Hiking Route: Kaule – Shivapuri Nikunja – Kakani
Date: Sunday, Dec 07, 2008
Participants: Aalok Pokhrel, Keshab Ghimire, Neeraj Dhungana, Prabhat Man Sainju, Rajendra Banjade, Rohan Bhattarai, Sudeep Ghimire, Sudeep Khatiwada, Tejaswee SJB Rana, Ujjwal Shrestha
Photos: Keshav Ghimire/ Rajendra Banjade
Report: AalokP/ NeerajD/ PrabhatS/ RohanB/ SudeepG
Caption: RajendraB and KeshabG
Creative Support: Dijup Tuladhar/Pallavi Sharma

Aalok Pokhrel’s recollections:
I got an invitation call on Saturday night from Sudeep bro for the hiking the next day.I agreed right away without thinking. But, later I wasn’t sure if my decision was right, because all hikers were from D2 itself except me.

At first, I wasn’t much excited because I had been to Kakani couple of times before. But, the narrow challenging trails, radish and dry corn fields, amazing water fall, made it interesting and gave us a thrilling experience. Oops! How can I forget “Daal Bhat” at roof top-probably the highest part of Kakani? My mouth salivates every time, I remember it. Tree plantation and distributing copies and pencils to school children was a fun experience too. Perhaps, all that made it unforgettable and one of the best hikes I had ever been to.

Many of us have crossed the river, heard of people crossing the sea, but…but have you ever imagined about crossing the waterfall? I never had, but we crossed the water fall too. It was indeed the best part of hiking and all of us felt a sort of achievement after that.

Neeraj Dhungana’s recollections:
The hiking program coordinated by Sudeep Khatiwada was a trip from D2 office to Kakani and back to D2 office. We left D2 office at 8 am sharp to Kaule. We reached Kaule around 9 am and we had a breakfast there. After half an hour we start our hiking from the Kaule.

At the start of the hike, we met few students and some students thought of Sudeep Khatiwada a ‘Kuire Tourist’ which was a really funny. The first activity was to climb and walk on the agricultural area where “Kodo” and “Mula” were planted. Our friend took a photo of an old woman, after giving a pose for the snapshot, she asked for the money because she thought we were tourists. Then we moved ahead for an hour and we reached a small village called ‘Okhkhar Pouwa’. Friends were joking all along and the hike was wonderful. After crossing village, we took an unknown way towards jungle and kept moving ahead for fun and adventure. In jungle we came across a waterfall and through this way we crossed the jungle after almost 3 hours after which we reached border of the jungle which was the entry point of the Shivapuri National Park and that was the surprise because none of us knew that we were hiking in the national park itself. We reached the International Training Centre where our lunch was ordered but before taking lunch we did some plantation in an area specified by the officials. After plantation we had lunch and moved towards the school at Kakani. All the hikers distributed exercise books and pencils to students. When we decided to leave we felt that they were really happy because of our presence over there. Finally we visited the Kakani memorial park which was built in the memory of all peoples who were died in air crash of Thai Airways in 1992.

Then we took the office van from there and left Kakani for Kathmandu at 4:30 pm and we had a small tea session on the same restaurant where we had our breakfast. Then at 6:15 pm we arrived at D2 office. The most memorable and funniest person of the entire hiking was Sudeep Ghimire.

Prabhat Man Sainju’s recollections:
If there is one way I would quote this hiking, it would be “From nowhere to middle of nowhere”; not in a negative sense but just a reflection of what happened there. It was a pleasure to go through the fields, inside the untamed forests and crossing the never-crossed springs. It was first of a kind experience for me and guess for the rest of hikers as well.

It all began from D2 Office from which we were supposed to leave at 6:30 am. With a warm cup of tea at the “Didi’s café” and not knowing what was ahead, we left the D2 premises. We were excited with the recollections of Rajendra on his past hikes and thought to repeat the same feat again. With all that behind, we headed to Kakani. The road to Kakani was single lane and every now and then, we would get stuck with the vehicles coming from the other direction. After about an hour of journey, we stopped in restaurant by the road for the breakfast; the heaviest one ever known. With stomach full, we finally reached Kaaule and then the hiking began.

Rather than moving from easier way to the harder one, we directly climbed the stiff hill. It might have been nothing for the experienced hikers, but for most of the rookies like me, RohanB & NeerajD, it was like climbing the Everest. After first 15 minutes of hike, we were already gasping. But then we got used to with it as we went through more and tougher way ahead. With the crackers from everyone the journey began to look much easier. Marching down the radish fields and making frequent stops, we went through Okharpauwa catching the scenic beauty of the rural villages in the Kathmandu Valley. Watching the twisting and turning roads down below, we finally entered the dense jungle which was the so-called Shortcut suggested by SudeepK. It was like jungle inside a jungle and so on…It just never gave up but instead presented us new and thrilling surprises deep beneath it. Then came the majestic spring that we had to climb rather than cross as there was no way out with most of us hanging in the slope holding the branches of trees. ‘Kalij’ was the embarrassing surprise in the jungle that scared us from the bushes. It was really tiring for me and other first timers and hadn’t it been the “Black Tea”, we would have fallen behind scattered. And then another jungle; it was like a never ending one. 10 men and not a soul except those 10. SudeepG then came up with a herbal solution to energize us with some kind of a stem that he called “kandamul’ (need a deep research on that). TeejaswiR and UjwalS (wearing AIG T-shirt) gave us some financial lessons on Global Credit Crunch one our way.

Finally, there was a light at the end of tunnel; we had reached to our destination without any prior knowledge of where it was. To everyone’s surprise the dense jungle we had been through, was Shivapuri National Park which we didn’t know either. After a long hustle and few breaths left, we manage to reach Kakani. 4 hours of hill climb had cracked everyone in the team.

Rohan Bhattarai’s recollections:
“Dai tapai sarai alchi hunuhuncha, tapai ko bhudi ghataunu paryo…” SudeepK says.
This was my first hike from D2 and I found it very thrilling and exciting. As the hiking invitation came to our unit, SudeepK stood up to coordinate this. He shared his plan with me about 2 hours hiking (which actually took longer than planned), and idea of Tree Plantation, which we found great.

On Sunday, we stepped our first step directly from stiffed hill of Kaule and entered Ghana Jungle of Shivapuri. SudeepK and RajendraB were the first in our hikers row, followed by others and at last myself. We hike and hike and there was surprise left for us…and that was the Waterfall in between the jungle, which was the shortcut plan of SudeepK. After a very tough experience, we finally crossed the waterfall with support of branches as there was no way. Finally at International Training Centre, established by International Scout, we began tree plantation – novel concept, have lunch, distributed copies and pencils – as usual D2 CSR, visited Memorial Park and head towards our destination. In nutshell, I will say that SudeepK managed this hiking very well. Hats-off to him.

Sudeep Ghimire’s recollections:
Actually when we reached at Kaule, we were not sure about where to begin the hike from. We asked local people about the hiking route. Not a route but a track with local cultivated land, we found. After half an hour of our journey, hiking took a different turn. A strange sight was a village on the mountaineous region with a huge landslide; it made us think of how tough living in or at mountains and hilly reagion is. From that point, we were going to enter through the jungle.

The sunday hiking has been so great especially with the weather being cloudy.

Please click on the image to see its large version.

01 – All set for hiking	02- Lalu pate phulera lal bhayo
03- Time to have some breakfast	04- They save for the future
05- Panchakanya	06- Hike starts
07- At different level	08- Scattered
09- Biskun-Sukul	10- Dream a damaged home
11- Having Rest	12- Motherhood
13- Easy going	14- Natural White cement
15- In the process of making Gundruk	16- Who’s gonna stay there
17- Thinking of getting some water	18- Where is the pathway
19- No work but team work	20- Into the jungle1
21- Into the jungle2	22- In to the jungle3
23- Waiting for others	24-Water fall and erosion
25- Risky climb	26- Our turn
27- Give me hand	28- Toughest part of the hike
29- Come on Rohan	30- Frozen
31- Testing Kandamul	32-This way
33- The hikers	34- Nearest National park from Ktm
35- Recycle bin	36- Campfire area
37- Examining the power of wind	38-Juicy
39- Looming to the destination	40- Sign of winter
41- Holiday homes	42- How far they are
43- Likhu Rivar as seen from Kakani	44- Utensils
45- Let’s go for the plantation	46- Here are plants
47- Effort on digging	48- Is it enough
49- Dig more	50- One for each
51- Planting1	52- Planting2
53- Enjoying the work	54- When will this grow to tree
55- Small plant	56- Irrigating plant1
57- Irrigating plant2	58- Waiting for lunch
59- FYI	60- School on the way
61- Our small support to them	62- For Encouragement
63- Thank you D2	64- Future stars
65- He aims to be a teacher	66- Contribution for the school
67- Stepping up to the memorial park	68- A well maintained park
69-In memory of	70- all of them
71- Temple and tree	72- Blooming Flower
73- Sunset at D2	74-Flashback