Exploring Sein Thuk ( Shergaon), Arunachal

The village of Shergaon ( Seinthuk indigenously) is populated by the Sherdukpen tribe, an indigenous people from the Indo Tibetan region numbering just 10000. The village itself is breathtakingly beautiful in a valley with a small river meandering through it. We spent a day and a half here, first staying at the Pine Creek Homestay who’s owner Nawang was fantastic and really helpful. For our second night he directed us to an abandoned campsite further down the river and helped us get some firewood for the night as well. The campsite itself was lying in a derelict state and I hope it is revived soon as the spot is very picturesque. We could see many families having a picnic across the river on the other side till late in the night.
On our first day in Shergaon we hiked around 15 kms and back to the famous Zengbu Gompa which was on a hill and the Choskorong waterfall which was one of the most beautiful and scenic waterfalls I have seen.

We use a Sea to Summit Tent and it was just amazing as always. The Telos 2 is Ultra light, Spacious and well ventilated it performed well in the rain at night and the wind that picked up. A must for backpacking and Bikepacking and river expeditions.

The descent to Rupa from Shergaon was quite a rapid one in many sections with steep drops compelling us in some sections to dismount. The route was draped but in rugged, rock cut faced mountains on one side accompanied by many landslides and verdant green lofty mountains on the other. The stark contrast was fantastic. We covered the roughly 22 kms to Rupa within a few hours. The presence of the army is evident everywhere. One of the nearby battalions’ water trucks was filling water with a pipe from the mountain and the stream was too high for me to climb to so the jawans told me to fill water from the trucks’ tap. Fortunately they did that as we had run out of water not realising that there were no small shops or even streams on the road. There were quite a few rockslides along the way but after a season of heavy rains that was expected, otherwise the roads were perfect. Also saw many indigenous communities’ boards on disallowing fishing / hunting etc and on water conservation. In one particular place there was a traditional device installed to collect honey bees.