Minesh Maharjan
It was a cool and soothing Sunday morning on 25th September when few of us gathered here at the office premises for weekly hiking to the Nuwakot Durbar, a place with a historical significance. After picking up others along the way, we headed North along Kathmandu-Kakani highway, an alternative route out of Kathmandu, to avoid any possible traffic jams especially with the festive season in the offing. Unbeknownst to us, the narrower-winding-worn-out highway waited for us and the thick fog reduced visiblity, which significantly slowed us down. But the scenery around the vicinity was breath-taking and we occassionally stopped by for some photo shoots. At one such stops, Rupesh spotted a 'Ghatta', a traditional hydro-powered mill, which Minesh and Shukra went to investigate. Both of them had never seen such ingenuity and were excited to see the locals grind the corn with ease using sheer power of the water. There were many Japanese Trout fisheries along the way which we were tempted to pay a visit and have the taste of the famous species but we had other priorities. Given the road condition, we were already late and planned to drop by after we returned from the hike if there was time. At around eleven, we stopped at Ranipauwa bazzar for our first meal of the day. After having something to give us energy we headed promptly to 'Battar' from where we were to start our hike. The hiking trail wound through the hills of red mud which made it very slippery for us as it had rained the night before. Following the trail, we passed through some slippery sections and at places, some steep inclines with the scorching sun at the full blaze. But nothing stopped us as we continuously walked...wait...actually we flew (you see Redbull gives you wings....or so they say!!) by and got oursleves on top of the hill. And from there we could see the renowned Nuwakot Durbar Square standing on top of the another hill. Some of us decided to cut-off the hike as there was no hiking trail left anymore but only the smooth black-topped road and move on on our Deerwalk's vechile. But Ujjwal and Rupesh were adamant to walk all the way to the top. So all of us continued our hike and it was not long before we reached the Nuwakot bazzar. There, we had a brief rest at a small restaurant called '7 k.m.' and had some achaar made up of Niguro, a type of fern, which got us going. We visited the Sat Talle Durbar (The Seven Storied Palace) built by the Prithvi Narayan Shah in the mid-eighteenth century, the Taleju Temple and the Bhairabi temple. We even had a nice chat with one of the pujaris from the Bhairabi temple. He claimed to be the 13th or 14th descendant of the clan responsible for taking care of the temple. After roaming around the vicinity, it was time for us to head back home. We headed down to the Trishuli Bazaar where we had our lunch for the day. It was already six in the evening and as we were deliberating upon the route back, the owner of the restaurant suggested us to use the Prithvi highway. None of us had navigated that section of the highway before and we were skeptical but we had adrenaline pumping in our veins...so we decided to take that route. As the road had just been paved recently, it was in an excellent condition and had sparse traffic. So we reached the Galchhi on Prithvi Highway in no time...actually an hour to be precise. And from there we headed back to Kathmandu through Thankot after an circular trip to the northern-west vicinity of the Kathmandu valley. It was a hike worth remembering but alas we forgot to taste those Japanese Trouts!!!
