An encounter with a highland adventure
18 Review Posted, Article Posted On 15 Sep 2007 www.pokahracity.com
Dudhpokhari (Milky Lake) is almost ignored by the trekkers, It's a place where eagles dare and the piligrims set for their religious voyage. Its high, cold and tricky. As we set trekking of this highland destination, we started to feel energetic ourselves. Pokharacity.com, Recentfusion.com and Anamol Film Production were the key organizations under which 15 of us were ready to enjoy the adventure.
Our team were journalists, computer programmers, photographers, movie directors and flower specialist. As we unveiled our plan, many of the journalists here in Pokhara seemed curious and wished to seek sponsors to cover the expenses behind the journey. As an outcome, Sanjiv, Basanta and Som of TAAN helped us to make our trip a success.
This trekking was just for fun and adventure (our continued workouts) so we hired tents, sleeping pads, sleeping bags, porters, cooks and bought first aid medicines, dried food, lighters as well as baskets for the porters. As we were about to leave Pokhara (900M), it was raining cats and dogs (Aug 24). We hired a taxi up to Kahun Khola and then took 4WD Mahindra jeeps for Lamakhet, which was the starting point of our trekking.
There were lots of landslides pretending to be our obstacles but we were completely geared up to dig our way in cicumstances, Kaji dai (porter) nearly fell down to a river bank while walking in one of the landslide. With the help of some of the local people he was lucky enough to secure his body. Lal dai was our another porter and I named their tag team as 'LalKaji'. We took our lunch with a fish curry that day.
It took a whole day uphill walk to reach Sikles (1800M), one of the biggest Gurung villages of Nepal. Fim sir (business man in pokhara) who had already been to Japan managed our night stay in one of the villagers house. I with my techno-savvy friend Rajab (Computer Programmer but such a nature lover) had lots of millet brew here (wine made from millet).
Next morning, we had a nice farewell in Sikles and we continued our journey towards wilderness. The journey was mind blowing and at the same time so tiresome. We had a lovely view of Madi river, cattle huts, green forests, wildlife, suspension bridges and water falls. Many of us were carrying our backpacks and it was very hard to go against gravity. After some time we were walking with hundreds of leeches in our track. Leeches were very boring. It sucked out our blood when we needed it at the most. In the evening we reached Tasha (around 2600 M) near a water spring. This was a perfect place for camping so we unfolded our tents and set it up real strong to withstand the rain and wind. I took some puffs of marijuana here for the first time in my life. Rajab and I used bamboo spoon to have our food (rice).
Rice, noodles, soups, chocolate, tea, hot water, cucumber were our feedings on the way. Some time we walked up to 13 hours to get a water spring. Walking without a mouth ful of water was really hard, we were suffering from dehydration. We had to take cover from the rain most of the times so we used raincoats and umbrellas within the journey. Botanist Aabishkar remained busy in collecting the highland orchids and Jitesh in his motion picture making work
As it was raining, we set our tents above wetland in Kori (3,800M) for the 3rd night. We saw natural gardens of thousands of mountain-flowers, caravan of devotees, who were heading for holy bath in Dudhpokharai. We wondered when our two friends without any logistic arrived here however we joined them with us and shared the tents. Rajab and I passed our whole nights in a same tent but were suffocated here in Kori. The interesting thing here was the sound of avalanche in the nighttime.
Next day we saw two lakes including Thulne in the route. We walked from 8 am to 8 pm and had to use our torch lights that day. We slightly felt the sign of high altitude problem (headache) but we tried resisting it though we had lots of anti height medication stuffs. Lots of lung power was used while climbing each step. Mountain flowers and their strong smell made us feel sick and uneasy.
Our tents were flooded with rain water in the fourth night stay at Thurju (over 4,500M), which is a Dudhpokhari base camp. Our shoes and most of the cloths were wet due to the rain and horizontal blow of thick cloud while on walking. We trekked putting on wet shoes in the whole journey.
As the next day (Aug 28) was the Janai Purnima (Rakshay Bandhan- Festival of sacred thread), hundreds of pilgrims were passing their night in Thurju to reach Dudhpokhari on time. Most of them left the base camp at around 2 am in the night to reach Dudhpokhari in the morning time but as we were heading Dudhpokharai, the pilgrims were coming back to the base camp having holy bath. It took us 2.20 hours of time in reaching the Dudhpokharai (4,685 M).
The lake water was relatively white in color and snowcapped high mountains surrounded it. Pilgrims were taking bath and offering sacred foods to the lake. Some of the pilgrims suffered from high altitude so porters had to carry them instead. The weather was changing within minutes (so unpredictable). Some of our friends couldn't arrive here due to the uphill and altitude factors. Kevin and I washed our hands and feet but didn't take any bath. The water and environment was very cold and the pilgrims were shivering their body before and after bathing. The place is equally respected place of Hindus and Buddhists. It is believed that the breasts of Sati Devi (wife of lord Shiva) had fallen here as lord shiva was carrying her dead body in his shoulder. It is a religious place and villagers are trying to develop it as a tourism destination as well. We saw the sources of Madi and Marshyangdi Rivers as well as the beautiful Annapurna III, Mt Manaslu and Lamjung Himal. It is also said that the Gurung people through Dudhpokhari and Namun Pass (4,911M) entered Nepal from Tibet. There is a place named Kola Sothar near Sikless which Gurung people take as their origin (capital) in Nepal.
Dudhpokhari is a barren land which borders Lamjung, Kaski and Manang districts and there is not any facility of telephone, Internet, newspapers and radio.
Kevin and Ram dai took dozen of snaps of the wild mountain flowers. Kevin was saying that he would forget all his tired and hardness when he will show the photographs to his friends and family in Pokhara and Korea. Rajab was angry the whole days and he said that this trekking was one of the most foolish decision in his life (He was angry with the rain and the clouds, he didn't get what he came for. No mountain views and no glittering stars during the cloudy night and he hated when the rain flooded his tent).
Same day we returned to the base camp and slaughtered a sheep that grazed within the mountain herbs including Yarshagumba, for meat. We ate lots of rice with the meat.
Next (6th) day was the hardest day in our trekking. We walked downhill more than 13 hours to reach Siurung, a Gurung village in Lamjung district. Some friends passed their night in a cattle hut due to the foot pain and wounds. Next morning a group of porters as a search squad searched them in the hills and carried them down to the village. There were too many routes in the jungle and we felt hard to find the right track, however a shepherd Bhim Bahadur Gurung guided us and we sowed paper sheets on the trail to mark right way for our other friends who were following us. We felt thirsty while walking, however Bhim Bahadur gave us mohi (shake of curd where butter is wed out) and we ate some strawberries as well.
Aug 30-7th day was our final day. We again took downhill with a superior view of the Tamang and Gurung villages and reached Bulbule of Lamjung and by taking a jeep arrived Beshishahar to reach Pokhara in bus at 12 pm (night).
So nice pictures. U can do more ditel put . Can u more Gandki Zone and Kaski dist. Best for web. Have nice day pokhareli pepoel. I hope fut.doing well. From ,Manoj Btj, DK
Yea... Whats Up .. This Is Henrry From CostaRica .. i like this matter man .... i was been Nepal in many time But I dont know that place in april i will be there so pls send me your e mail add .. i can found your Group in pokhara... pls send me e mail ... In this my id... ok ... i cat speck english fastly cuz my language is spanish Any way i like this artical.... thank you for all group....
Mukhiya ba(, Jetesh.).. Rajendar g ..just i saw this artical..oh jeetesh any way thank you .. ani rajendra g lai namaskar bhanedu hai ... ok ok jetesh may be after we will be go there there again ok .Jeetesh every thing is fine and good i dont want to tell you nothing abt this art.i want to see more same like this artcal around pokhara .. at last thank Rup Narayan , Ram g, Rajendra G and all Team who take this Concept
la mero bai bahini ho ahily dari sal pachi dudpokhari gayako rahecha ramro cha badai cha jo jo ly je manma samjera gayako cha pura hose ma hit man ko tarfha bata baday
post by: Rohit @ 23 Sep 2007, 10:27 pm
I know you guys had a very hard time. hahaha anyway.. it was nice to read this article.. Keep on posting this kind of article
1st ta derai derai thx.afno janmabhumi bata derai tada basera pani bela bela ramro ramro article padna pauda feri pani thx. aba aoune din haru ma ajhai ramro ramro article liyera aounu hola bhandai bida! bida!! bida!!!
its been always one of my unfulfilled dreams to go to DOODH POKHARI... heard and seen a lot about it in the fotos,documentry and articles... again this time i missed this opportunity... i've always been fascinated by the beauty of nature, landscape, geographic diversity, culture and history of this part... as mentioned in your article.. KOLHA SOTHAR... for the quest of my ancestors kingdom... haha.. it was actually for a small research work..so far i've been lucky enough to reach there... back in 2004... after having gone through your beautiful coverage it pushed me back to my memory lane... refreshing huh... hats off for your supborb work... keep it up... can i suggest u few of my ideas: 1. is it possible to establish a club to organise yearly visit to DOODH POKHARI and the region 2. i think we can create a project in co-ordination with the ACAP.... documentation of the wild life, geology, zology,culture and history of the region, conservation etc 3. i see a great potential of the tourism n research in this region coz of its enormous source yet not explored... 4. eco-friendly projects or activities would help n benifit the local people and the region in the long term...
Pokharacity.com is not responsible for any content or the accuracy of the contents in any opinion article. Respective authors and bloggers are responsible for the contents that comes in the interaction.
only u guys r going there we can't go their we need also sponsor so we can go there...... ? that's a good journey to u guys na hope so
. Can u more Gandki Zone and Kaski dist. Best for web. Have nice day pokhareli pepoel. I hope fut.doing well. 