Trekking to Jugal Himal from Panch Pokhari is about 19 km away. We decided Jugal Himal as the final destination of our journey and would leave the place the next day for Kathmandu.
We had to climb for about 3 hours and then, we needed to make our way back to Golche walking downhill in the next 3 hours or maybe more than that, for staying the night. On the other hand, we'd decided that we would stay there if we could not return back before dusk.
We'd had merely light food, so I reckoned we might have felt hungry very soon, so we had carried some dried food stuff in bags, and we walked back to Golche.
Jugal Himal is a remote area north of the Kathmandu Valley, is situated in Rolwaling area. The Jugal Himal Mountain Range forms the border between Nepal and Tibet. The main peaks in this mountain range are Dorje Lakpa and Jugal Himal, which tower over 20,000 feet.
Jugal Himal is the range that is closest to Kathmandu Valley, and its peaks are seen clearly and conspicuously from Bhaktapur as well. Between the Trishuli and the Sun Kosi, north of Kathmandu, lies a cluster of peaks which has been divided into two himals, Lang tang and Jugal. These two ranges share a common ridge: unlike other mountains of Nepal, which are characteristically separated by rivers, no river cuts through these two ranges.
Even with the division, some authorities like to include Shisha Pangma and Phola Gangchen, which jut out north into Tibet from the main ridge of Langtang Himal, in the Jugal. Others maintain that Jugal is the half-arc that starts in the west from Tilman's Pass, and culminates in the easterly peak of Phurbi Chyachu (6637m). Perhaps this last grouping is more comet. All the glaciers descending from the southern spurs of this half-arc empty into one river, the Balephi Khola, and this certainly adds weight to the suggestion.
Interesting parallax can be observed in the position of the two peaks of Dorje Lakpa. From Kathmandu, the higher of the two peaks appears to the left of the smaller peak. But flying east of Kathmandu at low altitude, the two peaks are seen to switch their positions, so that the smaller peak is now seen on the left of its larger twin.
Although Dorje Lakpa I and II both are the most prominent peaks in Jugal, the highest mountain in this range is Loenpo Gang (7083 m), also called the Big White Peak. This is one peak that deserves its English name. It has a long saddle-ridge that culminates in two end-summits as seen from the Dorje Lakpa Glacier, but from Kathmandu much of this peak is perfectly blocked from view by Dorje Lakpa. This mass of white mountain emerges dramatically from behind Dorje Lakpa when Kathmandu mountain trekkers go up to the Kakani lookout.
All the peaks in Jugal, except Gumba Chuli, are open to Nepali expeditions, or foreign expeditions with Nepali members. Experts reckon that there have been many unauthorised expeditions in the mountains of Jugal, as the range is close to Kathmandu.
We found there were several reasons and attractions to scale Jugal mountain, and on the other hand, it was the first time ever we've come to trek Jugal Himal. But we could not scale all ranges of the mountain except Phurbi Chyachu since we had to return back to Kathmandu soon.
We arrived at the road and set off on our fourth day journey with all excitement but with fear a little bit.
Though we could not climb Jugal Himal ranges, we could easily view other mountain ranges closely from Phurbi Chyachu, so we hurried to our final destination.
From Golche, now even more unexplored and unfamiliar isolated areas had begun which we were oblivious about vulnerability and hazards on the way, those were awaiting us and had to deal with.
We walked around an hour through a steep path, in the Meantime, we saw two small and lean boys carrying heavy bamboo dokos with big stones. The boy who was walking ahead was a small one and the boy who was walking behind the first boy was older than him. They might have an age difference between 3-4 years from each other. They both were walking steadily though they were carrying heavy loads with difficulty and were staggering under the loads, presumably, they had to go far away.
"Bhai haru, eti garungo bhar bokera kahan samma pugne parne ho?" I asked curiously.
"Hami mathi samma nai, lagbhag dui ghnata ajhai hidera pugnu parne xa,' the smaller one replied.
We talked some more time with them to know something about the place, but they seemed to be in such a hurry since they had to walk miles with the heavy weights of stones.
The two small naive boys seemed like they never went to school but they worked hard in this way to earn some money and survive.
After talking to them, we found that they were smart enough to converse even with strangers. We always think village children do not know how to speak, especially when they don't go to school.
But when we knew about the reason behind their hard work like this, we again had been emotional and felt pity upon them as they did this work to buy medicine and food for her mother who was seriously ill for ten months. Their father was lost in Malaysia about whom they'd not gotten any information for a long time; either he was dead or alive. Nevertheless, they hoped that he would come back to them one day.
They both left us behind and slowly had walked far away, but we had started to feel completely exhausted and thirsty.
We had a confusion and dispute about the exact route which way to go, therefore Som rummaged through his pocket to get the map. We studied the map thoroughly and got the idea that we had to approach the silent and quiet trail that would go straight to the east.
It was about twelve at noon. We had completed about two hours of trekking.
I felt extremely thirsty as our bottles had run out of water and did not find any place where we could refill the bottles though we were hopefully walking in the search of water, and I felt so thirsty that I could not bear it at all.
"Aren't both of you getting thirsty?" I asked
"Yes, why not? We are also," Jeetu replied, licking his upper lip with tongue. "But, where do we fetch water from?"
"There is no water resource near here," I added.
"Let's walk ahead! Perhaps we may find something," Som said.
We soon were going to die without water, and moreover, we were not seeing even a single home far and wide. We were climbing upside in the hope of getting any home and water to drink.
By the barren field, there lay a small and old hut which was too old as it seemed that no one lived in it.
It was crafted by merely mud, palm leaves, dry grasses, and wood like other houses on the mountainside. We were puzzled a little about the hut whether someone lived in the hut or it was just vacant because we saw nothing near it, neither any cattle nor any noise. We were quite sure that the hut was abandoned. Nevertheless, we once wanted to ensure if someone would be inside the hut.
We crept into the courtyard of the hut. It had a door but not locked, just slammed as the villagers rarely lock the houses on the mountainside though they are outside.
I thought to myself if someone really was inside, then we definitely would get some water but if not, our feet would hurt us more and we would need to walk thirsty, searching for water.
"Koi hunun xa ghara ma?" I called out.
No response came out as we thought no one was in the hut or might be sleeping inside.
'Let' s try one more time," Som said, "Koi hunun xa ghar bhitra?"
We did not get any response even on the second attempt. Finally we thought that no one was inside, so we decided to go back.
As soon as we turned back, one very old skinny woman appeared at the door whose age was more than seventy with wrinkled face and messy long hair. She looked sick and was coughing. She seemed as if she got up just now because of the distraction of our loud voices as she was sleeping perhaps due to sickness.
"Ko ho? Ko ho hajur haru?" she murmured in a low voice.
"Aama, hamilai tirkha lagi raheko xa. yahan piune pani paainxa?" I said. "Eta katai paani bhete nau."
A happiness spread over our faces, thinking now we would get water to drink.
"K bhannu bhako ho?" she asked again.
I guessed she was hard of hearing and could not hear clearly.
"Aama, piune paani paainxa?" I screeched a bit.
"Ae pani khane ho? Pakha!"
She perhaps heard my words clearly now and
went inside. After a few minutes, she came back with a brass jug that was filled with some water.
"Lau babi haru!" She said,"Babi haru, kun thau bata aako ho?"
"Hami Kathmandu bata," Som replied.
"Ae! Eta ghumna aako ho?"
We were so thirsty, we gulped three jugs of water one after another. If we were a little more late to get water, maybe we would die.
"Aama hajur yo ghar ma eklai basnu hunxa?"
"Ho babu,"
"Aru koi hunun na?"
"Xaina babu," she replied.
We spent some time talking to the lady and getting information about the area and villagers. In the meantime, she revealed her painful story before us, streaming tears in her eyes as she said that her husband had died some years ago and they'd never had any child. She was left alone after her husband's death, therefore, she had no one who took care of her and no relative helped her. She had to do all the household chores and other work for nominal income or pension to survive though she had been sick for a couple of years.
It was a really hard life for her like other villagers as I came to know that most villagers have such a hard and painful life on the hilly region and mountainside.
We again just felt pity on her and left the place, having some priceless tears in our eyes.