Following Manjushri- Round the Valley in 8 days III

Day 2: Champadevi to Deurali

7:00 am – 5:00 pm (Monday. April 12, 2010)

11

We join spokes in a wheel,

But it is the center hole

That makes the wagon move.

We shape clay into a pot,

But it is the emptiness inside

That holds whatever we want.

We hammer wood for a house,

But it is the inner space

That makes it livable.

We work with being,

But non-being is what we use.

The ridge walk continues from Champadevi. It passes through grassy areas and is an easy walk, until one has to climb Baneshwor Dada (2509m). In the map it is the hill right between Champadevi and Deurali with bare easyern slopes. The climb up to this hill is pretty steep and passes through pine forests. The slope near the top is covered with short grass. The trail (if it can be called one) that goes through this slope has got to be one of the most precarious ones in the trip. It is barely a feet wide strip of slightly yellowed grass on a 70 degree slope. If one falls down this trail, there is nothing to slow the fall for around 40 meters. Having gathered momentum, one either hits the stumps of fallen pine trees or if unlucky passes through scrubs into the even steeper slope down below. If one is careful while walking through this section one will come across a bifurcation that doesn’t seem like one owing to the almost non-existent nature of the trail. The bifurcation is marked by a cut pine tree, whose upper part has been felled downwards from the ridge. There is one trail that goes straight past the tree and another one that turns right. It is the second one that goes down to a patch of cultivation that one can see from this area and is the right trail. It isn’t much of a trail and if you bushwhacking for around 15 minutes should bring you to the patch of cultivation. From here keep strictly north-west and you will pass through two more grassy patches from whereon you continue ridge walking. A moderate climb and a moderate downhill should bring you to stone a chortens and a dried stone gully like trail and will take you straight down to Deurali. There is a small habitation of around half a dozen households in this pass. There are also some shops and places to eat here. You will also see the pylons carrying high voltage electric lines from Kulekhani Hydroelectric project to Kathmandu. There are also the remnants of long defunct Hetauda-Kathmandu ropeway.

Deurali

A more recent addition is the 62 km road from Kathmandu to Hetauda that passes through this pass. This dirtroad is 17 kilometer shorter than the shortest other road to Hetauda. The contractor who constructed the road claims that it takes only two and a half hours to get to Hetauda along this road. If blacktopped it could be the better and quieter option for travelling to Hetauda from Kathmandu. (Places the road goes through: Satungal-Matatirtha-Deurali-Chakhel-Mahalaxmi-Kulekhani-Hetauda)

Either you can stay near the habitation in Deurali or you can climb up the knonll to the west where you shouldn’t have trouble finding a quiet campsite.

Camp at Day 2 on slopes to the west of Deurali

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Personal notes:

Started the day with a pack of biscuits and half a pack of glucose. When we started walking we had half a liter of water left. Was until Deurali until we could get water. Was a nice and easy ridge walk for the first part of the journey. Then it got steeper as we had to climb 2509. The trail right near the top was the scariest trail that I have even been on. It was barely a feet wide slightly yellowish streak of grass on an otherwise greenish pasture sloping at 70 degrees of angle and going down without any obstacle for around 40 meter and then on either pine tree stumps or into the bush thickets on and equally precarious hill side. Saw a partridge (20-25 cm) with whitish cheek and a black face on the way to this hill. The top of the hill had unnavigable wood filled liberally with bush (esp of a kind with leaves having thorns) and creepers. After failing to navigate through the peak we cam back to find another trail marked by a chopped pine tree of around 10 ft with the chopped upper part pointing in the opposite direction to that of the trail. Going down that trail involved a lot of bushwhacking. Fields. Very low on water and very little food. Dai doesn’t feel well. Can’t make it to Deurali for water refill. We get lost in a maze of trails. Come along a bigger one and see a village nearby. Head to it. Madhav Lama’s house. Simpani. Brother pukes. Turns out to be an interesting guy. After reas\ding a story from Devkota’s Katha Sangraha, give the book to his son, Bishal. Gives water and plenty of it even though his family has to walk half an hour to get to the nearest tap which is actually nothing more than a trickle. Get back on trail and reach deurali around 2 pm. Miss a trail which screws up things and the plan to get to Chitlang. Get back to the hill west of deurali and camp there. Morale pretty low at the end. Go to bed without dinner.

Satungal-Matatirtha-Deurali-Chakhel-Mahalaxmi-Kulekhani-Hetauda

62 km. 17 km less than the shortest highway. 2.5 hours to hetauda from Kathmandu.

Animal/bird seen: partridge, a small raptor that flies with a V and flies pretty fast.

73

The Tao is always at ease.

It overcomes without competing,

Answers without speaking a word,

Arrives without being summoned,

Accomplishes without a plan.

Its net covers the whole universe,

And though its meshes are wide,

It doesn’t let a thing slip through.