Himalayas Magazine – June 2019

http://www.travelhimalayamagazine.com TRAVEL HIMALAYA SPRING 2019 | 21

A SHORT WALK IN THE ROLWALING VALLEY

Looking down to the riverbank I see construction

workers stop & look directly above our jeep, and then

promptly ran away. The next second the deafening

noises rock the Jeep as a hail of stones hit the roof

of the car. As the rocks pour down on the vehicle the

driver struggles to get the jeep started again

According to Buddhist

mythology, Gauri shanker

the 7,134m behemoth

that dominates the

valley is said to be the

embodiment of Tashi

Tseringma the leader of

the Tsher Ring Mched

Inga, also known as the

Five sisters of long life

We started out in Charikot and had initially
planned to get a bus to Singati and then walk
to Chetchet. It was while waiting around near
the bus stop at Satdobato that we met Thunda
Sherpa, who lives in Simigaon and we shared
a jeep with him to the trail head at Chetchet.
In previous years the walk from Singati to
Chetchet had been described to me as one
of the most beautiful trails in all of Nepal,
VXUURXQGHGE\ÁRUDDQGIDXQDQHVWOHGRQWKH
banks of the Tamakoshi River. Today the new
road which carries industrial equipment and
infrastructure to serve the hydropower at Lama
%DJDUGRPLQDWHVWKHH\HPRUHWKDQDQ\ÁRZHU
With the heat of the hills and the dust from
the road, taking the jeep was no real hardship.
That was until we got a reckoning of just how
precarious the road actually was.

A large part of the road is being reconstructed
where previous landslides have hit and destroyed
the road. At one point while driving down to
Chetchet, we can hear some sort of commotion
going on outside. Looking down to the riverbank
I see construction workers stop & look directly
above our jeep, and then promptly ran away. The
next second a deafening noises rocks the Jeep as
a hail of stones hit the roof of the car. As the rocks
pour down on the vehicle the driver struggles to
get the jeep started again, it is hardly an image
of serenity. After eventually getting the jeeps
engine restarted we make it through scared but

unscathed. Afterwards, looking back, it becomes

obvious that roads really are cut and blasted into

the hillsides, with very little purpose or support.

It doesn’t take too many of these incidents for

driving to feel rather precarious.

After getting to Chetchet and the trailhead,

we start the trail to Simigaon. After crossing a

small suspension bridge over the Tamakoshi, the

trail begins sharply with steps cut into the rock

which take us steeply up for almost 800 metres.

We climb up the trail for around an hour until

we reach Simigaon, a small town sprawled out

amongst the terraces. Here while speaking to

7KXQGDZHJHWRXUÀUVWORRNDWWKHYLOODJH7KH

remnants of the 2015 earthquake are clearly

visible here, with the majority of people living

in houses made predominately of tin sheeting.

Thunda shows us his old house, guesthouse and

the former village school, now a motley collection

of rubble and foundations in varying states of

decay and disrepair.