Day 1: Pharping to Champadevi
1:00 pm – 4:30 pm (Sunday. April 11, 2010)
27
A good traveler has no fixed plans
And is not intent upon arriving.
A good artist lets his intuition
Lead him wherever it wants.
A good scientist has freed himself of concepts
And keeps his mind open to what is.
Thus the Master is available to all people
And doesn’t reject anyone.
He is ready to use all situations
And doesn’t waste anything.
This is called embodying the light.
What is a good man but a bad man’s teacher?
What is a bad man but a good man’s job?
If you don’t understand this, you will get lost,
However intelligent you are.
It is the great secret.
Map of Champadevi Range (Click for a larger image)
The dirt road to Hattiban Resort is off the metalled road to Dakshinkali. It takes around half an hour to get there from Kathmandu by bus and costs Rs. 20 per person. If you look east from where the dirt road starts you can see a huge monastery which is a school for young male monks, the Tashi Gumba. Right next to it is a smaller monastery for female monks, the Ani Gumba. There is a small tea shop at this road head. This is the only place to eat until one gets to Hattiban Resort.
Tashi Gumba (Photo Courtesy Jay Shrestha)
Road to Hattiban
It takes around half an hour to get to Hattiban Resort. There is a fork in the early section of the road. You should take the right one. The snaky road passes all the way through reforested chir pine forest which is very sparse. Be on the lookout for the Indian Hare along this road. Also keep an eye open for raptors. Steppe Eagles roost along the southern section of the Bagmati River in the Kathmandu Valley and hence are frequently seen in the skies above the forest. If you are lucky you might also see the Eurasian Sparrowhawk along the road. Treepies, magpies, tits and other generic birds are also seen in the forest.
The road continues up for some distance from Hattiban Resort passing through campsites to the right. The forest gets a little better as the road turns into a ridge trail. As a matter of fact the entire trail up till Chitlang Pass is a ridge trail. So if anytime you are getting a little too far from the main ridge chances are you are on the wrong trail.
View from trail to Champadevi
Looking south from trail to Champadevi
Taudaha
Wild Iris on the road to Champadevi (June 2008)
View of Kathmandu Valley from the trail to Champadevi (June 2008)
Once you are past the first knoll, you should come across a stone paved trail which was under construction as of April 2010. This trail goes all the way up to Champadevi (2249m). The trail that joins this ridge trail from Khahare (a village to the west of Taudaha) was also being paved. It meets the ridge trail just where the climb to Champadevi starts. The climb to Champadevi gets progressively steeper but isn’t that long. There is a small shrine at the top, a shed slightly to the south of the shrine and an open ground good enough for camping in the ridge to the west of the peak. The entire hike from Pharping to Champadevi took us three and a half hours (carrying around 20kg).
Shrine of Goddess Champadevi
We saw a Peregrine Falcon going about its evening hunt from our campsite below Champadevi.
According to mythology Champadevi is the elder sister of the goddess Dakshinkali. It is also said that one should visit Dakshinkali after visiting Champadevi or else risk anger of the goddess Dakshinkali.
Another legend relates the origin of the entire Champadevi Range that stretches from Pharping to Chitlang. There was once a great drought in the Kathmandu Valley. As the drought showed no sign of abating for year after year, the king was counseled by his astrologers to seek help of the nagas (water serpents). Hence the king brought Karkotak Naga, the king of the nagas, to the Kathmandu Valley. Since the valley lacked a suitable place for the naga to reside in, the king ordered a very deep hole to be dug. This hole filled up once the rain started creating a lake perfect for Karkotak Naga and his treasure. Today this lake is called Taudaha. The mud that was unearthed created what is the Champadevi range now.
Jung Bahadur Rana, the first of the Ranas, is said to have dived into Taudaha to get the treasure of the Karkotak Naga only to give up due to the depth of the lake. Whether such mythological treasures exist there or not, this small lake is definitely a treasure house for waterbirds during the winter months.
Taudaha (Photo Courtesy Jay Shrestha)
Ruddy Shelduck at Taudaha (March 2010)
Eurasian Wigeon (March 2010)
Gadwall (March 2010)
Great Cormorant (March 2010)
Great Cormorant (March 2010)
Great Cormorant (March 2010)
Sunset Over Camp
---------------------------------------------------------------
Personal notes:
Bad start. Right at the beginning of the road to Hattiban Resort shoe gave up. Was around 10:30 am. Had to go back and change shoes. Ride on the top of the bus was fun. Got back around 1:00pm. Dai was waiting at the fork in the road itself. Was sunny as sunny could be and the bags were as heavy as it could be. Was a bitch. Took an hour to get to the resort with frequent stops. The trail is mostly even until the final climb to Champadei. But still was hard with the backpack. Towards the end I was getting used to the load. The trick is to walk real slow and stop very infrequently. That was what two guys who were working on the road up to Champadevi were doing. They were carrying around 25 liters of water on their backs and were walking evenly. Was good my knees didn’t give me much problem [I had an accident a few days before we left and the wound in my right knees was still recovering]. Camped on a slope to the west of the Champadevi Shrine. Peregrine territory. From the way it was going about it might as well have been hunting swifts. Water shortage. 1 liter of ORS and 1 liter of glucose water is all we have left. And that needs to last till until we get to Chitlang Bhanjyang tomorrow. Need to start real early tomorrow. Met a big time SOB on the way. Asked him how long to Champadevi. Was working on the road. Without even looking up said “Tapaiharulai 3 ghanta lagcha, hamilai nai 1 ghanta lagcha.” Was a good tip in hindsight. Made it in 2 hourswith almost half the time in rest as we were in no hurry.
Had a good fire going for two hours. Went to bed around 8:30. Couldn’t sleep till 10:30. Listening to the jungle sounds at night. The ubiquitous hop---hop-hop-hop [Oriental Cuckoo] and the bark of a barking deer. They sky was allright.
Animals/Birds seen: 2 steppe eagles, an accipiter, peregrine falcon.
No comments:
Post a Comment