Hidden in the green

Lumwahnai, Meghalaya, India

There are so many waterfalls in Meghalaya that I wondered if mega refers to numbers of rapids and waterfalls. Only the largest and most accessible waterfalls are known and visited by tourists, but there are so many waterfalls with no names and utterly unknown except to the locals.

This particular waterfall got my attention in a tiny white flash in the corner of my left eye as we were driving back up to the hotel for the day, after a visit to the Kynrem falls further down towards the Bangladesh border. The color was mostly that of lush greens, but suddenly I noticed what appeared to be two white areas, and I immediately wondered if that could be waterfalls, but knew how far down from the road it was and that I did not see any trail going down from the road.

The only way to reach it was to drive back further down to where there’s a bridge and a trail leading down to the river. From here it was a slow progress forward as the landscape was challenging. I wondered if I was wrong, and if it was better to abort as the sun was setting and darkness approaching. I wanted to reach up to a bend in the river to see what was visible from there. Lo and behold – two amazing waterfalls stood out from the dense and green jungle.

A local told us that he too only walked alongside the river now, as the trail leading up to the road was so slippery and dangerous that he did not dare use it! He and several others down by the bridge were fishing and had caught a considerable amount of fish, which I find absolutely incredible! Meghalaya is like a tower on a plain, and the rivers have very little horizontal flow compared to all the rapids and waterfalls. Yet the rivers have lots of fish at all altitudes.
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