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march along the Shiloi river |
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Up to time so far, I had strong hopes of making Phowakungri. The Shiloi river is shown in the maps as a nice straight stream of some 7 miles before it joins the Nantaleik. However, I was wrong, after a very weary march down the river we had to give it up and camp at 4.30pm without having even found the Kerami-Phowakungri path. The going was exceedingly bad. The river is narrow, swift and deep and full of rocks and falls. We avoided marching down the bed as long as we could, but having no guide and no-one knowing the way, we had to use it as a path eventually and it was a very bad one. But the very qualities which make it such bad marching contribute to its being perhaps the most beautiful stream in the hills. The pines, mixed here and there with heavy jungle, rocks water falls and cascades provide the most romantic scenery, while the stream differs from any I know in the variegated colours of its bed. Instead of the rounded blue and grey stones one is accustomed to, here is every sort of granite, serpentine, and olivine. The result is a bed in which the background of browns and greys is sprinkled with black and white in every variety of speckles or veinings, with greens of every shade from palest sage to darkest olive, and with reds that range from geranium scarlet to a dull sort of maroon. The scarlet stone is particularly noticeable on the bed of the stream but out of the water is a duller red. Add to these the bright emerald of a green water weed, and the autumn tinted leaves from the trees on the banks. On the way down stream I saw a sambhar hind, which I could easily have shot, and a tiger which didn't wait to give me a chance. |
