Re: Upper Assam Ride: Nameri Eco Reserve, Majuli Island and Dhola Sadiya Bridge

Travelogue Approved

Another nice one Phillip. You really manage to travel a lot!

What's an AP bike doing there?

Re: Upper Assam Ride: Nameri Eco Reserve, Majuli Island and Dhola Sadiya Bridge

Great start!

Re: Upper Assam Ride: Nameri Eco Reserve, Majuli Island and Dhola Sadiya Bridge


Thank you, Sir! :-) I try to ride whenever i get the chance to! And the AP bike belongs to Trideep. He bought the bike when he was working in AP, he is settled in Shillong now and so is the bike.

----consecutive posts auto-merged-----

Thanks alot brother :-)

Re: Upper Assam Ride: Nameri Eco Reserve, Majuli Island and Dhola Sadiya Bridge

Day 1: Shillong to Nameri Eco Reserve.

So, in two day’s time, we got ready for the ride. While preparing for the ride I had shared the plans with Mr. Shahwar Hussain. The route that I had initially chosen was different. But I’m glad Mr. Shahwar advised us to take this route to enjoy the ride more. I can’t thank him enough for being a good friend and guide.

And so, we were off on a nice sunny April Thursday morning. Trideep on his ever-happy-free-revving KTM Duke 200 and I on Everglow, My Mahindra Mojo XT. I was late by a couple of minutes, fashionably late as some would say, but no, I was just clumsily late :-D It had been a long time since we went for a long ride, we were both very excited. We thought we’d stop for breakfast on the outskirts of Shillong but the adrenaline rush kept pushing us further and further (with Neffex pumping it up).. till Nagaon, a good 190kms from Shillong. It was four laned all the way to Nagaon so we could keep a good pace and reached in a good time. We had breakfast there and then headed off to Tezpur.


Nagaon to Tezpur is a two lane road. Four laning work is under process here, so the roads are a little bad and quite bumpy with some good potholes to surprise you every once in a while. While riding on this stretch, my handlebar started feeling a little vague, and oh! I had just changed to a Ralco Speedblaster 100/90/17 on the front before heading out. The grooves were slightly taller than the Sirac so it was fouling with the mudguard. I had to get a couple of bolts shaved off to stop them from rubbing against the tyre, and thanks to Fredrick who helped me out on this. When we reach this part, the Mudguard started rattling. I thought it had come loose, I checked it. It was okay. So we continued ahead. We crossed the Kalia Bhomura Bridge over the Brahmaputra River. This bridge was one of the longest bridge I had ever rode on before; it is about 3.1 kms long.

Re: Upper Assam Ride: Nameri Eco Reserve, Majuli Island and Dhola Sadiya Bridge

Nicely put!

Re: Upper Assam Ride: Nameri Eco Reserve, Majuli Island and Dhola Sadiya Bridge

Nice one brother. Glad you managed with the loose corn set.

Re: Upper Assam Ride: Nameri Eco Reserve, Majuli Island and Dhola Sadiya Bridge

Cool pics bro #MojoGoesEverywhere

Re: Upper Assam Ride: Nameri Eco Reserve, Majuli Island and Dhola Sadiya Bridge

Day 2: Nameri to Dibrugarh via Majuli River Island

Well, we woke up to a gloomy morning, with dark clouds covering the sky. We kept discussing on whether to put on our rain-gears from the get go or to put them on when it starts to rain. Trideep also taught me how to pack by rolling our clothes tightly and packing them, and whoa!! It saved so much space. We were supposed to leave by 7 but after all the discussion, re-packing and breakfast, it was already around 8AM by the time we left.


Today’s ride can be divided into two parts. 1^st, we were supposed to ride from Nameri Eco Reserve to North Lakhimpur, take a right from there towards Dulia Mout and then catch a ferry to Majuli; that’s about 207kms.

The 2^nd part was to catch a ferry from Majuli Island to Jorhat and then proceed to Dibrugarh where we will be staying over for the night; another 171kms. So, altogether, there would be around 378kms to ride on this day.

I’m not used to having roti or chappati for breakfast, so by the time we started out, I was already hungry again. But, being a hogger, I took it upon this trip that I will try to shed some weight, so that the bike can go faster :-p


My riding jacket was still wet from the previous night’s rain ride, and with the morning breeze flowing in through the mesh, it made for a chilly ride. The road on this day would be on a two-lane road with some stretches of the route being under construction for a four-lane highway. There were some very scenic stretches with trees lining up on both sides of the road and the road stretched out straight like an arrow. Some parts weren’t that great with potholes and broken stretches leading almost the entire way. The progress was a little slow, which gave my hunger more attention. But with the public buses charging in like the Dakar Trucks, they did keep my hunger at bay for some time.

We reached a place called Narayanapur (about 147kms from Nameri) at around 11AM. I saw a shop decorated with chips and I signaled for Trideep to stop. My tummy was cursing me and I needed to get something to eat. We bought some choco biscuits (which we call Power Biscuits :-p) and Fanta, because we wanted the ride to be fantastic While we were reloading sugar to our body, Trideep got into a conversation with the shop owner and a couple of his buddies. They suggested us to take a different route rather than riding all the way to North Lakhimpur and Dulia Mout. That would save us about a lot of time and would cut short the distance by about 50kms. So we diverted to Bihpuria instead, only 10kms to the Ferry.


This was when I started to see the beauty of interior Assam. I thought that Assam was all about wide roads and humidity :-D But once we took the diversion towards the banks of the Brahmaputra from Bihpuria side, the road became small and narrow and.. it was still humid but the road and the rustic scene took away all of that. I enjoyed riding through the country side, with the road curving its way through the paddy-fields and the old Assam type houses lining along the village roads.


We reached the Ferry just when it was ready to move. We loaded the bikes and were told that the journey would last for about half an hour. I had been on a Ferry before but this was the first time that I would be ferrying over such a huge river, that too with so many other bikes and people on board. I was a little nervous at first but as we plough through the waves, I felt more relaxed and at ease.



We reached the banks of the Majuli Island in about half an hour’s time. We unloaded the bike and had tea before heading out again. The temperature was really warm and humid. I had seen a number of pictures and videos of the sand tracks leading the way to the town centre of Majuli and I couldn’t wait to ride on those sandy tracks. The way towards the centre of the Majuli Town was all on sandy tracks. It was so much fun riding on it and I wish we could have rode it all day long.
I was really enjoying riding over the terrain when my exhaust started sounding very funny. It felt like it had come loose. I stopped to check only to find that my left saddlebag was dangling on the exhaust’s tip. I was relieved that the exhaust was ok but also not so happy about the saddlebag as we still had 2 and a half days of riding to do.Well, you may ask why it was dangling? I don’t know, Some idiot had just learnt to pack by rolling his clothes and it saved so much space that all the things from the backpack also went into the saddle-bags. And yes, that idiot didn’t balance the weight before putting it on the bike. One side felt like an Enfield, and the other, like an Impulse. So the straps broke and off came the saddlebag. Thankfully we had extra bunjee cords and Trideep helped in tying the luggage back into place. **Pls give that rolling-packing-newbie-idiot a smack on the head for me, will you?!



After the sandy tracks, we rode towards the centre of the town through narrow roads snaking its way through the island. The houses were mostly built at an elevated level. I assumed that this was to prevent the house from being submerged in case of floods. There were bamboos and trees lining all along the way and the made for a very cool and refreshing ride. We wanted to spend more time on the Island but because of time restraint and the Ferry timings, we had to rush towards Nimati Ghat to catch the Ferry.

The water level had receded by quite a lot because of the less spell of rain during the winters and this made for a ride on the river bed to reach the Ferries, and neither of us were complaining. This river bed stretched out for kilometers and kilometers!! We reached a part where it was flat and it looked exactly like the Salt Flats!! There was this track going across it and the first thought that came to my mind on seeing that was the story of Moses from the Bible, and how he parted the Ocean. We had to ride for a little further to reach the Ferry annnd mannn!! This was fun!! Just close your eyes and imagine.. noo!! Wait!! Read this first and then you can close your eyes and imagine Arms bent, knees bent (Ufff not like thaaat!!) and you’re standing on the pegs. Flat stretch of sand all around you and you are going as fast as you can on the bike. Woooooooo!!! What a rush it was. There were times I was looking around to see the Helicopter taking videos of me but then I realized that this was not Dakar and I was in Majuli. Hehehe


We reached the Ferry Terminal and inched our way to the Ferry. It was the same type of Ferry like the one we sat on to get to the Island, but with only more people on board and it had cars on it too. Bikes were parked on the roof of the Ferry, the roof was a thin sheet of tin with a metal strip running it’s width where the stands of the bikes were placed. They also had a thin strip of wood running along the edge of the roof which acts a device to stop the bike’s wheel from rolling off the Roof….. and into the River. Initially they told us to take our saddlebags off, which we weren’t so happy to comply with. We told them that they can charge extra for our bikes as they will occupy double the space. They told us that they will load our bikes last. We were a little scared when they loaded our bikes as the place where they will be parked on the ferry had nothing to stop the bikes from rolling off the Ferry. It was right at the end and beyond the wooden strip on the edge of the roof. They were slotted into first gear and kept there, with our prayers holding the bikes in place more than the engine compression.


We scoured to find a place inside the sitting area but saw other people climbing into the front portion of the Ferry, it looked more fun and we decided to join them too. The Ferry started at around 2:30pm. It was a nice and smooth sail with our eyes checking the bikes every once in a while. Most of the passengers were involved in conversations, some were playing cards and some were simply enjoying the ride. It was a very nice and relaxing feel as the ferry zigzagged and nodded its way through the mighty Brahmaputra. I was trying to imagine if this would be the same feeling that Jack and Rose felt on the Titanic, before it hit the iceberg. No! we weren't doing the Titanic Pose :-p It took about one and a half hours to reach the Jorhat River Bank and a little more time till we got to get off the Ferry as another Ferry was loading. The fee for the Ferry was Rs. 45 (including bike and rider) per bike. They were so good and didn't charge extra for our loaded bikes. We finally got off the ferry at 4PM.

Re: Upper Assam Ride: Nameri Eco Reserve, Majuli Island and Dhola Sadiya Bridge

Thanks brother :-)

WEll i had to get some jugaad done as it was not safe to ride without it :-)

Thank you bro Yes, wherever the rider takes it to :-D

Re: Upper Assam Ride: Nameri Eco Reserve, Majuli Island and Dhola Sadiya Bridge

Day 3: Dibrugarh – Dhola Sadiya Bridge – Dibrugarh – Jorhat

Good morning Dibrugarh!! It was a bright and sunny morning with the sound of the train running on its track completing the background music.

We were staying at the Assam Heritage Tea Factory’s Guest House. It is located a little out of the city. It belongs to Trideep’s Uncle and we had a really nice and comfortable stay there. They also conduct tours for tourist, especially tea tourists. For more information, you can check out their Facebook Page - https://www.facebook.com/E99barAssam/.


It was so nice and kind of the guys from the Assam Riders Community (ARC) to come and meet us on this morning. They also presented us with a Gamcha each. Thank you so much Rahul, Saddam and the rest of the guys.
We started offfor the Dhola Sadiya Bridge at around 9AM and the brothers from ARC accompaniedus for a few kilometers. Riding out from Dibrugarh towards Tinsukia was sorefreshing with Tea Gardens lining on both sides of the road. There werestretches were you could actually get the aroma of the tea leaves and it waslike having air tea. :-D The roads were good though a little bumpy with an occasionalpothole here and there.

We took theTinsukia Bye-Pass instead of going through the city to save time and beingroasted in the traffic. There were stretches of the ByePass that was stillunder construction but the road the whole way trough was well laid out andsmooth.

We reached theBridge in about a little over an hour and oh man! The first sight of the bridgeand being on it was just amazing!! Finally! I was on the bridge that I hadheard and seen so much. To see that vast amount of the bridge stretch ahead andbehind you was just amazing. It seems like it kept going on for forever. Westopped in the middle of the bridge for some pics and to absorb the feeling ofbeing on India’s Longest Bridge. We weren’t on some record run or anything butlike Trideep said, we rode from the World’s Largest River Island to India’sLongest Bridge in less than 24 hours. :-D
We left for Jorhat (139kms) at around 4pm. We were to pick up the T-Stem Nut from Pankaj (Mojo SM at Jorhat) at Jorhat and we were supposed to spend the night at Jorhat at the Chameli Memsaab Bungalow. We took the Dibrugarh ByePass which was still under construction and it gave us quite a ride to get the lunch digested quickly.
This time we would be riding on the bad stretch of road in daylight so it made it a little easier. It started getting dark before we reached
Sivasagar. We took a stop to clean our visors and then were back on the road again.

We reached Jorhat at around 7pm and headed straight to the Bungalow. I’ve heard so much about the Bungalow from Mr Shahwar. It is a 100yrs old Tea Garden Bungalow which has been well maintained and converted into a Guest House. The rooms are massive. U can throw out all the furniture and host a 5 aside football match inside!! And the Bathroom?! Well, you can play badminton in there. :-D


We had a good hearty dinner and enjoyed unwinding the day’s ride at the Verandah with the heavy downpour of rain in the background, which made us worry about having to ride in the rain the next day. Hehehe..