Calling Of Rara
Call of the Wild
An Open Road
Three Bikes
Five Guys with Hunger for Highway
One Guy with Lenses and Roaring Passion
One Camera
And a Pristine Lake calling on at the end of the destination.
Total Days: 9
Off Road: 3.5 Days (300 Km+)
Pitched Road: 3.5 Days (1500 Km+)
Trek: 2 Days
Altitude: 3000 Metres
The first thing that comes to the mind the moment I press the ignition button and the silent, sleepy engine comes to a groggy roar of its own in the morning, is the song………….”Get your motor runnin’…. Head out on the highway…….. Looking for adventure…….. In whatever comes our way!” The head picks up the rhythm, along with the engine that starts warming up, the heart starts beating faster as the flashes of the awaiting highway run in your head. Your whole body remembers what it is like to be out on the highway, your sole on the footpeg remembers the soul of the tarmac. “Get your motor runnin’….. Head out on the highway…… hmm hmmm hmm hmmm……..”
And you start falling in love. All over. Again.
With the air-filter and the carburettor chugging on oxygen, your nostril flares up with the rush of fresh morning air on your face, like a ravenous dog who has picked up a whiff of deliciousness. And you go, go, go…… wishing you didn’t have to stop.. not for food, not for fuel, not for anything.
But you stop. At some point, the tarmac seduces you so bad that you can’t help but stop the bike, get off on your feet again, get down on your knees and caress the smooth coarseness of its being, silently whispering the sweet-nothings to your heart. Asking you to come closer, come further………. promising there is something rewarding up further.
It’s amazing what and how much the bike becomes to you.. or becomes a part of you. It not only transports you to where your heart beckons, but it also helps you do the little things that you must do. Including being the mobile drying machine, being your clothes and underwear hanger while they dry in the sun.
And of course, one has to take a leak, and a pic.
Then the song gets louder again….. “Born to be wild…………………………….” And your heart yelps, “Oh yesssssssss!”
When the going gets tough…. Hell no! WE DON’T STOP!
Because that’s not what we are born to do. Even the brakes don’t want to be called for.
We’ll stop. We’ll stop. Out there. Out there. Listen to the river, they know better. We’ll stop where they come from. They say, you can taste heaven up there.
When you reach a place, a moment, like this, probably not even midway, what does it tell you?
It tells you, “When you reach there, STOP! Shutdown everything, and listen, to the Earth. And you’ll see my manifestation in its unadulterated forms. You’ll see creatures you probably never thought existed, with colours you could never imagine them with. For you to relish the concept of joy, in my boundless kingdom. You’ll meet children, men, women, mothers, grandmothers who will breathe life into your life, just by their passing, with their oblivion of the madness of your cities.”
And you nod your head in solemn deference and head along to what you came for.
As you inch ahead with every mile you leave behind, you are welcomed with the glimpses of what lies ahead, in the waiting since eternity. She begins revealing, slowly and seductively. Like a woman your heart and soul are tied to, who had been pining for your arrival. And now that you are closing in, you hear her whispering to you ever so softly and tenderly, to come embrace her and relieve her of the eternity of waiting she has had to endure.
You, spellbound and hypnotized with her charms and beauty and smell, impatient and leaping forward.
This, this….. this is it! I’m Home! I’m here. I’m HERE!
This moment in time, I want to leave behind everything that I thought was real. I want to leave behind all the modern-ness that I thought is ‘the’ way. I don’t want to think of the cacophony that screams out to me everyday where I come from. I want to leave behind the feeble human language that limits me. I want to hear you now, your language. In my silence. With the melody of your own kinds of sounds, while I dangle my feet into your water. Now tell me, where was I standing all this time?
Wouldn’t you spend your lifetime watching Sunsets like these, with the river flowing underneath the clouds, carrying in its currents the songs of life and joy, to the distant lands like yours and mine? I would!
Back to the real world. And that is the face of reality… oh wait.. did I say Face??? No no, that isn’t ‘face’… that’s not what it looks like
But I would make this journey again, or countless other journeys, even when I have to get back to the world that has too much of everything but the celebration of being. Of being human. My journey doesn’t end here, simply because it reminds me what being human is, reminds me of the values of life, family, togetherness, prerogatives, and possibilities. And most of all, it reminds me what love is, and how little we are, which is valuable for me to be grateful for everything I have. It humbles me.
Rara humbled me, with her fluid grace.
Day 1: Kathmandu to Lamahi (Dang) (Biking)
Day 2: Lamahi to Tallo Dhungeshor (Dailekh) (Biking)
Day 3: Tallo Dhungeshor to Bali (Biking)
Day 4: Bali to Malikabota (Biking)
Day 5: Malikabota to Rara (Trekking)
Day 6: Rara to Bota (Trekking)
Day 7: Bota to Manma, Kalikot (Biking)
Day 8: Manma to Surkhet (Biking)
Day 9: Surkhet to Kathmandu (Biking)
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Travel Photo Story by: Mohan Duwal
Narratives by: Ramesh Lal Nakarmi
Tags: Amazing Nepal, Lake Rara, Mohan Duwal, Rara Taal, Tourist Destination, Travel Photo Story
Categorised in: Food & Travel
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Well written amazing photos. I am also planning a solo ride to rara. I was wondering if It’s possible to ride all the way to the lake? How bad does It get in the gravel? I’m not a strong rider in the dirt.