Journey to Explore Dolpa: A remote district of Karnali Province, Nepal

Recently, I have traveled from my home "Syangja" to workplace "Dolpa" for joining my duty as an instructor at Tripura Technical School, Kaigaun. Having a week of the journey, I reached here, and now I am living in quarantine due to this pandemic COVID-19.

I was feeling tachycardia when I trekked at the higher altitude in the landscape of Dolpa; a rural district of Karnali Province, Nepal. The journey from my hometown, Syangja to the workplace, Dolpa was so memorable and adventurous due to having amiable friends with whom I was traveling and the spectacular mountain scenery along with the Bheri river flowing across different districts i.e, Salyan, Rukum, Jajarkot, and Dolpa. The trekking route was so dangerous like "one mistake no chance to survive". Our team trekked that route with careful attention and also enjoyed every moment.

Dolpa Exploration

Due to having Lockdown and restriction to travel a long distance (between two different provinces), It was difficult for me to manage transportation from my hometown to the workstation but somehow I managed to reach up to Butwal on a bike and after staying of two days in Butwal, I Luckily found a vehicle traveling from Butwal to kohalpur. On the third day of my journey, I stayed at kohalpur. On the next day, the fourth day of my journey I met with my colleagues from different regions of Nepal who were also traveling to Dolpa for the same job at the same institution. Our plan was to travel by air from Nepalgunj Airport to Juphal Airport, Dolpa because of the blockade of roadway through (Surkhet-Dailekh-Kalikot-Jumla-Dolpa). Due to having bad atmospheric weather conditions, we were not able to fly from Nepalgunj then we changed our traveling plan and moved to surkhet to meet with remaining colleagues. On the fourth day of my journey, I stayed at Surkhet, the Capital city of Karnali Province. Then we decided to usher up our journey to Dolpa district through the route (Surkhet-Salyan-Jajarkot-Rukum-Dolpa).

On the fifth day morning, I traveled with my colleagues from surkhet. We a team of ten people started our journey to Dolpa. On that day our target was to reach up to Radi (Western Rukum). We had lunch at somewhere around the Jajarkot District. The road condition up to Jajarkot Khalanga was comparatively better than the rest of the route from Khalanga to Radi. We were not able to reach Radi with the same vehicle because of the bad condition of the road and the excessive flow of water in the small river (Khola) due to heavy rainfall. Then we left that vehicle (tata bye-bye to that vehicle) and move on to the next vehicle through walking over the makeshift bridge formed across that river. In the evening, near about at 7 pm, we reached Radi, western Rukum. We stayed there at Radi on that night.

On the sixth day of my journey, our team moved from Radi (western Rukum) to Dolpa. On that day, our target was to reach up to Dolpa district. Then we crossed the Bheri river at Radi to search the vehicle for Tallu Bagar, Jajarkot. After crossing the Bheri river at Radi, we found a vehicle traveling up to Tallu Bagar. Then we started our adventurous journey. Due to the overflowing of water on the small rivers across that route at Chauka (Jajarkot district), we need to change the next vehicle to reach up to Tallu Bagar, Jajarkot. Then we moved to Rukum district through suspension bridge across the Bheri river and we had our lunch at Tallu Bagar, Rukum. After having our lunch, again we started our journey up to Tribeni, Rukum through the vehicle (Bolero). Up to Tribeni, we changed two vehicles due to the road condition and the high amount of water flowing in small rivers across that route. We reached at Tribeni, Rukum at 3:30 PM. After having some rest at Tribeni, We started our real adventurous trekking journey up to our workplace, kaigaun, Dolpa. The reason why that place is called Tribeni is that the three districts Rukum, Jajarkot, and Dolpa are meeting together. From Tribeni we left our vehicle and started trekking to Jagadulla Rural Municipality through Mudkechula Rural Municipality, Dolpa. Then we started to trek at the territory of Mudkechula Rural Municipality. The places that I saw during my trekking were so mesmerizing and spectacular. The trail of trekking was so adventurous and it was just above the Bheri River at the dangerous landscape. After having 4 hours of trekking we reached the place called ''Ela" located at Mudkechula Rural Municipality at 8 PM. At Ela, we found some small cottage types of traditional hotels and somehow we managed to adopt there and stayed that night.

On the seventh day of my journey from home, our team had to face the most challenging trekking route from Ela to Kaigaun. On that day we needed to trek the most arduous journey to reach the higher altitude of around 4500 meters terrain and again reached to lower altitude at the next side of the terrain that is Kaigaun, Dolpa. Due to not having any hotels there, we decided to have lunch at Ela and taking water bottles, some noodles and cookies we left that place at around 9 AM for Kaigaun. I felt tachycardia due to having a trekking route with higher inclination at higher altitudes. Even having the arduous journey, we couldn't help enjoying the moments of our trekking. During the time of trekking, I enjoyed taking a lot of photographs and visuals of the spectacular mountain scenery and every arduous moment that means an adventurous journey for me. Finally, our team reached at Kaigaun at around 4 PM, 31st July 2020. From that time onwards we are living in quarantine at Kaigaun, Dolpa. After having RT-PCR of our team, we will join our regular duty to serve our nation at the very remote place of Nepal.

Here I am sharing my best moments of Dolpa Exploration.