On the Northeaster Himalayan range, Mechukha is one of the less explored tourism destinations in India. Just a few kilometres with the border with China the undulating grassland slopes surrounding the valley of Mechukha, along with the high snow covered peaks almost in touching distance, making a really unique and beautiful place.
This November the department of tourism for India and Arunachal Pradesh put on a adventure festival with competitions in kayaking, paragliding and downhill mountain biking to promote the tourism of the area.
The season in Meghalaya was at its end and we had been told a lot of good things about Arunachal Pradesh so we decided that this would be our next destination.
After two days of car travel we finally arrived at the place, and yes! all those hours invested in getting to Mechukha were worth it – for the landscape, the hospitality of the people and their culture make it a unique place in all of India.
The kayak competition was done the last two days, so we could enjoy the downhill competition and the paragliding flights.
In the kayak competition we had mass start sprint – held this year on a grade 2 section as a demonstration event new to the festival.
The slalom was more fun since we played in a fast grade 3 with a very fluid but quite technical circuit of four gates, in which it was very important to be focused and not to take too much speed.
The three competitions had cash prizes for first place and there was also a overall classification in which you scored more or less according to your results in the three competitions. In my case it went pretty well since I got the second place in slalom and second place in the general. My congratulations to Aran Balaguero for his performance and taking first place in the overall competition.
After the competitions on the afternoon and night we enjoyed typical food, accompanied by dances from the area and live music from different artists.
After the competition we headed onward to our last river for this season in Asia, the Lohit. For sure Arunachal and Mechukha is a place we will return to.
