Travelogue: Trip to Rara Lake from Dailekh

We woke up early that day excited of reaching Rara. Finished our daily chores, paid our surprisingly cheap bills and started hiking. The trail was very exciting. We saw lots of Kalij crossing the trails. I have heard Kalij rarely change their path and hence, are easy to hunt. We walked for about an hour and viola- we were at the bank of Rara lake, Nepal’s largest and one of the most beautiful lakes. Our joy knew no bounds at the moment. We took dozens of photographs. Rara was indeed pristine, serene and beautiful. But somewhere in my mind I was thinking, is that it? All these trouble for seeing just this lake? It seemed just as beautiful as any other lake. Boy, was I in for a surprise?

Savoring the beauty of the lake and capturing it in our camera we finally reached Danphe Guesthouse, the only guesthouse in Rara. The prices for food and room they quoted were reasonable enough. We ordered dal-bhat and while it was being prepared went around the guesthouse taking pictures. Govinda’s camera’s battery was about to die down and there was no charge facility in the guesthouse. Worried that if we could not charge the battery, we would not be able to take any pictures we went around asking people if there was any way to charge the battery. Someone suggested we should ask the armies at the barrack. So, we went to the barrack wondering how were we going to convince them to charge the battery for us. None of us were good at sweet-talk. But apparently we were quite famous at the barracks because of last night incident. In addition, Govinda found out that one of the armies was from a village next to his village in Dolkaha. It really facilitated the rapport building and we got our battery charged.

After having lunch, we put our bags in our room, donned best of our clothes and charged off towards the lake. The trail goes around the whole lake passing through jungles, open grounds, rivulets etc. Soon I realized, the more time you spend with Rara the more it grows into you. The more you try to discover the more it rewards you with beauty without relinquishing its mystery. The lake changes colors. At the time, it was deep blue.

We walked for around 2 hours and reached minichaur, an open ground. A few horses were grazing there. It was such a photogenic place we took several dozens of photographs there, rested for a while absorbing the peace and beauty of the place and eating our high-energy biscuits. The distant mountains on the north seemed to be having a storm at the time and looked amazing. After spending hours there, we lazily headed back to our guesthouse. Walking around the whole lake takes around 5 hours. We walked around half of the lake and returned. It was evening now and the lake has taken up a red color reflected back by the clouds who took it from the evening sun. It was the moment I realized Rara does seduce people. If given enough time, Rara can reign over your heart, mind and imagination.

The above has been excerpted from an original post on the author’s blog by his permission.

Photo Credit: Surath Giri