Voyage de Kalinchowk
Yet another hike and yet another time for adventure. It was a cold Saturday morning. With enthusiasm and excitement to visit Kalinchowk, one of the rarely visited, yet beautiful and probably the bests of the hiking spots in considerable distance from Kathmandu, we got gathered at about 6:20 AM in old buspark. We were feeling safe for RK Wagle had already bought tickets for us the day before. At about 6:45 AM, our micro set off for Charikot. Admiring the natural beauty along the way, we kept moving. From near "Kharidhunga", the bus driver pointed to a very high hill with a nose like shape (which we later named "Nake Dada") and said that you guys have to walk through across that hill to climb a hill even steeper than that. WOW! The journey was going to be adventurous. We had lunch at "Mude", about 30 kms short of Charikot, the headquarters of Dolkha. The driver dropped us at "Makaibari" at about 11:30 AM telling that this could be the best place to start for Kalinchowk.
N ow the real hike began. We took some photos and with great energy we started walking. We were heavily bagged with almost all stuffs we needed. We had plenty of water, food to eat (noodles, biscuits, cookies, chocolates)We nearly missed our way to Deurali which we corrected by asking some locals. We reached Deurali at about 12:20. We refilled our water bottles and kept moving through the jungle. The next house we cited was at 1:40. We met a a group of people who were returning back from Kalinchowk. We refreshed ourselves with a rest, some food (noodles and beaten rice) given by the group and a some "Chyang" and kept moving through the jungle again. We were about to reach "Gairi" (around 3:10) when it suddenly started raining. We were lucky enough to find a house nearby and entered there for shelter. There we had our noodles cooked, yak sukuti fried and chayang made. We also bought some churpi and it was me who cut it into pieces.
The rain stopped and we started moving at around 4. We kept asking how far we are from our destination to every next person we met on the way only to find that the answer is never accurate. As we moved on, guys started becoming tired. We took rest frequently in the excuse of photography, the biggest being the one taken near the buldozer we found in our way. Now we were approaching near Nake dada. We cursed pointing to that hill for this was the hill we had to cross to get to our destination. Now we had already gained a great altitute and the only vegetation we could see was the beautiful flower "Rhododendron", our national flower. Initially we were interested to pick a few of the flowers but later it all became a common thing. Wading through the forest of colourful(red, white and pink) Guras and appraising the beauty, we kept moving. Finally at around, 6:24 PM, we were fortuned to see the first view of our final destination, the hill where "Kalinchowk Bhagawati" resided.
As we were approaching "Kuri", we saw beautiful pasture. "It was all green". We forgot all the pain we had handled walking all the way through. Now we had almost reached our destination and we were proud hikers. Subash, Wagle, Uttam and I were the last guys to reach the spot. We couldn’t resist ourselves laying down in the green grass and looking at the beautiful sky in the cool temperature of about 2 degree centigrade. By the time we reached Kuri, guys had already booked the hotel and found our shelter for the day. We warmed ourselves by sitting around a fire and having tea made with Yak’s milk. Later, Ligaj, Uttam, Subash and me lit fire by ourselves in the road and enjoyed "LT" with Sukuti of Chauri and beautiful Nepali songs we sang. Wagle was having difficult time with his head. We cut the biggest Cock of "Kuri" and enjoyed our dinner.
The other day, we woke up early in the morning and headed towards the Kalinchowk Bhagwati temple, which was located at the top of the hill in front of us. After walking for about an hour, we reached the top of the hill. Satisfied with the voyage we made, we enjoyed the panaromic view from the top, worshipped, took some photos and headed back to Kuri. After having lunch we marched off to Makaibari at about 9:40 AM. We reached Makaibari at about 1. LIfe got hard as last 3 buses to Kathmandu didn’t stopped to pick us up. Later, we went to Charikot in a bus and luckily we found a private micro bus which would return back to Ktm. After roaming for about an hour in Charikot, we returned back happily in the micro bus and finally reached Kathmandu at about 8 PM. WOW!! We completed yet another wonderful hike and added a story to tell…
The CR was so good that we carried some with us. It was almost 10:30 when we finished eating one of the best DBT. We bought the tickets and entered inside the park. We were very excited and in a real hiking mood. We entered the forest and continued to walk through the road. “Walking straight away through the road” was interesting but could have been better. We tried something different. After walking for some distance, we decided we need some rest and sat down for a while. Every one of us had our own style of taking rest. We climbed up to the Gumba and had some photographs there. 
The most interesting thing we had there was a couple of cups of special drink, special because it was free.
(guess what….?). We started the journey, which I would say, was adventurous. We thought we were the first hikers to climb that hill, which may or may not be the truth. Hands on hands, we were supporting each other in climbing the hill. Shiraj was getting weak but he accompanied. The rocks were getting stiffer as we elevated. At a point, the place was so steep that we could only see the ground meters down. We kept strong to the bushes and kept climbing. There was no room for slippery legs. The more we climbed up, the 
more adventurous the journey became. Thanks for a packet of biscuit that was providing Shiraj the energy to push forward. The approaching top was motivating us to climb more and the increasing difficulty was deteriorating our spirit. We were only about 20 meters shy of the top, when Shiraj declared he can’t continue. We could not force him as we know he was not fit and finally decided that we’ll complete the mission some other day.
