A day in BMC – Basic Mountaineering Course – NIMAS- Arunachal

Hiking through the remote terrains – My Hike to Mago  – Arunachal  

I visited few districts of Arunachal for the first time in 2016 and fell in love with the forests, mountains and water to the core. The trek I did in Arunachal for the first time became the most memorable part of my life.  Next, when I decided to do my month-long mountaineering course in NIMAS, never in my dreams thought I would explore such an a unexplored beauty. I had read blogs about my course and I was prepared both mentally and physically for that, yet in the most unexpected way it knocked me on my ass.

As a part of the course we were supposed to move from New-Melling to Mago, (both are small villages in Tawang District) with a heavy rucksack, weighing more than 20kgs which had personal as well as climbing equipment’s. I had given a prep talk to myself several times a day, that I won’t give up, I will walk the distance of 25kms. Morning at 5 with lots of energy, I was all set to walk. By the time I reached hydel point which is just 4 kms from New-Melling I was dead tired. My previous 18 days of daily long walks and other physical exertions from rock climbing practice plus a hormonal change due to my second day of my periods made my prep talk vanish and I was almost on the verge of giving up.

I took a break at that point, told other team mates to move ahead and thought for a while, spoke with instructors and made up my mind to walk ahead instead of going back. That was one of the best decisions of my life. Beauty of the trek started then. In the span on next 15 – 20 mins, we were walking in the canopy of waterfalls. For every 200-300 mts, I could see a waterfall, this stretch contained a big wall of mountain on one side and road running parallel to pristine river flowing on other side. As soon as we crossed this stretch, we entered the thick forest with river on other side. It was a paradise, being a biodiversity hotspot with unique flora and fauna. This stretch continued for a while and minutes turned into hours. The beauty of Jungle mesmerized me, from buzzling of tree leaves, tall green trees all over to chirping of birds to fresh earthy smell with a soothing water sound all around, made me to forget the pain in the legs and shoulders.

We had been walking for 10+ hours when I first saw the on the other side of the mountain edge. It took another 2 more hours to reach and our fitbits showed we have walked 33 kms in the end. A bath in the hot water spring post such long walk felt like heaven.  There are several hot water springs here. We walked 2-3 kms to fetch dry wood for the evening & chilled in the super-hot water bath on the way back. Due to security reasons government doesn’t allow civilians beyond Chuna post. 5kms from here is the India China border. Taking photograph were restricted post that.

This long exhausting, tiresome walk in the beautiful forests of Arunachal, while crossing several mountains along the pristine river educated me the enormity and beauty of nature, emphasizing that cognizant development of man-kind cannot recreate which nature over years has carefully crafted it. 

About Mago 

Its located in the Thingbu Tehsil of Tawang district. Bordering China and being the last border post in the district of Tawang, Mago remains one of the most isolated areas in the state. It has neither primary healthcare facilities nor a market for daily necessities. One must trek approx. 40 km to the nearby town of Jang to access even the most basic facility.