Nepal (April 2016): Valleys of Nepal‛s Northwestern Corner
1. Kathmandu to Darchula
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Flying out of Kathmandu to Dangadhi (airport near Atariya in southwest Nepal).
In Atariya. In 2008 I had already spent one night in Atariya before starting my west-to-east traverse of Nepal (see here). It was not a very pleasant place, but 8 years later it looked even worse (dusty, dirty, noisy, hot, humid, mosquito-ridden...). Well, it is definitively not the nicest town in Nepal.
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The drive from Atariya to Darchula takes about 10-12 hours along a narrow, but reasonably good road. We spent a night in the intermediate town of Dadeldhura, and another one on the way back.
Temples and shrines along the road between Atariya and Darchula. Left: Monkey temple outside Atariya. Center and right: cute shrine dedicated to Shiva and Parvati.
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View of Dadeldhura. At 1750m it is much cooler than the Terai plain below. For that reason it is quite popular with people from southwestern Nepal.
Most of Dadeldhura is built on steep slopes. The two pictures below show two adjacent guesthouses, ours being the one on the left in the first photo and on the right in the second photo. The street entrance of each guesthouse is on the top floor, whereas the rooms are located at lower floors.
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The restaurant where we stopped for lunch (to eat the usual dal bhat) between Dadeldhura and Darchula.
We arrived in Darchula early in the afternoon. Dawa and Pasang had to buy fuel and some extra food and hire a local porter (not so easy). Two-three hours later we started trekking.
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Darchula is an elongated bazar town built along Mahakali Nadi, with a couple of parallel main streets. The road ends at the entrance of the town, which serves as the bus station. So, Darchula is essentially car-free. We spent only one night in Darchula on our way back to Kathmandu. The picture on the right shows our guesthouse, bright and colorful on the outside, not so much in the inside.
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Left: the foot bridge over Mahakali Nadi between Darchula (Nepal) and Darchula (India). There is no other bridge between the two towns. Right: View over a portion of Darchula (India) across the bridge. Indian Darchula is significantly larger than Nepali Darchula.
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