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Participants :SauravD, MadhavS, Lekhnath, PrawjalS, MaheshR(rookies),Prabhkar, Dhilung, GauravJ, AshishP, AbhishekPC, KumarK, ShankarSu, SanjeetV, NirajS, Kapil, Bishwo, ManojR, Surendra and Vishnu Date :Sunday, March 16, 08 Route : Jeetpurphedi to Kakani Duration : 4 and ½ hours Distance : 13 Kms Report : SauravD, MadhavS, Lekhnath, PrajwalS and MaheshR Photos : Bishwo, Prabhakar, Gaurav and AshishP Caption : GauravJ CreativeSupport : NishchalS/IshworM SauravD Well the story of my hike goes back to the day I got my appointment letter from D2. It had only been about a week after my final exams were over and I had to join D2 the next week. I was happy that I got a job (of course) but with it all my plans of going on a long trip with my friends across Nepal has been gone astray. Then when I started my work at D2, did I get a surprise. So much work from morning till evening, my head was in overdrive. When I got an opportunity to go on this hike to Kakani from D2, I excited and jumped to grasp the opportunity. My first D2 hike was quite a memorable one. I learned next lesson in the morning was that we need to hold motion to make other happy. Well we eventually left at around 7:30 am in the morning and reached our starting point at around 8:15. There were 5 of us new guys and the rest of were other ‘dai’ haru. So naturally we weren’t making much noise. After eating our ‘brunch’ as one of the dai said we set of in our hike. This one was supposed to be quite an easy hike as I was told (honestly I was hoping for some adventure along the way). The first hour or so was all uphill and really tiring. However, there was ‘Lai guras’ blooming all around. Normally people smell flowers but since we hadn’t carried much food with us, so driven by hunger we started eating them. I personally ate 3 whole flowers and I must admit I liked it. Then our trip got exciting. We decided to go through jungle instead of the usual trail. Pretty soon we found ourselves on the right hill without trail and we knew we were kind of lost. But Surendra and his great navigation skills got us through our journey and finally we were on the right track. But frankly the best part of the hike was getting lost in jungle. By the end of journey it was time to eat, so we went back to a hotel for khana. I must say the masu bhat tasted really good after a long tiring hike. Then it was around 5 in the evening we reached the place to disperse. That’s how I remember my first awesome hike at D2 and I am pretty sure, there are gonna be others better and more adventurous. MadhavS My first hiking from D2, I arrived at 6:30 sharp. Popular Nepali time phenomenon and it started only at bit later than we supposed to be. However then it wasn't late for me as I was enjoying playing TT. The D2 van was full, filled with 20 people (19 hikers and Ram). All were excited and ready for the day. The route was from ...I forgot, anyway it was a steep hill and the destination was the famous picnic spot Kakani. Having the breakfast at the fedi we initiated hiking along the green less hill. We had Prabhakar and Bishwo as our camera persons and other part time photographers. We the new ones were amazed at the josh, jokes and enthusiasm of Surendra and Vishnu. We were in search of greenery way that we eventually found. We had a great fun walking across the Guras jungle far away from the concrete in the so-called city. I remember the craze for Guras and picture along with it. The guff of natural kayaking, ukalo chadne decision and lost in the jungle (it would be lost in the web in office hours) along with recalling of IKU IKU (play on the TV) in the jungle and was really lots of fun. After lost for some hours in the jungle the rush for virgin water and very few chauchau and bhujiya.. we made our way to Kakani. It was great pleasure reaching Kakani, and roaming around the beautiful park. But we rested there only for some time because of other part of journey that made Bros enjoying till late evening for chattering and singing. Finally we were back at d2. I wasn't tired much and my craze for TT hadn't ended either. The hiking thus started and ended with TT. It was a memorable and wonderful hiking and I am eager to go for similar hiking and have much more fun. Lekhnath “What are these white stuffs”? “These are farmers “. “These are structures made by the farmers to protect their crops from wild animals”. We were arguing like this standing on the road side during our breakfast. We came to know from the restaurant owner that the place was Jitpur Phedi. Just about 200m from Nuwakot district’s welcome gate. The whole hill area was covered with potato crops. Surendra said this is the alternate supply of Kathmandu in Terai Banda. After breakfast, we reached the gate and started the steep narrow foot trail for the top at 9 A.M. 5 minutes on the way, we reached a small house. The house owner was surprised to see us going to Kakani from there. He suggested two alternative ways. We chose to go through the right one which was more through the jungle. Just 15 minutes of walk, we saw a “Laligurans” tree. Friends rushed to take the flower. We got a short photo session there and took right. True jungle was just starting. Surendra and Vishnu warned us, “this is a very vast jungle and one lost for 15 minutes will be going to be lost forever.” There were so many identical foot trails throughout the jungle and we could not figure out which one was the right one. We just stepped up, thinking that we will reach the top if we walk upwards through any trail and be together. I heard a bird singing. In previous hiking I had never heard any bird in any jungle. We found a Laligurans tree again. Shankar was so excited; he climbed up the tree and picked so many flowers. We had a short photo session there and ate some Laligurans flowers. Just after a few minutes of walking from there Surendra was saying “Highway!!!” That was really a relief. We found a foot trail wider than other trail that means that was the right path. Unfortunately that lasted just for 5 minutes. We were again lost. We were just walking up, not following any paths; just up. After 30 minutes of lost track, we were near the top of the hill and could see the tower of Kakani. Then our destination was there; still we had two ways, whether to go straight from there or move up and go through the ridge of the hill. Surendra said, “It is wise to go through the ridge; it may be very difficult to go straight.” Going through the ridge was also not easy. We decided to go through the ridge. We walked up and reached the ridge. Reaching there was not the start of good path; rather start of pathless steep hill. The only difference was, we had to move down. Taking support of the trees we climbed down. We finally reached near a small stream. There was no way going down to the stream. I just jumped over the stones and reached there. Surendra lead the rest of the team. They stepped down from a steep track. We walked along the stream jumping over the stones and finally found a foot trail. We saw local people collecting firewood. We were sure that track would lead us to our destination. We finally reached Kakani at 1 P.M. Dhilung and Ashish captured few photos of local children of their gymnastics at the Kakani Park. (This hiking was short and important part was the track we traveled was really adventurous. In fact, it was short and lively as the song goes “Teri Ankhe Bhul Bhulaiya….” . PrajwalS We were all excited for our first hike with D2ians. As a part of intern group, we had heard adventures about the regular Sunday Hike from D2. We used to wonder what it would be like and what the purpose of the hike was. And, yes, today we the inexperienced newcomers were participating in the process. By the way, 'inexperienced' in a sense, we all arrived in D2 at 6:30 am in the morning, and nobody else had arrived. My first thought, when i had reached D2 premises was 'Was the HIKE Cancelled?'Later, Vishnu Surendra and other joined us. We couldn't escape the D2 premises until Dhilung arrived. We reached Jitpur Fedi after a short drive of 45 minutes and had our breakfast there. This village was a border between Nuwakot and Kathmandu District and was the starting point of our hike. The sun was high and we started our hike by a steep climb. We were in a single file one after another. Guys were busy climbing and taking photographs. Vishnu and Surendra shared us their experiences on the way. They were more like a friend and we could easily fit into their circle. Well, i think this was the most important part of the hike. You talk to each other and team up with them. This helps to build team spirit and after all work becomes easy. We crossed several houses and jumped empty fields. Then we traced our path to the forest. The forest was full of rhododendrons. The path was adventurous since there was no path. We had to cut our own way towards the forest. After going through many ups and downs, finally as a sign of relief we found the path that previous hikers had followed. Then we walked towards Kakani hill gazing over the valley. We reached our starting point at about 2:35 pm. There, we had our lunch and others had their type of shots. On the way back, we could see Holi gaining pace as some children threw balloons at our vehicle. We all had great time, and memorable experiences from this hike. Wish you all a happy HOli, n Cheer up guys HiKING is FUN. MaheshR After a long wait of 6 months of intern and two weeks in D2 as new employee I got chance to go hiking (as usual D2 used to have every Sunday) with D2 members. Luckily the place where we went was not the place that I had already been with my colleagues. Though hiking is not new to me, The Kakani hike was really new and exciting as I got chance to interact with teammates of the other departments. Besides the adventure and tiredness of steep hiking of Jeetpurfedi (Place from where we started to hike) I really enjoyed the jokes and experiences of my colleagues and their logic, interpretations and predictions of various events and incidents occurred during Hiking (e.g, Earthquake measuring Equipment). The interesting part of hiking was that we climbed the mountain without trail (Way less mountain) which was quite dangerous and risky as well. After the successful completion of Kakani Hike I planned to be in the Top 5 Hiker of D2 as I have to get D2's Cap. Let’s see what happens next? 01 Khade khaja 02 Abandoned 03 We separated at Kumbh mela when we were small 04 Grunge is not dead 05 Warming up for the trip 06 The ascent begins 07 Accelerating 08 Can you find the Japanese Tourist 09 Little Magician 10 Bachelor leading 11 Where is my Parbati 12 Kapil leads the pack 13 Rookies with locals 14 Damn I'm tired 15 Abhishek thinking about giving these flowers to someone 17 Discussing the trip ahead 18 Kirateshwor smile 19 Himalayan cherry 20 Hanuman and his chelas 21 See me jump 22 Dhilung would like to give this to... 23 Taskey Bala 24 Adhikari on a ride 25 Exploring the roads below with it's hawk-eye 26 Happy for half done 27 In the name of the forefathers 28 Vishnu enjoying a quiet moment 29 Singer beta....Dancer baap 30 Can you dance like me 31 Entering the jungle 32 The jungle continues 33 That was the planned route 34 Junglee Crows with Thermal flight 35 Prabhakar and Kapil 36 IOE rules 37 Budha topi rules, taruno baal 38 Vishnuo on a natural sofa 39 Mahesh with his binocular vision 40 Shanker pulling Kapil for joining him..... 41 Briddha Brikshya 42 Camerman with his pose 43 Shankar winning the race 44 Can we follow that trail 45 Niraj birajmaan at the middle of the jungle 46 The previous ride brought baba over here 47 Wait....I got a call from David 48 Terrorist plan 49 Nepal......Mero guras ko daada 50 Are we ready for the steep fall down there 51 Kapil begins the fall 52 Prabhakar taken by conversation with David 53 Vishnu ready to fall 54 Vertical takeoff 55 The guys are ready to fall all at once 56 Abhishek...do not worry....you are inmy hands now 57 See Shankar...your leg is in my hand now 58 Watching the slide-show 59 Dhilung looks happy for the log-and-rock dance 60 Matrix Pre-loaded 61 Hiking mukti morchha 61_2 Matrix Re-loaded 61_3 Bungying in this place 62 Thinking of someone 63 The D2 gang 64 Different people...different jump....This is Bishwa 65 ...and Shankar... 66 ...and Dhilung... 67 ...Gaurav... 68 ....Abhishek... 69 ....Japanese tourist...oops, I mean, Ashish... 70 ...finally, KumarK... 71 Sometimes, a person needs help from two people 72 Vishnu ready for Tarzan jump 73 Bhudi-building competition 74 Preparing for second part of the journey 75 Leader is surrounded 76 Mr Lonely 77 Catch me if you can 78 Tathasthu from Vishnu 79 The team from March 17 80 They would like to pose for Shaadi 81 As you like it 82 The Chettri March 83 Pole dance, anyone 84 Old and new together 85 Buddhist balak 86 Offering for Buddha 87 Van meets the hikers 88 Dhilung and son 89 Future route 90 Nasty sitting 91 Mero akha nabhaeko bhaye ...by Dhilung