We decided to hike up to Amitabh Monasrty at Dadagaun. We kick started our journey with full dynamism and energy. KedarK, the driver, left us at HariSiddhi after about 45 minutes drive from the office.

There were plethora of options to reach the Monastery. One could drive on the paved road or walk off the road or walk through the trails of the jungle. To make our hiking thrilling, we chose the third option. The trail was steep which made the hiking even more challenging. The magnificent scenery and the chirping of birds made our journey more pleasant. These are the things that we miss in the daily chaotic life of the city.

As it had rained last night, the trail was wet and slippery. We could slide down but we cautiously managed to move up into the jungle. After walking for about two hours we reached the White Gumba. It was only after reaching there we came to know that the monastery remained open only on Saturday for some security reasons. We pleaded the guard to let us inside but he was duty-bound and could not help us.

We had to make changes in our plan. Then we decided to go to Baisdhara through Nagargun Darbar and that would take us around 5 hours to reach. Now the only problem we had was drinking water scarcity. Fortunately, we found Pear trees on the way and that gave hikers the new vigor. Some of our hikers climbed up the tree to pluck pears. We collected bag full of pears and headed forward. After walking few miles we reached the Army Camp. One of the Army personnel then mentioned that we need ticket to enter inside and we would get that the other way. Now this was our second restriction of the day. Still it didn’t let our morale down. We again decided to change the route to Echangu. On the way down we also visited BadriNath Gufa. Finally we ended our hiking at Halchowk.

We seemed to have a bit of hard luck as things were not in our favor. But still we managed to make the hiking fun filled and memorable one with run time adjustment in the plan.

Sumit Kumar Shrestha:

Long one day hikes had been regular so we were thinking for a short hike this time. The idea of Gumba (monastry) was good one. The place was amazingly natural even though it was so close to kathmandu and required little effort from our side. But, unfortunate clouds were roaming above our plans. The monastries were only allowed to enter on Saturdays. So, we had to shift our plans. But, the plan from then on was wild one. It was like a child after month long exam feeling suddenly free and roaming wildly without any fixed destination. We had fresh Nashpati from trees that was fun. For me it was another opportunity for photography experiments. And finally the umbrella hike was unique that never happened before.