Though our office, D2HawkeyeServices Pvt. Ltd, organizes and sponsores hiking on every Sunday and sometimes organizes trip for two days (vehicle tour + hiking), I went only few hikes before. I decided to join this time because I liked most the theme and the route of the hiking.Theme: Being a Villager for a Day
Hiking Route: Jiri-DandaKharka and back to Jiri [in Dolakha district].
Distance: Kathmandu - Jiri (~200Km), Jiri-ThuloPatal ~15Km.
Day: June 21, 2008, Saturday – June 22, 2008 Sunday.
Participants: Aashish Koirala, Abishesh Joshi, Basu Dahal, Lava Kafle, Mahesh Regmee, Mahesh Subedi, Manoj Rokka, Niraj Shah, Prajwal Shrestha, Pramod Rai,Sanjeet Baidhya, Shankar Raj Upreti and Rajendra Banjade.
It was the day of strike throughout the Bagmati zone, we escaped from Kathmandu at 6AM. We were all equally excited and curious about reaching the destination.Some jokes and gossips on the way, enjoying the nature and taking wonderful snapshots of the beautiful and natural views of mountains, rivers, streams, we reached Charikot, the district headquarter of Dolakha. We visited the famous 'Dolakha Bhimeswor' temple. Legend has it that the idol perspires as a warning of a possible disaster in the country. Then we reached 'Jiri' at around 7:00 PM. With little rest and some tea, we decided to start our hike from Khawa which is 1 hr drive back from Jiri. Among 13, only 9 decided to go to Thulo Patal as it was already getting dark. It was 8:00 PM, we started hiking which was unusual. Unfortunately, we forgot to take the dry foods and after
buying 5 small torches so as to kill the dark, we moved ahead towards our destination 'Thulo Patal' to be a one day vlllager. Many questions like 'Are we on the right trail? if yes, how far is the destination' started haunting us. The lights were getting dimmer and the night was getting deeper. Then to our relief, we reached a place called ‘Lahare Mane’ at 9:15 PM. There we came to know ThuloPatal (name of a VDC) was about half an hour away for us. Having tea (only tea), we again decided to continue our hiking over the night sky. ‘JUKA VOKA CHAN’ (leeches are hungry) was the phrase used by a villager. But, we had to reach our Dhurba dai’s ghar at ThuloPatal, so we had no choice but to move on.
Moments later we came to know that we actually were to reach DandaKharka, situated in remote hills of ThuloPatal VDC. Our previous assumption of half an hour hike was then a big blow to all of us. As the clock was ticking towards midnight and most of the people were sleeping in their cozy bed, nine of us were wandering in the forest seeking the right direction towards DandaKharka. We didn’t know we were heading towards the wrong direction until we heard someone cough nearby. Luckily, the man replied to our shouts and decided to join us.
Finally, we reached Dhurba’s house under guidance of Tilak Bahadur. But to our dismay, we came to know that there were two persons named Dhurba in that village and Dhurba we were referring lived at about half an hour’s walk from there. We had no option, but to walk. Tilak was a great motivator. After 5 hours and 30 minutes of continuous hike over slippery and dangerous jungle trail we reached our destination at 1:30 am (the house of Dhurba Kafle). Dhruba was a cheerful person and he couldn’t believe we had made it to his house under such conditions. We enjoyed the dinner on the top of his house (Buigal) and discussing the earlier events, we then went to deep sleep from 3:00 AM.
We had to wake up early in the morning as the village life had already started. We had no idea where we were, and it was a surprise to look outside and find ourselves in the middle of a cliff. Dhruba’s family members were nice to us and served morning tea to us. It was already getting hotter, and we had a big day ahead. So, we gathered our belongings and bidding goodbye to Dhruba, we decided to return back to JIRI following alternative descending trail at 8:00 am.
The journey back was rather interesting. We met different people on the way and shared wonderful experiences with them.
We met farmers busy in their fields..we decided to help them in their work. It was good to give a helping hand to an old lady. We took her photo along with her son and promised to send it to her. As we were already hungry and no signs of any shops or hotels were to be seen nearby, we asked a young boy named GAMBU BIKA to prepare some food for us. He boiled some potatoes, and provided us wheat, maize and some plums. We thanked the boy and moved forward.
We had already been hiking for five hours, and Jiri was still a distant dream for us. Then suddenly it rained. We bought a broken umbrella giving 50 Rs more from a man who was returning to his home. Then, another man gave us his umbrella on the condition of returning it back to him by dropping it in his friend’s shop in Jiri-encouragement for hiking in the heavy rain.
Finally at 5:00 PM, all of us were altogether. We decided to journey back to Kathmandu and it was 12:30 am Monday when we reached Kathmandu.
I wish I wouldn't miss such adventurous hikings.
Find more at:
http://www.everestuncensored.org/2773/2008/06/26/being-a-villager-for-a-day/
