In my previous article, I talked about helicopter fly-ins through the remote West Coast of New Zealand to access rivers. In this edition, I am going to be discussing the unique mode of transportation that we used for traveling to the rivers in Meghalaya, far eastern India.
Finding your mode of transportation is one of the key ingredients for making it a successful trip abroad. Some kayak destinations have hostels with shuttle services or committed taxi drivers, while others can require you to rent or even buy a vehicle for the time that you spend on the mission. In Meghalaya there are a few different ways to tackle this, but the most unique and in my opinion best way to do it is with the All India Overland bus – once a truck capable of carrying thirty tons of coal that has been stripped down to its core and rebuilt into the ultimate mission bus. It’s capable of sleeping up to seven people and offers plenty of room to load kayaks, store gear, and still have enough space to hang out and socialise on the road. The bus is just a fascinating creation. It sticks out like a sore thumb and is constantly drawing the attention of locals who are always excited to come over and take a look.
Meghalaya is a small region in eastern India that happens to be one of the wettest places on Earth during its monsoon season. Because of this, the land is rich with rivers containing some of the most outstanding whitewater that there is to be found. Google Maps makes it seem like a place where getting from point A to B is easy and doesn’t take much time. But once you get there you quickly realise that this is not the case! Travel distances might not be far, but with road conditions being less than ideal, it can take a long time to get anywhere. On the bright side, because the bus is your house on wheels, these long travel days turn into rest days, allowing you to have a comfortable break between long river trips. We would play cards, sleep in the beds, watch movies, or just hang out and blast music to happily pass the time on the long drives to our next destination.
The best part of the bus, which made it so worthwhile, were our amazing drivers Banjop and Pyn. Banjop is the main man who has all the local knowledge and contacts, and his younger brother was there to back up Banjop and provide the boys with good conversations – they are an awesome duo. Banjop’s expertise definitely allowed for our trip to run as smoothly as possible as he knows the best ways to get around and the most logical direction to be attacking the rivers we wanted to do. Having him as your driver is such a great asset to the trip.
You can find out more about the All India Overland Bus at www.allindiaoverland.com or by getting in touch with James at jamesesmith@gmail.com. Thanks for reading!
