Cycle Diaries 1 : Cycling to Dakshinkali

Posted on Feb 20, 2015 by sagar.shrestha under Cycling

Tags: Cycling, Dakshinkali,Balkhu,Chobar,Taudaha,Pharping

After months of postponing the idea of a cycling tour pitched in by colleague, I was finally ready for that. Preparation included cycling about 3 times a week about 20 kms per day.

Start:
We searched for possible location. We had to pick from 3 tracks: to Nagarkot, Chisapani, or Dakshinkali. We picked the last one and postponed remaining routes for later.

Cycling begins:
We were a group of three cyclists. We planned to meet in Pulchowk in Saturday in morning at around 8. After having a quick breakfast, we started and headed towards Balkhu. We stopped at a shop to buy some packet foods, chocolates and water bottles.

Balkhu To Chobhar
Cycling to Chobhar is a smooth ride as there is not much uphill upto Chobhar. View from Chobhar is as always beautiful, esp in the morning time. It took about half hour to reach there.

Chobhar to Taudaha
Uphill begins to start now. We all were in low gear and speed started to decrease. Cycle gear helps a lot in uphill. Slowly we reached to Taudaha in about half hour, took some photos, had some tea and headed towards next stop.

Taudaha to Pharping
The hardest part of tour is this segment. The uphill are there and some small downhill come in between. Downhill relaxes while uphill makes cycling harder. After about 1 hour of continuous huffing and puffing, we reached there. There are beautiful views all around and you can also find other group of cyclist as this is one of popular routes.
At this point, one of our cyclist friend returned, due to chest pain problems.

Pharping to Dakshinkali:
Now there was not much of trip left. But still, uphill takes a lot of energy. After about half hour, we finally reached to destination. As this was Saturday, there was a long line of worshipper and would have taken about an hour to have a proper visit to temple. I opted not to be in line and instead took a quick tour of temple.

We had a quick lunch there and rested about half hour returning.

Detour to Pharping Powehouse
We both hadn't been to Pharping powerhouse. So we took a detour to powerhouse. The road leading there is a steep downhill and is rocky. So, in short, a enjoyable tracks for us. The rural feel and beautiful view from there made this tour more satisfying.

All in All
Its a nice track for cycling. We enjoyed the beautiful views and downhill, uphill make this an ideal track.

Some tips :
1. Maintaining a constant speed helps for maintaining stamina for the whole trip. Don’t cycle increasing speed in burst.

2. Try to cycle in the main road itself as the side road have possibility to contain pins, which may deflate tyres.

3. Don’t stuff to much warm clothes even in winter. Cycling will eventually make you warmer.

4. Taking a bottle of water is must.

5. Wear comfortable clothes.