Sushant Pandey The hike was set to start at seven in the morning. The heatwave of summertime was passing by, and it was a pleasantly cool day with hints of some rain. Kapil Dai had made a shrewd plan to make the latecomers be the ones to document the event of the day; needless to say, I was the one who got the low end of the stick. The ensemble of hikers also included two guests from the American Embassy, Mike Mussi and Bruce Keen. We, the Deerwalkers, left the office premises at around quarter to seven. At Baneswor, we picked up Kamal, and at Pepsicola, Jeevan Dai. So, technically, Jeevan Dai was the last to arrive, and he should be writing this report. Well, as the saying goes, that’s just semantics! The ride to Changunarayan was much easier than usual, the traffic was low, probably because of the festive season. Our guests were busy talking about the political events surrounding the world. Few of us were discussing music, our earlier hike experiences, and also making breakfast plans; whereas Kapil Dai was getting an update on the processing status of the latest Deerwalk clients. We realized that we hadn’t carried many snacks for the journey, so we made a quick stop at Bhatbhateni to buy some. Through the snaking, pothole-filled road we traveled and reached Changunarayan at half-past eight. We stopped at a local eatery for some breakfast. After munching some bread and eggs, we started our hike at nine, and were off to Telkot. Deerwalk residential ‘Dr. Saab’ Aseem Dai had followed the same hiking route in the past, so we asked him to lead us to our destination, but some traumatizing story of the past made him refuse the offer. Regardless of the refusal, we still had him lead the way. The weather was cool and ideal for the hike. The only drawback was that yesterday’s rainfall had made the track rugged and slippery. Fortunately, everyone made it scratch-free with a few instances of narrowly escaping a fall. It took us slightly more than an hour to reach Telkot, from where our hike to Nagarkot started. From Telkot we ascended through steep stairs to a temple of Durga above. Wishrut barely made it atop, and few of us demanded a quick rest to gather our energy. We snacked on chocolates, the ones we had bought earlier. Everyone rested for a while and inhaled a lungful of fresh air. Aseem Dai shared with us a few health tips on the role of electrolytes, how the body functions, and how energy is processed. After a quick break, we continued our fun hike, all the way to Nagarkot. More health tips for Aseem Dai, funny jokes from Niraj Dai, and with somewhat a quick detour, we arrived at our final destination at three in the afternoon. We went to a local restaurant to satisfy our ever-growing hunger. Meanwhile, Mike shared some of his experiences of his long tenure all across the world over a few beers and snacks. We had a fulfilling meal, a healthy conversation, and a few laughs at each other’s expense. Finally, we came back to Deerwalk at around four in the evening.