave, paying it forward.

On another note, here are some of the issues in the valley. 

• Most folks who visit the valley write their names on the rocks (see the cave picture). If there was a way to prevent this, the valley can retain its natural state.
• People dump plastic all over the valley which should be definitely prevented.
• The locals burn the rhododendrons and once the trees are leafless, call it dead wood and use the same for fuel wood. There must be something the local governing council or the Forest Department can do about this. Afterall there could be an alternative of less conservation value for fuelwood than rhododendrons.

Bobby and I realised we have something to give back to the valley, a campaign to follow up the above; hasn’t happened yet and these thoughts are indeed cached in our head and hearts somewhere and we will return to follow up on the cause.