Day 139. Kohima - Imphal

We woke up this morning to blue sky. Yay. It was nice to see the sun again especially as we were unsuccessful in completely drying our kit from yesterday. 

Once again it seemed to take ages to leave the town but we were soon on our way. 


Lots of traffic control, lots of whistle blowing. 

We climbed and twisted our way into the hills, very nice countryside. 




The dog got lucky - I didn’t even know he was there. 


The weather ahead didn’t look promising so once again on the side of the road pulling on our rain kit. The rain was heavy but it didn’t last long. 
We then passed a ling line of trucks parked up. Oh no deja vu?  
Actually no but there had been a slip and the pathway across it was extremely muddy with a huge puddle in the middle which had to taken full on and it was pretty deep. 
Once we negotiated that we slithered down a steep muddy section hoping not to slide into the line of trucks parked up on this side. 

Shortly after we hit an army checkpoint that actually wanted us to stop. We are moving from Nagaland to Manipur so forms needed to be filled in and I think our first ever passport stamp that wasn’t issued at an international border. 

By now the sun  was  out and we began to broil. So off with kit. Sunshine always makes us feel better and compared to yesterday the road was good so we made pretty good progress. 


Had to take this photo- tarsealed road with markings😀 500 metres down the road back to unsealed. 




These ladies were very interested in us when we stopped for a drink, they willingly posed for a photo. 

We arrived in Imphal and debated whether to continue to Moreh but in the end decided not to. The ride today was a real delight. The surrounding countryside of hills and valleys was beautiful, lovely green bush as far as the eye could see. The driving in these areas is not quite as manic as other places so we are a bit more relaxed I think. 

Comments

  1. russellmarie3 October 2019 at 17:01

    I'm reading about some of the roads you have negotiated, and the load you are carrying, and I can only respect what you are managing on your faithful Triumph.Here in NZ I've ridden the most horrendous of tracks and roads but on bikes chosen for purpose. I had a Honda Transalp XLV600 with 21" front that would have done well over the worst you've told us of, how-ever the Suzuki V Strom 650 with 19" front would have been a handful in much of your journey and my current Transalp XLV700 with it's 19" front would require quite some nerve and skill to negotiate your recent route with the load you are carrying.On much of it I'd be wishing for a DR650 or other suitable single but if you were enjoying such a bike Robyn would have to walk behind with a barrow and most of your bags!

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