Getting to Sundarijal
On one fine saturday, 14th of September 2019, I along with my friend Bijay planned on exploring Sundarijal for this place being heard a fantastic place to spend a weekend and us not ever having been to that place. After having a meal at around 10 AM I headed towards Bijay’s home, picked him up and moved towards the destination. On the way we decided to pick another friend called Sagar who knew Sundarijal way better than us and had been there a couple of times as his home was near Gokarna.
Having rained the previous night, the road from the Melamchi Khanepani project building was all muddy and slippery. At times the pillion rider had to get down and walk because the bike would get stuck in the middle of puddles filled with mud and water. After the muddy roads were cleared then came a concrete steepy road that took us to the Nepalere Army Ticket booth where we had to buy tickets to gain entry inside the Shivapuri National Park which cost us almost around RS 800 for entry of 3 people and 2 bikes.
What we saw inside Sundarijal-Shivapuri National Park
The forest was beautiful. Chirping of birds could be heard from the road. After a slow ride of around 15 minutes inside the national park, there came the renown river of Sundarijal. The weather was foggy and cool. At one time we had to stop for about 15 minutes because road construction was going on and some trippers were stuck on the mud and their tires were still digging the ground while trying to get out. Seeing no sign of those trippers escaping the mud we asked them to let us through. We got ahead of them and headed to a place where we could stay and enjoy the serene scenic beauty of the national park.
We bought some snacks at a roadside shop. After some riding and stopping to enjoy the view of the valley in between, we saw a place where we thought we could finally spread our legs, take off our shoes, let our feet touch the grass and chill in nature. It took us a 5 minutes of walk to get to that place from where we had parked our bikes. We dropped our bags on the ground, got comfortable, took out our snacks and juices, small droplets of rain started dribbling. The fog had cleared a bit and the sun had just begun to shine again.
While we were appreciating the view, the food, the day, the vicinity that we were in, all of a sudden a heavy rain hit us without any warning. It had foretold us that it wouldn’t rain when checking the weather for the day beforehand, so we thought carrying an extra load of umbrella wouldn’t be necessary but it failed us. And there were no big trees that could shelter us from the rain. But fortunately I always used to carry a bike raincoat on the side of the bike. I went to the bike, took it out and again went to the place where we were staying. And there we stayed, 3 guys standing under one small raincoat. We couldn’t even sit on the ground as it was soaking wet. If somebody had seen us at such condition, they would have died of laughter. We looked so funny. We got all wet and cursed ourselves for not carrying a puny umbrella.
While returning back
The weather was getting cooler. After a while the rain started getting lighter and we didn’t miss such a chance to get to a place where we could hide from the rain and eat something warm. On the way back we saw a tea shop and asked if they made noodles soup. The sauni said yes and we decided to eat there. We parked our bikes there and went to that shop and asked the owner to prepare tea and the noodle soup.
We waited for a while and the tea arrived. Taking the tea glass in my hand I decided to give outside a glance. It was still raining heavily and then I saw my bike laying down on the ground as the stand had sunk inside the muddy ground just inches away from a cliff. Instantly I put the glass down, went to the bike, picked it up and took it to a safe place and parked it there being grateful for the bike not having fallen off the cliff getting all wet. Had the bike fallen off the cliff I would have had to bear a huge loss. Loss of money, loss of time, and mostly the loss of willpower to travel in the future on my own vehicle. I felt lucky. Then I went back to the tea shop, drank the warm tea and ate the hot noodle soup which was too spicy without complaining. I am a big NO guy on chilies. We stayed there for a while. The rain resided and we decided to slowly descend. Upon coming back to the ticket counter we saw the place was already shut down and no armies could be seen.
TIP: If you come to this place after 5 PM, it requires no ticket.
Finally at around 6 PM we got out of the national park. We came closer to Sagar’s home, bid him farewell and went back the same way which we had come before. We reached Bijay’s home and he went inside and I rode towards my own. It had been around 7 while I reached home. I changed my wet clothes, took a shower, ate dinner and hit the bed recalling all the memories of what had happened on the day.