Next 255 KM on a bus with an empty pocket
You have money just enough for the bus ride to your city, nothing much for snacks and water. Luckily you have a litter of free water in your water pouch and you have a sweet made from pumpkin and sugar, which you think as a good source of instant energy. It is not you haven’t tried to find money giving machine but when trying with other banks ATM your card seems to be blocked, you don’t know why. Hence you decide that you could manage with the money you have. Everything went as planned, you slept cool at night regardless of the loud debate between the passengers at my back with the bus helper. You think you know when the bus stopped for lunch but you had no urge to drop off as you have no money and you have that sweetest sweat to eat :P.
Those all started with a challenge you gave yourself to reach Pokhara from Kathmandu in a single day. You heard/saw few other people did that but as your longest cycling was around 120Km in a day, you don’t trust yourself but wanted to push as much as you can. You Started early at 5:30 been through the highways. You don’t know anyone who doesn’t like going downhill, you get long downhill at the starting, which would have been a lot better if it was at the end just like your Hetauda ride
When you touch the Kaski District, it has already been 13+hrs on road, riding your bike. Though it is only highway joining two major cities of the country, it started to get worse. Looked like the construction is going on and there was gravel everywhere it was very painful for your tired hands, legs and a**. You have 10 more KM to go and you have just finished the energy bar and the water you have but still, you are feeling hungry and the sweat and oral respiration dehydrate you quicker. It was not enough for the rush hence nature showed up its dark face signaling It is going to rain soon, which urge you to push harder to reach the shelter.
Most of the time you been to Pokhara via night bus and hence you don’t have an idea of the location. So the only guide is the map you installed on your phone. Recognizing the Tal Chowk, the gateway to Begnas lake, gave you the sense of happiness as the road thereafter is paved and that you have not more than 3km to paddle. But the problem is to find a decent hotel to stay on. As it has already been 7 PM and the shops nearby seemed closing up. After a few pieces of the biscuits, you started pushing for the last 3 KM, but time passes by and you feeling it taking longer than that. 🙂
It was not harder to find shelter as finding the perfect one was not on your priority. It just has to be decent to be able to sleep, eat and shower. No attached bathroom and no shower on the bathroom, but the hotel owner-managed it for you to shower directly from the water pipe. The food was the not so tasty but as you need it to refill the nutrition you consumed, It doesn’t matter most. You look food from its energy prospective, rice=carbohydrates, lantise=protein, green-veggies=vitamins and minerals. That was all you need for this 14hrs-201km long day.
Every time you were out hiking, cycling, you don’t need the alarm clock to wake up early in the morning. After talking with your friend at the next city Palpa, which you wanted to ride to since long ago, you decided to head for there instead of returning back on the bus, you are going to make the trip up to Butwal and then take a bus from there. And the FUN of being solo is you have none to convince on the change of plan.
Everything on your body was aching but you are willing to ignore them and enjoy the calmness of the Begnas for a while. You cycled around the lake for a while took some snaps and soon you found yourself looking at the map to head for Palpa. The sun just rose and It is warming you up. The roads were good, looks like just been paved. There were no bumps on the road but your a** is still complaining about the pain he had dealt yesterday. All you are planning to do is keep ignoring it till it complains out loud and distracts it when it complains by standing for a while.
There was a hill you have to climb for next 2-3 hrs to reach Synajha, where you decided to have some breakfast till then you have energy bars and glucose to assist you. On the same climb, you saw some bamboo barks which reminds you of your childhood fun. We gang of kids used to gather around and make a fan of bamboo barks, tree leaf or even paper and everyone runs in the direction of the wind to watch those fan revolve. You made a bamboo bark fan this time and instead of running for it you cycled :). Next is I have to push my paddle a bit faster in the uphill to make the fan revolve. 🙂
Maybe due to constant paddling, your right leg started to feel bad and you even had to distract it by giving some pain-relieving ointment and supporting bandage. Syangja Putalibazar was where the meal of the day happened. You are more concerned about your kee and your aching body hence you started to hate the uphill. But according to locals, you have to do 8km uphill to reach Bhanjhang at Palpa. Going downhill at the speed of 50KM/hr, sometimes overtaking microbuses was a lot of fun. It was evening when you were pushing for that 8KM section. Remaining glucose and biscuits helped a lot. Next 20 Km section to reach Palpa was not tough after that uphill and you met your friends and have a wonderful time together.
Till then you were planning to do next 60Km to reach Butwal and back to KTM, but that night after looking at the maps and measuring the distance you don’t want to miss Rani Mahal, Tajmahal of Nepal, and to reach Ridi, Gulmi to catch a bus back to Tansen. Way to Rani Mahal is all downhill, hence you don’t feel bad even though It was rough. You found out Rani Mahal to be beautifully built on the beach of Kaligandaki river but it was kind of neglected by the management and hence found no maintenance work done. Anyway, the palace was great. After spending around an hour capturing pics, giving people the impression that you were not from Nepal, amazing people with my water pouch, socking some of them saying that you did 200Km+150Km on cycle to reach here. You decided to move the worst section of your whole trip was ahead of you.
Kaligandaki corridor was under construction which supposed to join Tansen-Ranimahal road with Argali-Rani Mahal section of Kali Gandaki corridor but you were early and they haven’t finished the construction yet. Which ultimately forced you to carry your bike for 100M direct uphill to reach that road section. Reaching that is not the end of the story, next 5 Km was filled with the landslides and the washed-out road, a slip of foot could end you down on the Kali Gandaki river. Anyway, you can’t return back after being through that rough downhill of 30KM from Tansen, so any way you got carryon. The tiny line of road on the hill next to you gives you hope that you could ride safely from there. Reached Argahi on around 2 hrs on the scorching sun. You found out the paved road up to Ridi. You planning to have lunch there and rode back on bus. Ridi is a settlement on the river bank along with the popular sacred Hindu temple. You don’t want to late one more day at the office and hence you decided to ride back to Tansen but you can’t miss the downhill to Butwal and hence you drop at Tansen and filled your pouch with water and headed for a long downhill. The road was all good along with some section having the sweet fragrance of the mango, orange flowers. Those were the most memorable section you think. Which even force you to think about doing a farm and living the rest of your life smelling those fragrances forever.
After reaching Butwal, you tried to get cash from ATM but It seems like your card is blocked but you though you have enough money for bus fare and enough food for the night and hence after getting fresh on the buspark washroom, we go rest at the bus. Next morning you found yourself back to the dusty city KTM, missing all the calmness, fragrance and the beauty of mother nature.
