Tip top mountain view biking track – Pokhara – Sarangkot – Naudanda

The beginning of this trip is steep, but when you get to the top it’s definitely worth the steep climb. You have a great view to the Annapurna range both from Sarangkot and from Naudanda. The total length of the roundtrip from Pokhara and back is about 55 km and it took us about 4 hours including a lunch break in Naudanda.

The last part of the road before you take right to Sarangkot hilltop

On the way to Sarangkot

If you start at lakeside you follow the main road to Pokhara city center and turn left by Metro City hospital. Here you follow the road until you reach the Bindyabasini temple in the bazaar. From here you take left and follow the steep climb to Sarangkot village. The hilltop viewpoint at Sarangkot is another 3km to the right. If you decide to stop your ride here, you can go back the same way, but there are also singletrack possibilities down to Pokhara from this area (but we have not explored them yet). 

Wow! Machhapucchre seen from Sarangkot

You can see the valley too, and Baglung Highway

Take a break at one of the tea shops on top

If you decide to continue, follow the dirt road from Sarangkot village to the left to Naudanda. You follow this road through forest and nice villages, both uphill and downhill, until the road meets Baglung Highway in Naudanda. 

The road towards Naudanda - mostly it´s more rocky than this photo shows.

From here you can take right on the Baglung Highway back to Pokhara.

From Naudanda you can choose to either go the same way back, or just follow the Baglung Highway back to Pokhara. The last one is just easy high way down hill all the way.

Morning fun in Pokhara - bicycling to the Stupa

The World Peace Pagoda

One of the ideas of the Yaktrack blog is to write about things that you actually have time for even though you have a fulltime job. Bicycling to the Stupa (The World Peace Pagoda) in the morning in Pokhara is a perfect morning exercise before you go to work. If you wish, you also get a nice singletrack down through the jungle on your way down.

On the way to the Stupa in the sunrise.

The easy way up is on the highway. We start all our biking from German Bakery at Damside and from there you follow the road East until you reach the main road towards Terai. Here you turn right and you follow the road slowly going uphill until there is a sign to the World Peace Pagoda (after about 4-4,5km from the German Bakery). Here you bike on a short steep uphill before you start climbing to the Stupa. From this point it’s about 1,5-2 km (last half is a dirt road) until you reach the top of the road and go off road the last couple of hundred meters to the Stupa. You might have to carry the bike a littlebit.

Don´t forget to have the milk tea on the top! (and of course also to visit the Stupa)

On the top with the spectacular view of the Annapurna range: Leyla, Anette and Santosh.

It´s mandatory to jump on the top of any hill or mountain.

The view is really not bad!

Downhill there is a nice singletrack all the way through the jungle. The first time we went there, we went with our friend Santosh (a Nepali mountain biker, who also has a biking company which provides mountain bikes for rent and guided trips – Himalayan Singletrack) and he showed us the way. The first time it might be nice to bring someone who knows the way down if you are going through the jungle.

Downhill through the jungle!

The rice fields you meet when you come down from the jungle.

The track back to Damside.

We spend about 1,5 hours on the whole ride including the tea break on the top!

(If you don´t want to go by singletrack down, you can go the same way as you came up).

Upside down in Seti River

 

We are hooked! At least Anette is, and all she thinks about is when to go river kayaking next time. When this is written she has been three times to Seti River and is just waiting for the water level and the temperature to rise again.

 

Nepal is the perfect place to learn how to do basic river kayaking. Eh, well, we have not tried it in any other countries yet, but people say so. The reason for this is that the water is quite warn which is a great advantage when you are new and have to practice the roll a lot! The rivers of Nepal also have many different levels and there is a great variety of difficulty.

As we really wanted to learn the skill of river kayaking we signed up for a kayak school soon after we arrived Pokhara. Pokhara is a good starting point because the distance to Seti River, which is the most used new beginner river, is short, but it’s not problem to go from Kathmandu either. 

Our kayaks ready for take off!

There are many different kayaking agencies. We used Rapidrunner and were very satisfied with them. Paddle Nepal is another agency with a good reputation. Some of the companies have one day with practicing roll on Phewa Tal first, but we went directly to the river and thought that was better. 

Leyla ready for the river

The kayak school normally takes 4 days and the agency provides transport, food, instructors, tents for camping, and of course all equipment needed for the kayaking. The only thing you need to bring is one set of clothes for kayaking (shorts, t-shirt, clothes you are okay with getting wet in) and one set of dry clothes for the evening. In the winter you should bring long wool underwear for kayaking. Generally, bring as small backpacks as possible. You don’t really need much as you will be on the river almost the whole time. We were three persons on the trip, and had one instructor each + one person rafting with all the food, luggage and equipment.

The starting point was Damuli, Madi river, and the ending point was about 60 km further down the river on the road between Mugling and Narayangarh. You are actually kayaking on three different rivers – Madi, Seti and Trisuli river, but you are mainly on the second one. On the way we were taught how to cross the river upstream and downstream, what to do when tipping the boat under, how to become comfortable under the water, and the roll. On the second day we stayed at the same place just practicing the roll and other techniques. After the first day of practicing the roll all of us were able to do the roll on still water. However, we did capside a lot in the rapids and were not able to do the roll then. So a lot of more practise is needed! This part of Seti River is at level 2+/-3 the last day, but you start with easier rapids in the beginning, so that you are prepared for the more difficult to come.

Bikash, one of the safety kayakers, is playing around in his kayak.

The next step after the kayak school could be to do the same trip in only two days, as we did. You can also go with instructors, but since you already have learned the basics, it won’t be necessary to spend much time down the river. 

 

In the rapids

Don´t forget to bring riddles and magic tricks for the evening camp fire!

On our second kayak trip we had lunch and dinner on tea houses by the river.

Speed trekking in Langtang

Langtang October 2010

See photo story from Langtang below the text!


Trekking is a must in Nepal. As the true Norwegian youth we are (yes, we are still very young), we packed our 15 kg each with proper mountain equipment in our backpack and headed for the Langtang mountain trek 110 km north of Kathmandu. Even though it´s close to Kathmandu, there are not that many trekkers here as in the Annapurna and Everest regions. This may have to do with the transportation.

Did we mention that we are Norwegians? Yes we are, and this also means that we have to do as the locals do, no posh land cruiser for us, oh no, we’ll take the local bus for NRP 175 per ticket. But first we had to find the bus station and this was perhaps the most difficult part. To find the bus station you have to go to Gongabu bus station and from there cross the ring road, walk about 200 meters to the left until you reach a north going road. Here you find the small ticket counter for the bus to Dunche and Syabrubesi on the left handside (at least that´s where we found it in October 2010). We bought the tickets the day before we left, but you can also buy it directly on the bus.

Leyla in front of the ticket counter for the Langtang bus.

It has to be mentioned that you should at least expect 10 hours on the bus to travel the 110 km to Syabrubesi. The experience was a bit too exciting at times, but it makes up a good story, and it created a special close relationship with most of the passengers on the bus. Anyways, the Nepalese drivers do this at least six times a day so you should not worry too much. The alternative is the much more expensive rental of a land cruiser with a driver. However, you can find cheaper rides from Syabrubesi to Kathmandu as the drivers are dependent on getting passengers back after they have brought trekkers there.

We spent the first night in Syabrubesi and here we also decided to leave a couple of kilos each at the guest house for pick up on our way back. Most guest houses happily store some of your luggage because then they know that you will be back.

The trekking route

We had only five days excluded the transport. Therefore we planned to walk a bit longer days than suggested in the guiding books. Most guiding books suggests you to sleep the first night on the trek in Lama Hotel (2480 masl), the second night in Langtang (3430 masl) and then reach Kyanjin Gumpa (3860 masl) on the third day. However, as we had wanted to reach the peak Tsergo Ri (4893 masl) we walked to River Side (about 2700 masl) to spend the first night and then directly to Kyanjin Gumpa on day 2. Regarding time spent it was no problem walking this far, we also considered walking a bit further both days, but when it comes to acclimatisation, it´s better to walk more slowly. We were aware of this, but because we had to be back in Syabrubesi in five days we decided to speed up. 

River Side was a very nice place to stay, placed next to the Langtang river. There is only one guest house there which has only a few small rooms and the dining room is very sociable. At dinner time you get a good opportunity to meet other trekkers, and as we also did, discuss with other trekkers´guides for tips and suggestions. The place is highly recommended if you reach there in the first or second day, or on your way back to Syabrubesi.

Riverside lodge

In Kyanjin Gumpa we stayed at Tibet guest house, also a very nice place, with great food and nice hosts. To find it you have to walk to one of the last guest houses in Kyanjin Gumpa when you come from Langtang.

Kyanjin Gumpa as seen from the window of Tibet Guest House.

Generally we paid about NRP 200 for one double room and around NRP 100-150 for a proper dinner. There are many places to eat along the way, everything from spaghetti with veg, cheese, mixed or eggs to momo with veg, cheese, mixed or eggs, to noodles with veg, cheese, mixed or eggs. This menu was exactly the same along the whole route. Don´t miss out on the snickers momo - yes it is a snickers fried inside a huge momo.

The climb....and the way down

It´s mandatory to jump on the top of peaks and mountains

We think of ourselves as rather sporty persons that are used to a bit of rough nature in Norway. But walking up to the mountain top of Tsergo Ri on 4983 masl was a bit challenging. It is not a piece of cake to walk from 1500 to almost 5000 masl in three days for two girls that came from sea level only a couple of days before. 

The climb from Kyanjin Gumpa to Tsergo Ri and back took us about 6 hours, but we were not properly acclimatised and were passed by quite a few people. We felt the altitude with short breath and a headache, but we got there and it did not keep us from jumping on the top when finally reaching there. 

Therefore acclimatisation is worth giving a thought, if you have time, it would be good to wait a couple of days before you walk to the top. There are many nice paths and routes in the Langtang valley and there is also another easy peak called Kyanjin Ri (4773 masl) you can try before you go for Tsergo Ri. Kyanjin Gumpa is a great starting point for many day trips with fantastic views and if we had had time, we would definitely stayed some more days. 

Another highlight was waking up the next day in Kyanjin Gumpa and looking out on a ground covered in snow. It was beautiful! See for yourselves. We missed our skis!

Before you leave Kyanjin Gumpa, don´t miss out on the delicious nak cheese from the swiss cheese factory.

On our way back to Syabrubesi we walked from Kyanjin Gumpa to Rimche. From there, there are two paths you can walk back to Syabrubesi. The first one is the one we walked when we started, passing Bamboo. The second one is a bit longer, but the view is much nicer because you are following the mountain and not descending through the forest immediately. Here, you pass Sherpagaon and Khangjim where you can have lunch. From Khangjim it´s a quite steep descend down to Syabrubesi. It did not take us more than 4,5 hours to reach Syabrubesi from Rimche through this route.

Langtang is highly recommended. The surrounding nature is beautiful, there are many different options whether you want to walk in the valley, if you want to reach easy peaks as Kyanjin Ri and Tsergo Ri or if you actually want to climb. Even though we only had five days there it was worth the ten hours bus ride!

See photo story from Langtang below!

 

Nepal januhos!

WELCOME to yaktrack blog, a blog about outdoor activities in Nepal, especially around Pokhara. In this photo story we have summarised some of the activities we have done so far. We will share more about the specific trips and activities and also write about new ones in the time to come. Suggestions for other trips and activities or any questions will be received with great enthusiasm!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GyNqjNt7A9w