Day 9: The Renault Kwid continues to brave tough conditions

An early morning dash

How much worse could it get? That was my precise thought after waking up at an unearthly hour of 4am. We had to wake up this early to hit the road to Imphal from Kohima. But as things proved to be, the situation got worse. Much worse than anticipated. We just had to weather the storm then.

Kohima War Cemetery

Before we actually set off for the day’s drive, the Kohima War Cemetery was right next to our hotel. The martyrs from the battle fought against the Japanese during the second World War were buried here as it was the site of the troops containing the Japs progression into the Indian subcontinent. A quick couple of photographs later, we were on our way to Mao, Manipur.

Manipur became the thirteenth state that we have crossed so far

The roads were slightly better and we had rolled all the way up to Mao when the news of the bridges collapsing hit us. This have us something to mull over at breakfast. While gorging on some lip smacking chicken cooked Manipuri-style, we had little alternative left apart from heading back the same way we came from to Assam to plot out our next moves there.

The dreaded Kohima-Dimapur stretch

We really had to kick things up a notch as the effects of the journey had begun to take its toll on us. As we reached the city centre of Dimapur, some three and a half hours after getting through Kohima, we were famished. The blessing in disguise came in the form of Kentucky Fried Chicken. After stuffing our faces with Zinger burgers and choco shakes, the drive to Jorabat was a breezy process.

One must commend the CEAT tyres and their Milaze range that are fitted on our Kwids. Even when the terrain was constantly changing from tarmac to rubble to gravel to muck, the Ceats helped our cars stay on course. With a driving time of nearly 13 hours, day ten also promises to be an arduous task. While we hope to be optimistic and clear of Mizoram and Tripura both in a single swipe, chances are we might just settle for one of them and leave the other one for the next day.

Click here to read the previous blogs on the 29 States 29 Days challenge.