Bob's Blog

Storms and Slugs

The turquoise Lukha River in the Jaintia Hills, Meghalaya

From the Burmese border, I was heading west once again, from the tribal hills of Manipur to the tribal hills of Meghalaya – the "abode of clouds". Meghalaya, is made up of the Jaintia, Khasi and Garo tribes – all of East Asian descent. It's hills jut out into the Indo-Gangetic Plain, bounded by the Brahmaputra Valley to the north and Bangladesh to its south.

Since Imphal, I'd been camping every night, cycling along a beautiful jungle road, in a terrible condition but with pleasingly little traffic. Much to my chagrin, the onward route from Manipur to Meghalaya traversed Assam, meaning a return to the maddening chaos of the Indian plains. I planned to break that ride, and overnight in Silchar but arriving to it's crush of people and pollution, I quickly decided sleeping roadside would be a better option.

I cycled late and made it to the edge of the Jaintia hills of Meghalaya – finding a great spot to camp, right next to the jungle but with a flat grassy clearing and suitably hidden from the road.

After making dinner, with my tent open, the inside became alive with all the bugs, beasties and midges of the jungle that had crawled in – a frog even hopped in. While clearing them out, a slug dropped from above me. Strange I thought, it must have been crawling on the ceiling of the tent. Looking closely, I realised it was in fact a leech, a big fat one. Ew. I thought leeches are pretty small usually. Ah well, I got that out too.

I dozed for an hour or two, until past midnight, before stirring to lightening and thunder. It wasn't that loud yet, but it was coming my way and it looked big. I didn't fancy being in my non-water, and non-wind proof tent in a massive storm, so I packed up and cycled to a nearby truckers spot which had an open cafe.

I sat down and sure enough the wind whipped up, they closed all the doors and battened down the hatches. The heavy rain and lightening came, and I was glad for the shelter. One of the guys from the cafe motioned to my head – that I had something. Putting my hand to my head, it was all bloody. Now I realised – the leech didn't fall from the tent ceiling, it fell from my head. It was fat because it was full of my blood, falling off after it had quenched it's thirst!

The cafe guys let me sleep in a building out back, but I didn't get much sleep that night. In the morning, I felt, and what with the bloody forehead, probably looked, like I'd been in a fight. I had breakfast and a wash and was soon back into the rhythm, cycling up through the steep jungle terrain towards the capital of Shillong.