Escaping the valley

It was time for a 2-day-trip to escape the rush and take some fresh air: We wanted to see what’s behind the surrounding mountains of the Kathmandu valley and climbed up on the eastern side to Nagarkot after passing through the royal town of Bhaktapur with its UNESCO heritage site, the Bhaktapur Durbar Square. The centuries-old ornaments and wood works incorporated into the many beautiful temples, palaces, statues and residential houses are marvelous! And almost 3 years after the disastrous earthquake, the damage is still clearly visible, like everywhere in the valley, and the rebuilding is ongoing, slowly.

Nagarkot, on the ridge east of the valley, is famous for its views over the Himalaya range. Unfortunately, we weren’t lucky enough to see far enough but the sunrise hike to the view tower in the morning was nice though. Time for breakfast! After that, we wanted to hit a track to Dhulikhel, got lost several times and had to carry our bikes along forgotten, overgrown hiking trails which were shown as jeep tracks on our map. In fact, they were too steep to drive a jeep there and we’re glad that we only carried one pannier :)

When the thick pine forest cleared, we found ourselves in a peaceful valley with impressing vegetable terraces on the steep slopes. Time for a late lunch, Dal Bhat for sure! The lessons we draw from our first cycling trip in Nepal: There is always a surprise, road conditions change too fast to be documented and there’s so much to discover in between all these mountains here.Read more