A Must-visit Place in Nepal : Khaptad National Park-Heaven On Earth

(Khaptad National Park can be an important alternative to the popular tourist destinations in Nepal like Annapurna Circuit trek or Everest Base Camp trek. Situated in the far western part of Nepal it would give you exposure to the different environment, flora fauna as well as the different culture of the western Nepal. And at the time of my travel only about 50 foreigners had ever stepped on this wonderful park making this one of the virgin, unexplored and fresh destinations in Nepal.)

Khaptad National Park is a beautiful tourist destination in the far western region of Nepal.The background of my journey to Khaptad was made with the selection of far western region as the field of my study in the year 2010.In this article I intend to give you a first hand information about this remote paradise of Nepal especially for those of you who want to make a trip to this place.

My journey started from Kathmandu in the mid December in 2010.The National park can be approached from different places (it actually is spread over four districts) but the most "approachable" approach is from Doti District which happens to be ours too .

Two buses leave for Silgadhi (headquarters of Doti district ,which is our 1st destination) daily from the Gongabu bus park in Kathmandu (in any case that was the system when we went).If you are serious about reaching the place in a single piece then better get a ticket beforehand to make sure your seat is not in the last .The bus ride would take over 30 continuous hours so in case you have arthritic joints plaster-fix the joints to prevent them from falling apart . In case you don't have ,don't be happy thou shall have.

Anyways , jokes apart if you want to bypass this long bus ride, take a flight to Nepalgunj (Chisapani) or still better to Dhangadhi from where you can take shorter bus rides to Silgadhi .Its really good to have a day or two for rest at Silgadhi. Silgadhi was our study area so I had a lot of time to roam around (after the work of course).It is a small old town which was once a important trade center of far western Nepal.

From Silgadhi it is a 2 days trek to Khaptad for slow and steady (tortoise) types. If you are a hare type you might reach in one day provided you don't sleep somewhere in between. We started the 1st day's trek at around 8 am in the morning after some light snacks .Its better to take some things to eat on the way because there is no proper place to have lunch on the 1st day(sorry guys no McDonalds ,no KFC). There are small shops however where you can have noodles (the omnipresent food item in Nepal, it might very well be declared Nepalese national food someday ) or tea . The trek starts with about 45 minutes plain walk after which comes a climb about 1-2 hours after which it is more or less horizontal. The day's trek took us some 5-6 hours to reach our destination, Jhigrana which is situated at the border of Khaptad National Park. There are two hotels at Jhigrana. Don't expect a five star room with fluffy bed but your own sleeping bag and the hospitality of the people would surely be a nice compensation.

Our second day started with a nice breakfast of roti-tarkari at our hotel after which we started the 2nd day's trek which is a long one compared to the 1st day's. It is a difficult one too starting off with a long climb of about 3 hours then some more small ones in between the horizontal course. It takes about 5 hours to reach Bichpani, (which literally means middle water) the midway of the day's journey where we had the day's lunch at the Bichpani Hotel, where I am sure you will have yours too.(there is only one hotel at bichpani). The 2nd day's trek was like a long good movie-you don’t want to stop when you are tired. It took us through dense coniferous forests where we saw many Spiny Babblers and lot of boar dug fields. The people warned us against the wild animals which move to lower regions of the park around the time. The area is well known for heavy snowfalls and in one event some army men died after being buried in the snow. Be careful if the day looks like a snow storm. We nearly lost our way near the place where a traveler's shed is made in memory of the men. One tends to go straight instead of the climb at right hand side which is not so conspicuous. After a walk of 8-9 hours we reached the core of Khaptad National Park where there is a Hotel, a army camp and office of the National Park authority.

The next day we went to Nagdhunga (literal meaning-Cobra stone),Khaptad baba ashram and Khaptad lake (pond rather).The place is filled with different species of plants many of which have not even been identified. The dai from the National Park Office whom we took as the guide helped us identify some locally known ones.

The next day we went to Shahashralinga which is the highest place in khaptad at about 3400 meters and from there to Triveni and then returned to Jhigrana.

Summary-

Suggestions for those who want to make this trip

Appropriate season-is not the one when we went. The place is dried up with very little greenery.

Try making your trip around June-July which also happens to be the season for mela

If you want to see Khaptad when it is covered with snow try it at Oct-Nov

Things to take-depends upon the season. But it is a difficult place for travelers(scarce lodging and food)

so go prepared.If you want a info to some must take common items you are most welcome to visit my hub http://hubpages.com/hub/5-Things-you-should-never-forget-on-a-trek

Total time-from kathmandu to kathmandu-about 10 days.

Good destination if-you know a lot of plants

you want something out of the track