Theme: Rejuvenating the spirit
Hiking Route: Lele-Nallu-Bhardeu-Lamidana-Lele
Day: June 29, 2008, Sunday
Hike Coordinator: Usha Rani Das
Participants: AnjanaS, SangeetaR, BrijaK, PragyaR, UpasanaR, SabitaK, AlinaS(Rookie), UshaD, Jyotsna, RinaM, SwetaS, Richa(Guest), Sunita(Guest)
Photos: RinaM, BrijaK, UshaD, JyotsnaS
Caption: AnjanaS, Upasana, SangeetaR
Report: AlinaS, SabitaK, PragyaR, AnjanaS
Creative Support: Dijup/Dhilung/Pallavi

Rejuvenating the spirit
Thirteen ladies of D2 were all set to rejuvenate their spirits into one of the most cherished tradition named ‘Hiking’. The vivacious beauties congregated at D2 premises on a misty Sunday morning and left around 6:45 am with every intention to explore the adventures of the new trail. Since this was the first one-of-a-kind ladies hiking, we thought of enhancing the already unique event by coming up with a dress code. Everyone agreed to wear white tops to show uniformity. Cracking jokes, taking snapshots, and sightseeing along the way, we headed towards our destination.

We started our hike from Lele. After walking for some distance, we saw a school named ‘Sri Gupteshwori Nimna Madhyamik Bidhyalaya’ at a place called Nallu. We decided to stop by and spend some time there. We had a short interaction with the teachers and distributed stationery and chocolates to the students. Then we bid them goodbye and continued with our hike.
After a while we stopped for breakfast at a local tea. While waiting for breakfast, we came up with a brilliant idea to play “Dumb Charade” and had loads of fun. AnjanaS was victorious in the game and Brija was the funniest. She had to enact this movie called “Musafir”. By showing her white-colored T-shirt and her gesture of playing badminton, everyone guessed that the actor was none other but “Jeetendra” – some style he’s got!

After a hearty breakfast, we headed for Lamidanda, our ultimate destination. This was probably the toughest part of our hike because of the steep climb; and the simple fact that it was monsoon made it even worse. The route was teeming with blood-thirsty leeches. The frantic cries of the hikers were common after being attacked by the leeches but the parasites couldn’t deter the spirit of the thirteen ladies. Instead, we learnt a lesson from them: “Run for your life”. Whenever we stopped for some rest, the very sight of the leeches stretching their heads out to reach to us made us forget our tiredness and run further up. Brija was left wondering why the leeches stayed at places where people hardly tred. They might as well go and live in the cities.

Learning the lesson of the day, all the hikers ventured up the hill in the cool weather that further revitalized them. We finally reached the army barrack on the top of the hill. The open field and the view were both captivating. We were really amazed at the beauty of the place.
On the way back, we stopped to plant paddy as it was Ashad 15 – the day people sow grain in the country. The local population was warm and hospitable. We joined them to plant and plough, and sang folk and Ashare songs with them. So enthralling was their voice that some of us even started dancing to the tunes. They were also so delighted that they offered us some of their home made pickle. After spending about an hour in the muddy field, we headed back to Kathmandu.

Though we left the place, and the leeches, and the school, and the tea shop that took us back into our childhood, and the marvelous view, and the field planting with the locals, and the sweat behind, we carried with us memories to last for a life time.

After all, the pain and the loss of blood were definitely worth the experience.

01 Reserving the first Seat	02 Happy to hike
03 The eager interns	04 D2 Ambassador
05 Getting ready for the tough path ahead	06 Hiking essentials
07 The trail begins	08 The march forward
09 ….and the cows accompany us	10 On the way to Lamedanda
11 The landscape	12 Heaven on earth
13 The misty mountain	14 Lonely path
15 3D photography	16 Children of the corn
17 Spectacular spectators	18 Sisters in hand
19 The peaceful mountains	20 House atop hill
21 Entering the local tea shop	22 I drink tea
23 You drink tea	24 She drinks tea
25 And we all drink tea	26 Those are for us
27 Helping hands	28 Icecream soda sugar on the top….
29 It has 10 words…..dumb charade	30 The first syllable is….dumb charade
31 Being attentive	32 Flies flying to BOSTON
33 Motherly care Part1	34 Motherly care Part2
35 The school we would go to	36 Talking with the teacher
37 Here you go nanu	38 Thank you D2
39 Innocence thrusting her nose	40 I love the lady foreigners
41 Those creatures called `D2 Women`	42 Free flowing water
43 Rain drops in the water	44 Crossing the river
45 This is how we do it	46 Time to hike again
47 Yes Jyotsna, that is the spirit	48 Interns follow
49 The steep climb	50 Sky touching trees
51 One Two Three	52 A guest hiking partner
53 In front of the barrack	54 Dai, tyo jutta ma ni juka pascha….
55 In my territory	56 Beautiful skinned insect
57 The catepillar before	58 The butterfly after
59 Bloody leach honored	60 Shooing the leeches
61 End of the descend	62 Can you see the blood
63 Checking for leeches in there	64 Walking under the umbrellas
65 And the God spoke to us…..	66 We believe we can fly
67 We believe we can touch the sky	68 Sweet Pragya
69 Women padding	70 We go join them
71 Planting	72 Together we plant again
73 Standing above our own reflections	74 Rina at home with the locals
75 Dancing to their songs	76 We all have a good time
77 And so do they	78 The muddy feet
79 Ho mane ho	80 Ashare pandra gift
81 Mark of Asar 15	82 Let`s get going now
83 Worldly wisdom	84 Another mark of Asar
85 Lunch time in Ktm	86 Wonders of Tukche
87 And finally…thanks to Ram dai!