#2: [16-Apr-24]

07-Dec-2015 -- This confluence was visited at the end of my 2-months stay in Nepal. It is devoted to my mother, as it was her birthday when I reached it. Though I planned to visit a confluence a day before, I didn't manage to do that. It took me 3 days to visit it from Kathmandu, where I was relaxing after solo trekking around Annapurna and to Everest Base Camp.

First day I took a local bus to the city Dhulikel. Then I caught a mini bus to Kamalamai, where I spent a night in a hotel. The next day I continued my journey to the confluence by hitchhiking. After changing a bus, a tractor and a van and walking several kilometers, I reached Dhiman. It was the last village before a jungle on the north side. Oh yes, it occurred before that this confluence is located in a jungle. :)

My watche displayed 9:30 am. It was about 10 km from the village to the confluence. "Not so far", - I thought. I hoped to visit it before 2 pm. But I've never been to wild jungles before, so I didn't know how "easy" sometimes it is to cross even 10 meters. Near the village there was a dry river bed that was heading on a way to the confluence. It was surrounded by a thick forest. After several kilometers river bed narrowed and finished before a hill. I found myself in a real jungle far outside of civilization. After this a real challenge started.

As a part of the jungle was located on the hills and mountains, sometimes it was quite difficult to go straight to 27°N 86°E. From time to time I had to climb steep hills with not reliable rocks under my feet. Several times I was falling off them, but fortunately without big injuries. Sometimes I had to bypass them by dry spring beds, often deviating from a necessary direction. After the 5th try to climb up the mountain, I eventually did it. Usually after climbing up, there was one more problem: from another side of a hill there was a steep descent or a chasm. Sometimes it was quite difficult and risky to climb down, and several times I just had to return back in order to find another way. It continued almost the whole day. Up and down, up and down...

Despite all difficulties, the untouched nature in the jungle was just amazing. I met two types of monkeys, one peacock and some other birds there. The grass and brushes were quite high, strong trees were hanging over my head.

I was moving to slowly through the jungle. By the end of a day I was a bit tired. The closest point, I reached the confluence that day, was 2.5 km. But it was already to late to continue looking for it (5 pm), and I had to return back. As I was on a dry river bed that headed to the south, the closest village (Dhalkebar) was on that way in about 11 km. It was getting darker. I heard weird voices of birds and monkeys around me, something was flying over my head. I was alone in the jungle, but actually it was not frightfully for me to be there. I just didn't think about that. The only things I was thinking about, were a soft bed and a hot shower (I hoped to find a hotel in Dhalkebar). It took me about 3 hours to get to the village. Fortunately I found a guest house, took a cold shower and went to bed. There were several insects in a room and only one lizard. I slept well only several hours without being disturbed by insects.

The next day I got up early in the morning and continued my adventure. I chose another dry river bed, that was heading pretty close to the confluence (about 300 m from it). Actually going on a river bed saved me a lot of time. I met several locals on my way, who were going to cut trees. One of them warned me about going alone in jungles (he just didn't know I had a device with GPS).

Although it was only several hundred meters from a river bed to the confluence, sometimes it was difficult to move in a rugged jungle. Again I had to climb up and down the steep hills, using all my energy and experience.

Eventually after climbing down I found a narrow dry spring bed, that headed me straight to the confluence. I was lucky that it was located on a river bed and I didn't have to climb up the hills again. From the north and south side there was a dry river bed, and from east and west there were steep hills. I took several photos of that place, including a photo of GPS coordinates on my smartphone. I didn't manage to get all "zeros" of the coordinate, but I was very close to it. It took me about 2.5 hours to cross just 300 meters in the jungle.

After that I returned back to the village Dhalkebar, where I caught two motorbikes and one jeep to get to the city Kamalamai. There I spent a night in a hotel, and the next day got to Kathmandu by a motorbike and a bus. A man who picked me up that day, showed me several interesting sightseeing and told me about some traditions in Nepalese culture.

Hitchhiking in Nepal was quite better, than I expected, though I tried it only in non-touristy places. A lot of people were hospitable and ready to help me. It was a great adventure for me to take part in this global project-quest, and to get a new survival experience in jungles.