Theme: Revisiting the history
Hiking Route: Chaimali – Pauwa – LamaGaun
Hike Coordinator: Bahadur Baniya
Day: August 3, 2008, Sunday
Team: BabinsS, BahadurB, BasantaJ, BishalP, Eyasha Pandey (Purushottam Dai’s Daughter), LekhnathB, MaheshS, ManishS, PawanP, PrajwalS, PurushottamP, RaviS, SudeepS
Report By: Lekhnath Bhusal
Caption By:Ravi Sharma/Prajwal Shrestha
Creative Support: Dijup/Pallavi
We left D2 premises at 6 A.M., earlier than the usual hiking time. Our plan was to start hiking from Kulekhani. We drove to Dakshinkali and had our breakfast there. There were two routes to drive to Kulekhani. We chose the shorter one through Dakshinkali. After only five minutes of drive we were stuck in the muddy road. We asked the local people about the condition of the road ahead. They replied with the same answer- it is a bit easy, and the harder one is just the beginning. We were not satisfied with the answers; especially Ram was not sure whether he could cross that muddy road. A Sumo van driver said it was very hard even for his van to pass through the road and it would be better for us to return back. We desperately wanted to advance but our van could not move any further. Some of us got out of the van and pushed it from the back.We got out of the bus and started to walk from there itself. The place was Milan Chowk and time was 9 A.M.
We asked the local people about the way to Kulekhani and started walking along. After few minutes of walk we were not ready to continue the road, so we searched for a track for a short cut. Soon we started climbing up the hill; the local women encouraged us by saying that we could reach Kulekhani in 3 hours if we were to follow that particular track. We climbed up until we reached the top. When we reached there, we noticed that there were leeches in the jungle, canary in a coal mine. We poured salt all over our shoes. We could not find any one to ask the right way to Kulekhani-we had to decide the route on our own.We finally saw a small village down the hill and headed towards the same. We saw a small track far from us but could not figure out the right path to lead us to the track. We travelled down the way that was easier. We landed up in a very damp place where leeches started falling from almost everywhere. When we were out of that place all of us were covered with leeches. It was hard time to detach all the leeches. The villagers were also amazed seeing us there out of that damp place.
We distributed copies and pens to the children there since all the schools in Makawanpur district were closed for summer vacation. One of the villagers agreed to guide us up to Pauwa, a nearby village. We were disheartened when he told us that we were already on the wrong track to reach Kulekhani and 4 hours away from it. It was already 12:30 and it was nearly impossible to reach Kulekhani since we were not likely to get any vehicle there. It was then that we decided to return back. The villager informed us that we could return back to Pharping in about 2.5 hours. He showed us the right way to return back.
We reached Humane village in 2 hours and decided to have lunch there and informed Ram to drive back to Pharping and arrive at that village if possible. Ram drove upto Lama Village that is 45 minutes walk from Humane village.
We ordered for lunch at a local hotel and some of us decided to go up the hill. When the friends returned back, we were amazed to hear that we were at a distance which was approximately 45 minutes far from the point where we had initially started our hike. We had our lunch and returned back from to Lama Village at 4:30 P.M. and drove back.The hike was short and adventurous; we were not able to reach the planned destination due to the muddy roads of the rainy season. We finally decided that the planned trip actually deserves two days hike in this season.