Mission impossible without Navigation

My last mission was a really very adventurous. I had just received a note from my agency that i have to explore a new location and gather some information about it. There were no driving directions nor the route. I had to just depend on the navigation system to find the route to my destination. In the beginning it looked like an easy mission. But when I searched, on google, the location which was to be explored, I understood the reason why they had chosen ME.

I packed all the necessary items required for such explorations along with some clothes and food items. I had a look at the map and location details that were emailed to me. I took the flight to Andaman and checked into a Hotel room. Next day a new XUV was waiting for my journey to begin

I opened my navigation system and looked for the best route suggested by the system. After driving for 1 hr, I saw that the road was coming to an end. Both the side of the road was covered with a dense Forest. I checked for the route shown in my navigation system. According to the direction I had to now get into the forest on my left. So I pulled the gear and entered into this dense forest.

While I was driving in the Forest I could remember the song ‘Jungle jungle baat chali hai pata chala hai, chaddi pehan ke ful khila hai.’ I imagined a Tarzan like creature moving from tree to tree like a monkey and landing on my bonnet  But even if not  Tarzan I saw lot of monkeys, Deers and Bears moving in the jungle but I did not bothered to disturb them as I was now an intruder in their territory. But still I managed to get few snaps of them with my Nikon SLR camera.

I stopped on the way and stood under the tree to grab something to eat. And ah, what did I see was a Cobra like snake resting on the branch of the tree (looked like he had a very good supper in the morning). Without making any noise. I went back to my XUV and started driving again. Time and again i looked at the navigation to get the idea of the route. I did not expect to get good help from it at it was not a road i was driving, but a jungle. But still the navigation helped me a lot at least to understand the direction i have to go otherwise I could have lost in this dense forest. I regularly checked the direction and moved towards the destined location.

The journey was quite risky as I could become a supper of anyone in this jungle anytime. But this was the nature of my job and I love these kinds of adventures.

As I was moving ahead I could hear a sound of running water. It was water stream that I was moving towards. I stood in front of it and thought should I drive through this and cross this stream. 

And then again I pulled the gear and moved in that water stream. There were lots of big and small stones underneath, but i could easily passed all of them and slowly moved ahead. After some time I realized that we have crossed this stream already, i gave a sigh of relief.

Again I checked the navigation to check the direction. I was very near to my destined location. It was quite dark and I thought of setting my camp for the day here. I mounted my tent and lit a small bourn fire. After having my dinner I eased into the sleeping bag inside my tent.

Next day I woke up early and readied myself for rest of the journey. Now my XUV could not go ahead because the forest was very dense ahead leaving no space for any vehicle to drive through. I hid my car with branches and leaves of the trees and started trekking ahead. Trekking was again an adventure here. On the way I came across many new species of insects and reptiles which at least I had not seen earlier. I tried to capture them with my Nikon SLR camera.

After some time I could hear the sound of running water. As I moved towards it, I saw this amazing waterfall in front of me. The view was breathtaking.  I was sure that my destined location is somewhere near and I should find some human being here.  I trekked ahead looking here and there for some clue.

Suddenly some distance ahead I could see some smoke in the air. It was such a relief for me. I moved towards it and what I found was tribal huts in front of me. I could see some tribal people (they were almost nude and covered some of their body parts with leaves and animal flesh) moving here and there. As I moved towards me they started shouting and were almost ready to attack me. Suddenly something strike my mind and I took out the eatables I was carrying with me and offered them. They calmed down and slowly became comfortable.  With sign language I tried to explain that I was friend and not enemy. After sometime they trusted me and agreed that I can take some snaps of that place ( I cannot upload the pics here as they were confidential).

I stayed with them for the night and next day started my journey back to the base with a smile and satisfaction that my mission was successful. It was an amazing experience which I cannot forget. If given an opportunity I would like to visit that place again. It was a big accomplishment for me as I managed to reach to that tribe. It could have been impossible without my navigation system as could not have found the route to this unexplored place.

This blog post is inspired by the blogging marathon hosted on IndiBlogger for the launch of the #Fantastico Zica from Tata Motors. You can apply for a test drive of the hatchback Zica today.