Escaping from Kathmandu Valley
This weekend we decided to go cycling. We planned on travelling to Nallu, a village on very border of Lalitpur district, 60 km far from ring road.
Our ride started at five thirty in the morning of August 7 from Satdobato. Within 2 hours we travelled from Bhaisepati to Chhampi. As we were approaching Champi, roads were getting muddy, dense settlements were disappearing behind us and traffic was getting thinner. By the time we reached Champi we had already left Kathmandu. My trousers were painted with splashed drops of dirt.
Chammpi is a beautiful village. Houses are lined together in a row and behind those are rice fields spread across a wide area. Road was right in front of those houses and was quite narrow. By the time we went there, people had already started their day to day life. We could see children getting ready for school. We stopped at Chammpi for taking some photos and snacks. Then we headed towards Nallu.
Roadway from Champ to Nallu was quite interesting. Our road was between these two gigantic mountains between which were rice fields. And just above those fields were hills covers with dense forest. Our road was foothill of one of those mountains. This road was on the sideways of the dense forest so it gave enough shade to protect us from sun. Cycling between these two gigantic hills felt like we are escaping from Kathmandu Valley, from that polluted city to serene hills.
After we reached Lele, it was already nine. So we decided to stop and take a breakfast. Lele was this beautiful bazar that separated two different villages. There were quite a bit of houses and Pasals. After taking breakfast, we headed towards Nallu.
After cycling for some time, we were on this beautiful plain land covered between mountains. It was mixture of Tarai land with hills around and temperature of a colder mountain and no pollution like Kathmandu! Such a perfect place for living. I envy people who live there!
By the time we were leaving Lele, the place was much remote. To reach Lele we had to cross one mountain. I must say that was the must difficult part of the trip. It was straight uphill ride for around 1 hour.
When we reached on top of the hill, we could see Nallu, a beautiful village with very few houses and curvy landscape. All the slopes were filled with maize. Children were flying kites and females were busy on their household.
Despite being a beautiful village, there were not much places to visit except the overwhelming scenery, snake roads and fruit gardens. After taking the fresh air and immersing ourselves in this heavenly scenery, there wasn’t much to do. So we decided to end our trip here and return back.
We decided to end our journey there. But why didn’t want to return the say way again. So we decided to take another route. Instead of climbing the hill again, we decided to go left from where we will be passing by the valley.
Then began rather unexpected part of our journey. As we traveled to the northern part of Nallu, we could see this beautiful place between two mountains. The place was full of huge rocks piled against each other. Along with theses massive rocks, a narrow river was flowing. Beyond the river we could see the hill badly affected by landslide. Pieces of rocks on the route looked fresh in front of us.
Landslide had wrecked this place everywhere. Slope landscape has been turned into pile of rock and sands. We later found out that the place was a stone and sand mining zone. Since these places are highly vulnerable to water induced disasters, mostly landslides, there was no human settlement except for small cottages of miners. No one even bothered to clear landslide off the road.
Despite being wrecked by landslide, this place had exotic and breathtaking views. On right side of us was lush green mountain and on our left were massive rocks as big as three storied houses. Road were made up of accumulated sand and pebbles. Cycling on this road was one of the best cycling experience I ever had.
There was beautiful waterfall on our way. We saw some people going to another village through a small pass-way above the waterfall. Most part of the road was swept away by the flood. So we had to cross rivers carrying cycles in our shoulders.
We spend more than an hour passing by that valley. The place so unusually beautiful and adventurous that we didn’t notice time passing by. After reaching Lele, we continued the old route; Champpi, Bhaisepati to Kathmandu.
So this weekend was quite well spent, much better than just sitting in home browsing internet. And quite better than roaming around Thamel. Life is just too easy that way. This trip has been a reminder to us that we have so much to explore even within 50kms radius. We are surely going to explore more places in future.
