From Shyabru Besi to Dhading: The Ruby Valley Trek

After I was already in Gati with the Germans and Dutch from the Namaste Nepal project, I’ve made a multi-day trek with them before they flew back home. The Ruby Valley Trek is an offbeat Trek, which means that it is not as touristy and you come in contact with the authentic rural Nepali population. But it also means that comfortable beds or electricity are not always available – mostly we just slept in our sleeping bags on wooden boards or on the ground with slim camping mats. But I liked exactly this very well.

This is a little summary of the days with lots of pictures from the 120 km long trek.

Day 1: from Kathmandu to Syabru Besi (Bus)

The first day consisted of a 6 hours bus ride to Shyabru Besi, the starting point of the trek. In the evening we discussed the next day, as it should be for the rest of the trek.

 

Day 2: Syabru Besi to Gatlang (⏲6h | ↔︎ 11,9km | ↑ 1431m | ↓508m)

The next day we climbed from the 1503m high village Shyabru Besi to 2337m high Gatlang.

150 years ago there was war between Tibet and Nepal for sheep and goats. Because of that, the border between this two countries shifted often and Gatlang was built on the Tibetan side – what you can see still today.

 

 

Day 3: Gatlang to Somdang (⏲10h | ↔︎ 15km | ↑ 1809m | ↓870m)

The day with the largest increase in height and also the longest in time.

On the way we passed the holy lake Parvati Kunda, which is named after the wife of Shiva, Parvati. We bought also Yak cheese at a traditional cheese factory.

Somdang was also the highest place to sleep with 3271m.

 

Day 4: Somdang to Tipling (⏲9:30h | ↔︎ 17,4km | ↑ 1090m | ↓2267m)

In the morning the village surprised us with a dance.

At noon we reached our highest point of the trek with over 3800m.

From there we had to go down to Tipling in 2078m – the largest reduce in height. We arrived at dusk, but the way down was beautiful.

 

Day 5: Tipling to Boranggaun (⏲6:30h | ↔︎ 8,8km | ↑ 481m | ↓1011m)

On this day, we had no particular challenge and just enjoyed the scenery.

 

Day 6: Boranggaun to Kaule Thati (⏲5:30h | ↔︎ 10,7km | ↑ 892m | ↓318m)

Again a quiet day with nice pictures on the way.

Upon arrival, we went about 300 meters down to a “hot spring”.

 

Day 7: Kaule Thati to Khaniyabas (⏲7h | ↔︎ 13,4km | ↑ 1034m | ↓834m)

A day with many waterfalls along the way.

 

Day 8: Khaniyabas to Marpak (⏲6:30h | ↔︎ 12,6km | ↑ 900m | ↓878m)

On this day, we had to cross a valley with a river. The water was not too cold and most of us went swimming.

In many afternoons we played soccer with the kids from the villages.

 

Day 9: Marpak to Katunje (⏲8h | ↔︎ 19,3km | ↑ 988m | ↓964m)

We got up very early to watch the sunrise over the nearby mountains.

Then we had the longest distance to our last night on the trek.

 

 

Day 10: Katunje to Dhading and back to Kathmandu (⏲3h | ↔︎ 9,5km | ↑ 558m | ↓839m)

On our last day we should go down actually all the way to Dhading, but our bus picked us already on half the way – and after 9 days of hiking we were not really sad about this. 😀

This entry was posted in East, Sports, Traveling

• asia
• Borranggaun
• Dhading
• Gatlang
• Katunje
• Kaule Thati
• Khaniyabas
• Marpak
• nepal
• ruby valley
• Somdang
• sports
• Syabru Besi
• Tipling
• traveling
• trek
• trekking