1-2 Bongling

Darma Valley Trek (34 Darma-Trek)

Darma Valley Trek Part-1 > Bageshwar - Dharchula - Dar - Bongling

Bageshwar to Darchula

View from KMVN Bageshwar

Pine forest view near Chaukori

Nice tree lined and hilly routes

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Darchula

8th July 2009: We (SK & me) reached the KMVN-TRH at Bageshwar, around 11:30am and we checked into a DBL room on 1st floor at Rs 800 per night. In the afternoon Debu met us there. He brought along another guide "Chamu" from Wachaam Village (near Khati), who has been to Darma valley several times in the past. Debu said he himself will be going to Darma Valley for the first time with us. Also his eldest son Khilap will come as an additional porter.

After discussing with Debu & Chamu in detail we realised Darma valley trek was a teahouse trek and we could homestay in all villages on way. The only place where we might need a tent was for overnight at PCBC; but PCBC is only 3 kms from Saun. So we decided we will not carry a Tent or any food rations (except soup packets & dry fruits etc.) nor any cooking equipment. We finalised a package deal of Rs 28,000 for a 10-day trek starting from Bageshwar ending in Sobla all inclusive including stay, food, guide-porters, and transportation jeeps etc. If you exclude approx Rs 4000/- for Jeep rides, it works out to Rs 1200/- per day for each of us for all trek expense with services of 3 guide-porters and food and stay expenses covered for all 5.

Greenery on way to Darchula - Pic by Sadanand (SK-013)

09/07/09 Today we left Bageshwar at 7.15 am in a 'booked' Maxx to take 5 of us to Darchula. It was long scenic ride via Kanda, Thal, Choukori, Didihat, Ogla (lunch) , Jauljibi, Darchula. We reached KMVN-Darchula at 2:30pm and just managed to get the last available room. There was a group booking by a Adi Kailash tour group by KMVN. The KMVN sits in a pretty location, right on the bank of Kali river, with all room balconies opening out to the river and the Nepal landscape across the Kali river. You can hear the torrential water flow of the river all day in our room there. The DBL room in KMVN was Rs 700/-

Views around Jauljibi area .... as we near Darchula

10/07/09 Today we filled up our ILP permit forms and went to the DM office on the main market road at 9:00am to be there before they open. Surprisingly, the DM was already in office and we had the five ILP's in hand by 9:45am or so. We loaded up on our share-jeep Maxx and left for Dar at 10.45 am. We reached the critical Chouturdhar landside (1 km, before Tawaghat) and our Jeep terminated here; as fresh landslide and rock-fall was visible up ahead. We have to now cross the 200M of landslide stretch on foot and catch another jeep on the other side. Just as we started to cross there were shouts to go back and people ran back pronto! They pointed to the hill on the opposite side of the river, in Nepal, where the Red Flag has gone up. That man was barely visible with naked eye but SK's amazing zoom picture caught him neatly, in below picture:

The Red Flag is Up!... watchout!! ... rocks are falling!!! (SK-036)

After crossing the landslide we took another jeep (at Noon) that took us all the way to Dar past Tawaghat, Khet, New Sobla (where we had lunch) etc. However that jeep suddenly stopped 1 Km below Dar and the driver announced "Sevaa Samapt" smiled and said he can't go any further as the road ahead is sinking! It was now 2:00pm

Tawaghat - Landslide

At the Tawaghat landslide we started walking past bull-dozer ... by SK

.... but hearing loud shouts we rushed back, behind the bulldozer

People pointed to the man with the red-flag on the opposite hill. And then we saw huge rocks coming down; if we had continued we would have been crushed! We had to wait some 15 minutes till the red flag went down and out of sight.

We crossed the landslide in hurry running over piles of rubble. And ended up on other side of the rubble; scared and gasping for breadth!

Looking back at the rubble, after crossing the Tawaghat landslide

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View of India from Darchula-KMVN

Nepal across Kali river seen from Darchula KMVN balcony

Looking back from Dar (where we got off) towards Sobla and the bridge

So we trekked up the last 1 Km to Dar (2134 M) and then continued past Dar another 5 Kms to Bongling. The day was getting very hot and sweaty and some of us took off our T-shirts and walked in our "banians". We had to cross a 1 KM stretch of narrow rocky path cut-out on the sheer rocky mountain side, with a deep fall down to the Dhauli river's gorge on other side. It was a bit scary but not dangerous. Soon (4:00pm) we reached Bongling and took up room in a trail-side GH belonging to Sher Singh.

In the evening we climbed up, steeply 300M, to Bongling village and there we met lots of children and people of the village. They milled around us excited to see visitors with cameras clicking. The children loved to see their instant pictures on Digital LCDs! The ladies insisted that we take tea there and so we ended up talking to the villagers for half-hour.