Anil Prajuli & Pankaj K.C

My fellow hikers and I gathered at the Deerwalk premises at 7:00 am in the morning. It was Sunday and also the auspicious occasion of the great Hindu festival, Shivaratri. The roads were covered by great masses of people. We started our journey around 7:30 am. On the way were numerous human road blocks asking for donations to celebrate Shivaratri. We reached Kakani at 10 am and had some breakfast. After that, at around 10:15 am, we stocked up the necessary supplies and started walking from the Kakani (picnic area) .

We climbed up through the Scout Training Center and reached the top of the hill after a while. We came across two ways there. Both were the ways to get to Bhanjyang. One through north face (7.5 km) and another through south face (11 km). We chose the shorter route, through the north face.

The climb was slow and tiring but everyone was having fun in spite of it. The climb was getting steeper and we were getting slower. We also saw a lot of “Laligurans” on the way.

Gurje Bhanjyang was an outlet to Nuwakot and Rasuwa before the construction of Trisuli Highway. The hike continued through the way to Kathmandu along the Trisuli Highway construction.

When we were near Gurje Bhanjyang, we discussed and decided not to have the lunch there. Instead we move towards Kakani, where Deerwalk van was waiting for us. Returning back the same path did not interest us, so we choose to return through the south face. After walking almost 2-3 km from Bhanjyang we were tired and hungry. So, we rested and had some snacks.

We were happy to see an army post on our way at Alle. We were stopped by an army official who said that we required registration in order to enter the Shivapuri National Park. We walked an almost 6 km back in order to get the permission (coaxing the officials at the registration office took some doing).

The weather was cool and rainfall seemed imminent. At around 4 pm we finished our hike and headed back towards Kathmandu City. Everyone was looking tired and hungry.We had our lunch at a restaurant near Gangabu. It was a fun day of hiking and I look forward to other hikes in the future.