Hike to Kalinchowk, Day 1

As usual I woke up at 5:00 am, freshened up and did a little bit of stretching. I then checked my bag to see that I was optimally packed (just some clothes, water bottles, snacks)! The only thing I was waiting now was the clock to indicate 6:45 am. Excited and rejoiced about the trip I departed from my home hoping to reach Suryabinayak at 7:15 am where I would take the bus to Charikot. All my excitement temporarily ceased when I had to wait for almost half an hour in Suryabinayak as the bus was delayed due to certain circumstances. However, first step inside the bus and the greetings from friends, Sajan Bhandari and Paritran Shakya, rekindled the joyous spirit within me.

The bus ride until Dhulikhel was ordinary, as it was my usual route to classes. Three more friends, Bikram Khadka, Manish VK and Durga Kandel, got on the bus in Dhulikhel. Not much eventful journey primarily because the ambient temperature was not so pleasing; at least not for me. It’s in my genes that I can’t tolerate a slight increase in temperature or humidity which is why I do not like summer that much, and it was 28 degrees! But still the scenes of the river were particularly interesting, the people in rush to get to rafting in time, people who were searching for nothing in the river banks etc. When nothing is going on I find ways to keep myself interested and one of the tricks I used was to listen to the horns of vehicles and try to make some kind of music out of it! Anyway, the environment was not pleasing enough. The ride after Khadichaur was also disappointing; as I had assumed it to be full of scenarios and fresh air, like the last time I had been there about a year ago but it did not quite turned out to be the case. The journey which I had imagined to be full of freshness was but full of dust and dirt from the maintenance that was going on. The scenarios were also depleted by the erosion and also due to the maintenance that was going on. However, it was far better than the everyday life at the Kathmandu valley.

The journey got a little bit more disappointing after lunch in Mude. Poor choice of hotel and we had to settle for not so good lunch; average rice with below average dal and vegetable but it was hunger which took over appetite and we still needed energy to get to Charikot. Moving on from the subdued atmosphere of otherwise compelling Mude, I was finally awaken from my sleepiness with the scenarios of Kharidhunga, a deserted stone mine. It has nothing but some specific arrangements of rocks, Kharidhunga, on the slopes but it’s rather not normal that I find this place interesting. I somewhat find this place full of memories and stories, not of mine, but somehow I find myself connected to this place! I have promised myself that someday I will stop for hours at this place and write something, at least something about the stories I can imagine about this place. However, I could not stop this time as I was riding a bus. The journey after Kharidhunga was also disappointing as I could not find the streams on the side of the road. When I went to Charikot the last time, these streams were full of flowing water, pristine and pure. I came to realize that the drought which I had thought to be local in Kathmandu valley only, was not local but it had impacts on this place also.

Finally we arrived Charikot at around 12:00 pm. A brief meeting with Tara brother at his dental clinic was followed by short discussion amongst ourselves on whether to take vehicle up to Kuri or to hike. As it was just around 1:00 pm and we had the enthusiasm to actually hike up to Kuri, we decided to hike. The enthusiasm however was met by the panting and puffing after just few steps uphill. No matter how healthy we claimed ourselves to be, it all became vivid after this. I cannot comprehend how just few years on the city can make ourselves like this. I mean, in my case, I was born in a village. I have been walking up and down the hills my entire childhood. Even nowadays I walk for about a couple of hours a day. Even the days at Kathmandu University should have enabled us to walk up and down, I mean just how many slopes do we have to ascend and descend every day!

 Yes, the ascent was getting more difficult with every step but we kept on going. Our destination at the moment was Deurali, a small village on the way. We had to go through shortcuts through the forest for the sake of time management. Before Deurali was a small place called Pokhari, named as there was a pond at that place. The pond was not particularly interesting but I found the house beside it to be fairly captivating. There was nothing out of the normal about the house but the ambience was interesting. The house was surrounded by an appreciable amount of compound, a compound which was all lush green. Beside the compound was the pond (mentioned earlier). On the compound, cattle were grazing. There were some people on the edge of compound all of whom were youths, 3 boys and 2 girls who seemed to have been on the middle of youthfulness. They, I supposed, did not go to schools as often as I did. I assumed that their day to day routine to be taking care of the cattle and other agricultural activities. They seemed to be on absolute bliss. One of the boys was taking a good nap on the edge of the compound with his face down. The heat of the sun seemed not to bother him, or anyone else there. If I had more time I sure could have spent hours there, just lying on the edge of the compound beside the pond, imagining stuffs and just enjoy the moment but we had whole of the journey to Kuri to complete and just could not afford to stay there. 

On Deurali, we bought some snacks, refilled our bottles and set for an arduous ascent uphill. Instead of taking the regular road, we as decided earlier, took the shortcuts through the jungle whenever possible. The trees, bushes, herbs and shrubs on the side of the foot-trails presented the natural beauty of the place in best possible way. It had been a long time since I had entered in such woods. Our only clue to whether we were going right way or not were the small signs on the stones (painted red) or the electric poles that we occasionally encountered; besides these the woods were evenly distributed all around. Our destination at this time was the place called Gairi, which was the only place between Kuri and Deurali that had a hotel. Gairi was paraphrased to be “2 houses” after Manish told that at Gairi there are 2 houses (hotel). Manish assured us that 2 houses (Gairi) was just few minutes away and we would be there in no time. But the houses were not to be seen even after couple of hours and our snacks and water were almost nil. No snacks and water and we had whole jungle to pass. Finally, after nearly 3 hours we reached Gairi and to our disappointment the 2 houses were closed! No place to refill our water bottles, no place to get some snacks. All we had now was 2 packets of noodles, some few chocolates and just a bottle of hot water.

The journey from Gairi to Kuri was mere 5 km, which is about an hour of walk. Rejuvenated by this information despite the lack of snacks and water, we set our next destination as Kuri. Just couple of minutes of walking and weather started to test our endurance. Thunder started and the leaves of trees brushing against the wind far away started becoming distinct. Fog started to cover the sky. I feared the worse, rainfall. Rainfall, which is mostly harmless, could have been particularly dangerous that moment. Nobody had raincoats or plastics, rain could easily wet all our clothes, even the spare ones. Another danger with rain and thunder approaching was the lightning. We were quite familiar with news (and tales) of lightning in this area. After seeing the condition of trees on our way we were quite sure that lightning was a serious problem at this area. We just did not want to become yet another news. We tried to cover as much ground as possible, as quickly as possible. The sound of leaves hustling against strong wind was getting closer, the fog was about to cover all of us. The wind came and went, so did the fog; but no rain. Sky was becoming clearer again. A sigh of relief. We slowed down our pace. Then, tiredness crept in. Legs were becoming exhausted. Shoulder started feeling the weight of the bags. Mouth went dry. Even hot water seemed viable option now. Sips and sips. I was regretting already for not packing enough snacks and water. Friends were also getting exhausted, but constant jokes, stories and tales kept us energized.

After just over an hour, near Kuri, one last ascent and it was all decent to Kuri. The last ascent however proved to be difficult. Though there was not chilly wind, fog had covered us. It was nothing but white fog all around. The chill of the fog along with the altitude presented some sort of difficulty in breathing. Stomach was also almost empty. Finally the ascent was complete and it was all downhill from here. During the descent, I felt that the fog made the environment even brighter, but it was the chill that bothered me the most.

Finally we arrived Kuri, a small village to rest and prepare for the journey to Kalinchok. As it was all foggy we could not anticipate the hill of Kalinchok. We searched for a hotel, unpacked, and freshened up. We barbequed for a while, had a little alcohol (Tongba), shared interesting stories in the slight presence of Tongba. After a while we had dinner. Then we went to the bed trying to sleep, trying to remove all those tiredness from the day’s endeavor, trying to replenish the energy for the following day’s feat to Kalinchok.