Trekking in Eastern Nepal

Machine-read text (unproofread)

Read from the scans by software, so it contains mistakes. Typing it up properly would help blind readers: use Suggest an edit.

Trekking in Eastern Nepal David & Pat McNair Ihad seen the slideshows on Nepal from the many club members who havel been there, SO I didn't feel that Nepal was high on my travel list until Noeline & Kevin Dwyer discussed with Pat the possibility of a trip. Pat suddenly showed an interest and began working on convincing me. She succeeded and on 11 March 1998 eight people from Taranaki and three from Auckland headed to Kathmandu. athmandu was to be a new experience for nine of was certainly different. The views from the top of the us, and as the Dwyers had been before and had Kathmandu Valley were spectacular and the road clingall the contacts, we left them to organise us and ing to the cliffs above the Trisuli River was an amazing our accommodation and trekking etc. sight. As this road is one of the main routes to India and We were met by Ngima, our Nepalese guide, and extremely busy with trucks and buses, we were contravelled by bus from the airport to our hotel. This was stantly amazed at the skill of our driver as we overtook our first introduction to driving in Kathmandu. An inter- on blind corners and survived numerous near misses - esting combination of buses, cars, trucks, rickshaws, to the amusement of the driver and his assistant. We bikes, people, and the odd COW all on narrow streets were sitting up front in the "suicide" seat! with no pavements. We stayed at the Hotel Thamel in Chitwan is situated in central Nepal on the Indian Kathmandu, a pleasant six-storey building with no lift. border and is reputed to be one of the best national Great for the fitness programme when you are on the parks in Asia. We stayed at the "Island Jungle Resort" on 6th floor and have left your key down at reception! an island in the Park surrounded by the Narayani River. The next day was spent touring the city with Ngima, Chitwan is renownedi fori its wildlife tigers, sloth bears, visiting Bhaktapur and Patan (very old sections of the rhinos, monkeys and crocodiles, and the best way to city) and thel Monkey Temple at Swayambhunath. A great view thesei is by riding through thej jungle on thel back of view from the temple over the city and the Kathmandu an elephant. This was certainly an experience and al- Valley surrounded by the mountains. lowed us to advance extremely close, especially to the It was a 5.30 am start for the bus trip to Chitwan rhinos. Tigers, we learnt are a pretty rare sight and we National Park. One would normally cringe at thet thought weren't lucky enough to see one. of an all-day bus journey, but this trip in a "tourist" bus Swimming with the elephants was the highlight of On the trail to Korang David McNair Tramping and Mountaineering 1998 our stay! here for those who participated. Each afternoon headed to Chainpur for market day with their animals the elephants are taken to the river for a bath. Guests and wares. Continuing alongt the ridge wel had great views are invited to ride into the river on the elephants who of the mountains Makalu, Chamlang and Lhotse in then spray water over the riders and spectators before the distance before traversing high around the side gently rolling to one side and depositing all in the river. of a valley and dropping down to the river below the It appeared great fun for the elephants and riders! Our village of Nundhaki. It was here that we met our first intrepid leader, Kevin, thought he had it mastered but tourists two Canadians trekking in the opposite disoon disappeared headfirst into the river. hope hel kept rection. Once again we camped on the terraces, but his mouth closed! Jo Anne's experience with the el- with even less room to move around our tent. Easy to ephants was to be a lasting one as she slipped off his slip off onto the tents below ify you weren't careful! trunk while being photographed and hurt both wrists. Another long day of"up" was before us as we headed On her return to NZ she found that both wrists had been through the changing vegetation (bamboo giving way to broken and needed to be reset and plastered. daphne and the first off the rhododendrons) andi into the After a morning of boating on the river to view the mist. It was probably fortunate for some that we could crocodiles (and there were many) our two-day stay was not see the topi in the mist as we slogged our way up to over and it was time to return to Kathmandu. Another Gupha Pokhari to find the only place to camp was on interesting bus trip with some of the team riding on the the "soccer field", complete with young players! top with thel baggage. This was only possible when there After a damp, cold, misty night the day cleared a little were no police checkpoints. It seemed locals riding on as we moved through the village to a better campsite. A top with the possibility ofl being knocked off byl low wires side trip planned for the fitter ones (a climb of Milke and tree branches was okay but it was not the same for Danda 3,662m) hadi to be abandoned due to the weather, tourists! so we explored the village and bought a rug in thel local We were all looking forward to getting "away from it Tea House. This village was rather dirty and the people all" and starting our trek. A 40-minute flight east from poor compared to elsewhere, but they are rebuilding Kathmandu took us to Tumlingtar, a small village with a the village in a newl location nearby in anticipation of an grass airstrip and the first of our campsites. This was influx oft tourists in the future. also where we met all the team the Sherpas, cooks, The evening saw the boys adjourn to the Tea House cook boys and porters who were to look after us for the for a beer. Good beer (San Miguel or Tuborg) but a dark next 8 days. Our campsite was situated in a field on the smoky interior even with thel kerosenel lamp lit! Another outskirts of the village and comprised six tents for us, a thunderstorm during the night kept us wondering how Sherpa tent, mess tent, Ngima's tent and two toilet tents. much the tents could take before we blew away, but we The porters usually slept under a tree or found a bedi in awoke in the morning to find a heavy frost and a beauthe village Tea House. tiful clear day. A 6am call with a cup of tea was to become the rou- The trail from Gupha Pokhari to Chauki followed the tine start to the day followed by a bowl of hot water for ridge through stunted vegetation and a few rhododena wash. Breakfast followed. This was usually porridge drons. Very little cultivation in this area and no terrac- (or rice pudding), hard-boiled eggs or maybe an omelet, ing. After a short day we arrived at Chauki, a pleasant toast, jam, tea and coffee. This was all cooked on kero- village high on an exposed ridge, and set up camp with sene stoves. a great view down the valley. Our presence was a great After breakfast thet tents were packed upl by the boys, attraction to thel local kids. This time they were more of all the gear loaded onto the porters and we were off, a problem though, stealing from one of our tents. We usually around 7.30-8.00 am. The trail wandered also met our second group of tourists here an Amerithrough several villages before dropping steeply to the can group trekkingi in the opposite direction. A wild night, river. We had to cross this twice but it was only knee- with another electrical storm and heavy rain. This time deep and slow flowing and didn't pose too many prob- we were making contingency plans for an evacuation to lems for us. The rest of the day we climbed through the Tea House, but again we survived, with one toilet beautiful terraced country to finally camp on the ter- tent blowing down and some of our party getting a little races below the village of Korang. A hot day was fol- wet. lowed that night by a spectacular thunderstorm with The next day was to be the last of our climbing. A heavy rain and hail. This occurred on several occasions 212-hour climb through big rhodos one or two were during the trek. flowering - - brought us to thet top of thet trail at 3,034m Having finally reached the ridge, the next day was a and spectacular views of the mountains and our first pleasant stroll through the village of Korang to Chainpur view of Everest. We met two locals here, each carrying where due to the "health" problems of one or two we 2-metre lengths of corrugated iron on their backs, about decided to camp. The villages in this area were different ten sheets each and sideways! How they manoeuvred to our expectations, with white plastered brick walls, their load through the trees and boulders on the trail thatched roofs and sugar cane growing on the terraces. was unbelievable. From here it was downhill through Bamboo, which was used for all manner of things in- the rhodo forest on a well-formed trail to the roadend at cluding feeding the animals, grew everywhere. Door Pani. "Road" was a misnomer! It really was only a As we'd had a short day we were up early the next track negotiable by trucks and there was evidence that morning and on our way, passing the locals as they they had had a fair amount of trouble getting through! Tramping and Mountaineering 1998

DIl Breaking camp, Chauki David McNair The road was slowly being pushed further up the hill, to keep warm was to dance and sing to the drums and but with only "manpower" it was obviously going to be drink plenty to avoid "dehydration". The next morning a slow process even with "two-man shovels" (a con- it was time to farewell four of our boys who were headventional shovel with an extra handle on a length of wire ing off to Lukla with the gear to prepare for the next trip for the second operator to pull). with Kevin, Hans, Wayne and Weitze, a walk of 5 or We had a short road walk from here to the village of more days up the Arun River Valley. Basantpur where we set up camp on the terraces over- Around 9am we boarded our bus bound for Biratnagar, looking the village. This was to be the end of the trip for passing through the towns of Dhankuta and Dharan on two of the porters, who were to make their way back the way, an interesting journey through the mountains the way we had come. As a farewell to them it was down to the plains on the Indian border. The early party night. A bonfire was lit and we danced and sang to evening flight from Biratnagar to Kathmandu provided the beat of their drum. A great night and some sore excellent views of the mountains with Everest just apheads from the rakshi the next morning but as we were pearing above the clouds. think we all felt this trek had travelling by bus to Hille it wasn't too bad. been an ideal introduction to Nepal, which provided us The road to Hille was a four-wheel-drive track and with an interesting variety of country and terrain. l'm once again some found it fun to ride with the gear on sure most of us feel the need to return sometime to see top. Our destination in Hille was to be the Resort, a a different region. motel-type complex owned by the local Mayor. It ap- The next few days were spent in Kathmandu sightpeared quite presentable on arrival, with the women seeing and shopping with Wayne, Hans and Weitze who excited at the prospect of hot showers and flush toilets. hadj just arrived. Wel had booked a flight into the Everest It soon became apparent that we had arrived six months region to view the major peaks. Three times we made or maybe a couple of years too early! early morning visits to the airport and three times we The bedrooms were finished but there were prob- returned to our hotel. The cloud cover had moved in lems with no water to the toilets and no hot water. Even each time. Maybe we will have to return, if only for the power needed to be run to the dining room. Our cooks mountain flight! Thanks Kevin and Noeline for a great prepared our meals on their kerosene stoves in the un- trip. finished toilet block, and with no glass in the dining room windows it was pretty draughty. As this was the Those on the trip were: David & Pat McNair, Dennis & last night of the trek it was once again party night. We Karen Lewis, Linda Budd, Dale Hohipuha, (Taranaki); Brian managed to locate a supply of beer in the village and & Raewyn McDonald, Jo Anne Dwyer ( Auckland); and our boys had plenty of rakshi and dongba. The only way Kevin & Noeline Dwyer (trip leaders). Tramping and Mountaineering 1998