Monsoon Hike To Champadevi
 Published Date:10th Oct, 2020

Kathmandu is one of the most populated and busiest cities of Nepal. But why I love this place is because this place gives you escape alternatives unlike any of the other crazily dense cities. Hiking to the hills that surround the valley can be an experience in itself. Saying this, we always suspect hiking during monsoon: slippery roads disturbed hiking tracks, and not to forget, you are accompanied by several small parasites. Here is my first ever monsoon hike to Champadevi.

We started from Balkhu,

bought some supplies for the hike like water bottles, energy bars, quick snacks, and some mints and chocolates. Got to the bus that took us till Machhegaun (to make you all clear: there are alternative routes to reach the top of Champadevi and, you can find many names of the places to start from, can choose any of those). After an hour of bus ride from Balkhu, we reached Machhegau.

With the fresh new energy of excitement, we started our hike. For the first 45 minutes, we got lost, we could not find the way uphill. We tried asking the locals but found none. Somewhat after a while, we found a way and started to follow it. With a lot of confusion and little fear of getting lost, we got along the path. It would not be wrong if I said there was no path at all. We made our way through the thorns, the long climbing plants, sharp stones. This is why you need to have a group to go and explore new places.

Next 45 minutes into the track,

we saw something. The small parasites 😂😂: Leeches. I had not seen that quantity of Leeches in the entire life. Thanks to my grandma, she had warned me about that and made me carry some salt. Salt the Savior but soon we got out of that and we’re all screaming and shouting. Due to the Leeches, we tripled our speed and flew up the hill as fast as possible. That saved us some time. For another hour we were in the race with the gray clouds and war with the Leeches below.

Best view

We got to a point where we found the best view of the valley that was below the clouds. The roofs of the houses inside the valley reflected the sunrays and were shining like stars. This made us forget about the Leech incident that happened before. Had our snacks there, we checked for Leeches if they were still on our body and were off again. But from now on, the path was decent. After reaching the top, we found that the initial way we took was not the proper one.

The path seemed much nicer, finally with some relief we clicked some photographs. We reached Bhanjyang after 30 minutes. There we had our lunch (12:30 Pm) at the only Hotel took some rest, clicked more photographs, and were again set to start our journey. The owner said we had no chance of reaching the other side of the hill from there and the only path we could take is to reach Chandragiri.

Through the small narrow paths

in between the dense forest, singing and hopping along the music we played was what we came for. And we got that. The trail got more nicer, the stones were paved, there were stairs, and was a proper way any hiker would want. We reached Chandragiri at 3. We had our snacks explored the Chandragiri temple, it’s premises, and took some rest.

At 4, we got our cable car’s ticket as we were no longer able to walk. We descended Chandragiri Hill, remembering our whole day: crazy, scary, adventurous, and fulfilling. No matter what we have to face during a trip, no matter how complicated it becomes, we will still be close to nature, and that gives power.

By 5, we were at Kalanki, we got into our respective buses and came back home with another chapter to add to our adventure diary.

 

Route we took:

Balkhu to Machhegau 🚍
Hike from Machhegau to Bhanjyang 🚶‍♂️
Bhanjyang to Chandragiri 🚶‍♂️
Got down via Cable car 🚠
Chandragiri to Kalanki 🚍
Back home 🏠

To sum up :

What a Leechy day it was 🤣.

Source: dualsays