“After a day's walk everything has twice its usual value.” - George Macauley Trevelyan 

“Made Hike” The early morning was damp and gloomy, and it was not until the sun shone through that we were hopeful of doing our mystery climb. Reminiscing about older times, and going back and forth about destinations, we had Rudra Dai join us. Finally we were to hike to Nagarkot from Dhulikhel. It was 9:15 AM when we reached Dhulikhel and we had a quick breakfast at the D Newa Kitchen. After that, it was time for the Deerwalkers to walk up towards the hilltop near Taludada, Dhulikhel. That part of our walk was interesting and easy going. At the Rotary Club, we then began to take on the heights. Around 10:30 we reached the place and rested for a while. Then Rudra Dai led us to the other side of the hill, through the “short cuts”. And the short cut was this: Leave the road, goto the top, come back down, move through the paddy fields, pickup some fresh cucumbers out of the field and digest it with our “Adhyatmik Gurus’ Scandals” talk. Then we reached Sallaghari. It was a big achievement for us lazy bones as the incline seemed to have terminated and the descent began. The weather was refreshing, but we were thirsty. And just as we were about to relax, Rudra Dai found our next hill, and it scared us, we were still all smiles specially Rupesh. Then there were continuous stairs. We walked, and walked and then walked some more before we reached the top after almost 1 and a half hours. It was a great view at the top, and that made up for the routes we took. “Dread Hike” It is well said that “When there’s a Will, there’s a Way”. But our will outweighed our way by a considerable margin. Our navigators were lost and we trailed in their wake. And it led us to somewhere we didn’t anticipated. Two members of our team sniffed out a way forward. And it led us to a point where we could just see the destination, but couldn’t track down the way to it. We communicated to our Navigators and we went ahead. On our return from the wrong track, the slope downhill became damp as it began to rain. But Rudra Dai never let us stop. And finally we took the Absolutely Correct Right Turn. But this time Basant Dai would not move unless the track is correct. And his “confirmation packets” finally led our Track Information in the correct pipes. At last we reached our Ultimate Carrier (Deerwalk Van), which delivered us to the point where we aspired to reach for the entire day long. Finally, our meal arrives, we were happily fed and happily returned to our home bed relinquishing the day long physical stress! PS: To the hills & mountains, don't think we abandoned you, we just returned so that we could come to you again ! 

The Hikers Rudra Pandey 

This is my second hike from Dhulikhel to Nagarkot, but with a different company. This time with Deerwalk, last time it was with D2Hawkeye. I had a great time while revisiting those good old days. Over the span of few years, I actually found my hiking pace and stamina to have gone up. This could probably be attributed to the young Deerwalk team. We caught heavy rain during the final quarter of our journey. We got lost twice! Finally, it was about 5 PM when reached the Nagarkot tower. I really enjoyed informal conversation with all the participants, particularly two our our new engineers -- Ishan Gajurel and Sajjan Shrestha. Rupesh is always full of humor and he enjoys when people talk about his weight. I also had a discussion with Aashish about engineering manager's skill. I am of the opinion that a good manager can be a great manager if s/he has a superior communication skill -- both talk and listen to others. We agreed on one thing -- an engineering manager must have a superb technical skill. I can never forget the fact that Rupesh asked ghee in a plate. He is a true ghee lover. We should probably start offering ghee in our office canteen. 

Basant Amatya 

After a long break, I was more than overwhelmed to hike over the hills. My "long-perceived dream of walking in the rain" got real coded when we were lost. I was furious over losing the track but curious over walking in the damp. This hike trail idea came out of nowhere and took me to the real paradise, and I am mind-set to go for another hike. This time I want to move along a River ! Deerwalkers, will you accompany me !!! 

Sumit Shrestha 

Organizing instantaneous hike with unknown trail and in rainy season was challenging. With the help of all fellow participants, it became possible. The dhulikhel to nagarkot trail was taken while on bus itself. The trail was amazing through all sorts of paths like maze fields, mud, rain and villages. My best experience however came from eating frozen apple that we had kept in deep freeze day before. It reminded me of mustang trek where I had eaten fresh apples from tree. The hot noodles at Nagarkot and coffee at Baneshwor later evening added more colors to fun filled hike. 

Sajjan Shrestha 

It was very backbreaking as well as satisfying hiking for me. Backbreaking because of the steep stair climbing and satisfying because i enjoyed the company of Rudra dai, Kanchan dai, Rupesh dai, Ashish dai, Sumit dai, Basant dai and Ishan alot. So this hiking was very wonderful & helpful for bonding with these people. At last i would like to thank specially Sumit dai for organising such a enjoyable hiking and i hope such event will continue in near future. 

Ishan Gajurel 

The trail was under-cover, so was the hours we need to hike over. More confused and curious were we, Me and Sajjan, as hiking with Seniors in the Company was completely new. But we dared to go, and brought to our memory the rare experience. Rupesh Dai was always there for the fun part, and the mature dialogues of Basant Dai and Kanchan Dai made the hike fine tuned. The hallmark of this hike was the company of Rudra dai whose simplicity always made us feel like we're walking in the family. My sincere thans goes to Sumit dai and Ashish dai for bearing the responsibility of orgaising such a long-hour program. And I could never forget the "Ghee" guffs Rudra dai brought into the dinner table, that made drinking the "Ghee mixed Curry" a bottleneck problem ! I foresee more hike programs on the pipeline, and I'll certainly be a part of it ! 

Kanchan Raj Pandey 

Starting the day early, Still not sure, should I go on this venture. This time the hiking team was very small than initially expected. We began our hike from Dhulikhel soon after we finished our breakfast. It was a bit difficult climbing the stone steps. Then we finally reached nagarkot and had a good Dal Vhat and local Kukhura. We really had nice time during this hike and will be looking forward to go to places like this in the future again. 

Ashish Shrestha 

Wow ! it was really a breakthrough after a long gap from Deerwalk hiking. I enjoyed it a lot. We (Me and Sumit) fortunately tracked the right way and saved one hour. Thanx everyone for the company ! 

Rupesh Karki

It was a complete package. Calories were burnt in the hike and were redeposited while we had our meal. We were almost cracked up when the Ghee joke came into, but fortunately it was an all-way fun. My thanx goes to the entire team for leading me ahead, and I got a credit to lead you all from behind ! hahaha !