Saturday, January 2, 2016

Hiking to Champadevi




TL;DR

Link to all the pics

If you have a day or two to spare then this is definitely not where you want to go, I would rather suggest Chisapani but if you have some 7 8 hrs and  looking for adventure then you can choose to hike here. While the route has some awesome views to offer , there is nothing interesting once you reach the Champadevi destination. At the top, it is just filled with garbages. I rate it 2 stars out of 5, 2 because of the trail and view from the trail. If you have decide to travel alone then try to take the trail from hattiban resort, the one I hiked is very dangerous as local people hurl huge rocks from the slope, I still do not know why.


Just as I woke up in the lazy saturday morning I decided not to sleep anymore and go on a hike. It had been a while since my last hike to chisapani, so yeah I wanted to travel again. I filled my bag with two bottles of drinking water, two apples and two bananas. On the way I bought some cakes from the bakery and stuffed it into my bag and I was ready , get set, go for my hike.


I boarded a bus to kritipur from old buspark at around 9am. I reached kritipur and started my hike from there, later I found out that there were other ways to get to champadevi too. Since I had no idea about the direction I kept asking fellow shopkeepers about the route in every turn I made.


 I met this good ol` fellow who took me up to the point where I should have actually started my hike, his house was on the way too. It was so great to know this ol` man`s story which I would have never known if I had not left the bus at kritipur. I would say that the best thing about traveling on foot and alone is getting the chance of socializing with peoples around you.


I climbed the first hill and to avoid the main path I decided to find my own shortcut and I did. I was looking for shortcuts so much that I nearly took the wrong trail and it happened two times.


After an hour walk I finally reached the picnic spot where I smoked a medicinal herb. I was high most of my travel from then. There is this endless staircase up to champadevi from the picnic spot which seems as if it stretches to heaven.

Other thing I would highly suggest is that carry some salt if you have decided to travel in summer or in monsoon. Most of the trail through the jungle is so moist and damp that it is the perfect place for leeches.



Once you reach the second phase of trail you will find it really amazing. There is another stone paved trail extending from Hattiban resort which looks just amazing and the view of mountains too.








While the view of mountains is not as clear as from chisapani, it is still exciting to see them. I love the himalayas :). I was hoping for something awesome to see at the top but there was nothing impressive. The place is filled with tons of garbages and again garbages. I was very disappointed. This will be my first and hopefully the last hike to champadevi.

Due to the blockade and the price hike in EVERYTHING, I am not able to travel on a budget. I will be surely  trekking to Annapurna Base Camp at the end of falgun so I hope until then the crisis would be resolved.