“A day the trio stood tall”

Heard about the prediction made by a foreigner hydrologist. But we challenged the weather and that hydrologist as well and got ready for a day hike. This time the destination was Chisapani but keeping in mind about the walking strength of some friends we thought of walking till 1pm and will have lunch wherever we reach at that time. This time we are excited for the reason that more than 3 people are going for a hike. The day before our hike just before midnight heard bad news about a death of Bhabishya’s grandmother one of regular hiker of trio. Still excited but feeling sad for Bhabishya. The meeting place was Purano Bus Park at 5:30am. Due to some miscommunication we cancelled our hike at 4:45am but showing proactiveness we quickly sort out our problem and lastly decided to conquer Chisapani. This time 5 of us confirmed the hike, 3 {Sudeep, Suman and Khashing (me)} of us met at Purano Bus Park and were waiting for Chakra. At the same time Chakra informed he won’t be able to join this time also because of his tight schedule in work. We trio took bus to Sundarijal and informed Sujan. It looks the bus was in no hurry and all the vehicles overtook our bus even a bicycle. But as soon as it reached Chabahil the bus took its speed where Sujan our peer is waiting for us. We saw him waiting for us, we shouted but the voice didn’t reach his ear. The wheels kept its speed and he missed the bus. We informed him about that, he was furious with us. He showed his attitude and replied he was not joining us. A small thing broke a long planned hike. We tried calling him (Sujan) again as we reached Sundarijal but he didn’t receive our call. Then we had some light food before starting hike. We packed junk food as lunch as always. We started our hike at 8:00am. The weather was cool and suitable for walking a long distance. We started slowly as we knew we had to go a long way. We paid an entrance fee at check post of Sundarijal of Rs 10 each and asked how long will it take to reach Chisapani? “It will take 4 hours to reach there” replied an employee. As we faced these kind of situation before we thought it will take us nearly 6 hours. Taking few snaps we moved ahead, the path was mostly uphill. Walking after an hour we reach Mulkharka which reminds me and Suman about GIS practical not exactly about practical but about an expensive lunch we had at Mulkharkha. Again we moved ahead and on the way we met a lot of children on school uniform and enquired about their school. They replied “it’s at Sundarijal Bus Park”. We also thought of installing an improved cooking gas in village but seriously we are not serious about our thought. On the way we stopped for a break and had few snacks. Adding some humor Sudeep said “why you kept resting? We need to go a long way”. We asked locals about the time required to reach Chisapani. They replied “2 hours”. It was OK for us. We walked for an hour and again asked few passerby and the reply again was same 2 hours. It became used to listening these 2 hours for 2 hours. At times this helps adding humor on a journey. After walking for 3 hours we asked another passerby, this time we replied ourselves “2 hours” in a loud voice but this time the reply was against our intuition. “1 and half hour” replied one of passerby. Then we feel a shy of relief after hearing that. 1 sounds pleasing to our ears. But we knew it will take us nearly 2 hours to reach our destination. The panoramic views of hills are amazing, hills everywhere and the dispersed settlement. We took a final break of energizer before reaching our destination, Chisapani. The resting places on the way are very helpful but quite littered by hikers and trekkers. It seems the hikers and trekkers are not following code of conduct. Again we moved ahead and after a while crossed a pass which was not well maintained, just stones are kept in one place with a prayers flag. Now the path was all the way downhill. We couldn’t resist our temptation to have a Wild berries and passed some spare time eating yummy yummy wild berries. I and suman got few scratches by the thorn of a plant. Everyone can easily predict Chisapani seeing its concrete buildings. This place is perfect for viewing mountains but luck in essential. Monsoon has not started yet but Kathmandu is facing rain for last three days. There was no hope of viewing mountains, so, captured few snaps of hills, surroundings and ours as well for memoir. There are 2 ways for returning, one via Sundarijal and other via Sankhu/Nagarkot. We thought of taking a long route via Sankhu and asked a guard of National park. He replied “you will reach Sankhu by 7:30pm”. Till today’s hike we never took a same route to return so, decided to give some hard work to our feet. From Chisapani it was 10.5km to Jhule according to the board instruction. We then walked and walked and walked…. to reach Jhule but on the way the information board was not sufficient and clear as well. These might have really pissed other hikers as well. We walked for almost 3 hours in a rain but no sign of any human and information board. We saw a kind of wetland without any information board. We met some people on motorbike going to Chisapani for weekend celebration they were finding difficulty to drive in that condition. Walking for almost 8 hours Sudeep started getting cramps and was unable to walk in a full speed but was walking. Any how we have to reach Sankhu by night so that I could join the hike next day to Champadevi. Hike to Champadevi was mandatory for me. We decided to reach Lapsiphedi first and make a final decision whether to stay there or reach Sankhu. On a way we asked a passerby how far is Phedi and he replied “20 minutes” who was in a good trip and asked us “Do you know Sanu Babu’s Bhatti??” Sudeep answered “Yes” (actually he didn’t know). We thought if it’s not possible to reach Sankhu then we can ask for night stay at Sanu Babu’s Bhatti. Few vehicles are running on the opposite hill and there was ray of hope of getting some vehicle at Phedi. From here Sudeep knew the place as he had already been here several times. We decided to walk towards Sankhu even if we reach there by 10:00pm. We hitchhiked till Sankhu on a pickup vehicle as the workers are returning to their home. “Fortune favors the brave” this quote comes true for us. Even from Sankhu we had to walk for 40 minutes as Sudeep’s relative house was far from main Bazaar. We reached there by the help of light of a lighter. Thanks to China for producing these kinds of lighters. We had to cross a river but no clue about the depth as it rained heavily this afternoon. We crossed a river along with some local people then had to walk along an agricultural land. We didn’t put on our shoes and walked bare foot to get some natural therapy. Finally after a long tiring day we reached at Sudeep’s relative house and were very much relieved.