An unfinished journey …

Rashmi Pradhan

A year has passed since I have been to the heavenly place, closet to mother nature ‘The Mardi Himal Trek’. The photos in my gallery still gives me joy and recalls all the memories of the tour. My journey started early in the morning with a crisp weather. Me along with my three other friends were all packed up, ready to have one of the most exciting journey. We took micro van from Kalanki and headed towards Pokhara, after 6 hours of travelling we finally reached there. We had our lunch and enjoyed our first day in Pokhara.

For the second day we had decided to take new and unexplored route from Kalimati to Forest Camp. The day starts with a warm cup of coffee and freshly baked croissants. Around 8 am, we took taxi from Lakeside, Pokhara to Milan Chowk. We decided to continue our further journey on jeep to Kalimati but due to some unfavorable situation we had to stop at Lumre.

Our hiking started from Lumre and this was a new and less travelled route. This route was more peaceful and eco-rich. The blue and white colored sign painted on trees and houses helped us to find right path. I still remember the leaves that were falling from the trees which made our path more beautiful. This route was mostly uphill and after reaching certain altitude it started to snow. This was my first experience with the snow and I felt a different sort of happiness. After continuously walking for 6 hours, we reached forest camp in the evening, had our dinner and took rest. We made some new friends on the forest camp and the owner of Mardi Guest House was full of hospitality and friendly nature.

Day 3 started with beautiful morning view of snow covered forest. We had breakfast in forest camp and gave continuity to our trek along with new friends and a Himalayan dog (who followed us halfway to rest camp). Enjoying the view, playing snow, laughing with friends, I didn’t realize how fast we reached to Low-camp. The mesmerizing view of Mt. Machapuchre (Mt. Fishtail) took my breathe away for a second. We stopped for few hours, made snowman, had warm cup of tea and headed toward High-Camp. The path was very slippery and I slipped more than 20 times. After walking for 2 hours we reached Badal Danda. The path from Badal Danda to High-Camp was way too snowy and it was risky to further continue or trek so, we decided to stay overnight at Badal Danda. The view of Annapurna range and Machapuchre was clear and the sunset was mesmerizing. We had dinner and sang some songs with other groups.

Day 4, we woke up before sunrise, went to the view point of Badal Danda and enjoyed the sunrise. We came back to the guest house, the view made our normal breakfast more delicious.  The heavy snow forbidded us to reach high-camp which we were not expecting. Now, it was time to say goodbye to the wonderful place. We descended back to Sidhing after walking for 3 hours. From Sidhing, we took jeep back to Lakeside, Pokhara. We stayed overnight in Pokhara, had fun listening to live music.

Day 5, we came back to Kathmandu.

The snow which I was enjoying before became the reason for my unfinished journey.