Abhishek Shrestha

Participants: Rudra, SharadP, Prabhakar, Hitesh, Basu, Bishwa, Bimal, BinayA, Roja, Abhishek (rookie) Suresh Sajan and Vishnu Route: Telkot to Jairsingpauwa to Shankhu Time: 6 hour Distance: 9.75 miles Date: Sunday, June 17, 2007 Report: AbihsekS2 Photos: Prabhakar, Basu, Hitesh, and Bishwa, BinayaA Captions: Vishnu Creative Support: BinayaN, and Dovan It was the night before our hiking trip raining heavily; the raindrops were coming down on my windows with a thud. I sighed with exasperation as I thought the rain was going to ruin this trip completely. I have to admit it would dampen my spirits for sure. However next morning turned out with a different story. The bright sunlight streamed in through the gaps between the closed curtains. Although some gray clouds were visible in the sky but it did not show any signs of pouring on us. It definitely was not a bad beginning for the day. I went to the office and waited for others to arrive. The office van arrived and we 11 went to pick up Rudra at Yak and Yeti, followed by our stop at Bhaktapur’s bus stop to pick up Roza. We then went for some breakfast to energize us for the day ahead. With the mesmeric taste of jerrie and swari still lingering in our mouths, we stocked on some water and our van headed towards Telkot. Rudra advised for commencing hike before the intended place and we began from at the bottom of Telkot. That extended just 15/20 minutes of stride. 20 minutes of warming up took us to reach Telkot through the slight muddy route. Telkot is a junction more of less half way to Nagakot. From her summit, we descended towards Palubari. Palubari is small valley in between Shankhu to Nagarkot. In Newari language, palu means ginger, once upon the valley was famous for growing ginger in large scale. People named the valley after the ginger. Though, it seemed much fertile valley. From this point, our walk was mostly through the fields. It was green everywhere. Crops all around made the outlook more beautiful. Especially the end of June is supposed to be the right time in Nepal for planting crops as well. We also had to cross a small stream along our way. While along our way, wee came across many villagers and their homes. We asked them the way to Jhule. Nevertheless, almost none of the villagers ever heard about the place called “Jhule” which was supposed to be our destination. We accepted the challenges and moved to find out Jhule via jungle. Some local villagers had even warned us not to go through the jungle because they knew there was no way through the jungle. However, we were too determined to take the jungle route. Very soon, pine trees started to appear which gave me an idea of peace and tranquility. We then took a short break in between the pine trees but then came the bloodsucking leeches. Sharad was too clever and made sure no leeches would enter his trousers. He tucked his trouser inside his socks. After walking under the pine trees, we entered into the deep forest. It was a damp, dark jungle with no way out. The leeches had started to get to us. At first, we did the craziest things in order to get the leeches off. We peeled them off with sticks, screamed for help, but it was useless. Then finally, an idea occurred to us. We noticed that while taking off the leeches, we had to stop and this gave opportunity for inviting other leeches to get us. So, we decided not to stop in the jungle. We kept walking nonstop in the jungle for about 2 hours. The leeches made even the sloe pace hikers run through the jungle (non stop). We all accelerate up the hill, not even stopping to rest and that worked. We had successfully worked our way out of the jungle, landing in a truly peaceful green field where we checked our shoes and inside of shocks to make sure there were no more leeches. Then along the beautiful small path, we headed ahead. We soon reached a graveled road. We then moved towards Jairsing Pauwa where we distributed Notebooks and pencil to young childrens of “Shri Kalika Sharan Secondary School”. Instead of going to Jhule, we took U turn to descend towards Shankhu as we were a little worried that we might not have enough time for coming back home in time. We then walked along down hill towards Shankhu that was our final destination. We reached Sankhu chatting with our teammates all the way. After reaching Sankhu, a small Local Newari town, we took a little rest and waited for our other friends to arrive. We enjoyed some refreshment while we were waiting for others. Soon after all the teammates arrived, we left Sankhu and headed towards New Baneshwor for late lunch. It was already evening and everyone was starving. Consequently, we went to a Thakali Bhojanalaya, where we had lunch and some teammates even enjoyed chilled beer, lucky one. We then after headed for our home happy and still as energetic as we were in the start for the day. As a first time hiker with teammates of D2, I should not forget to pay my gratitude for the ideas of hiking and managing it that let an opportunity to me for getting to know teammates inside their personal boundary and of course making me happy.