A description of our ride to Rara Lake, Mugu, Nepal by motorbike. Details and Expenses of the rara lake tour. Just sharing our journey on the motorcycle to make yours easier. Happy Riding.
It was already dusk, we parked our motorbikes heading to the lodge or whatsoever we just need to lay our bones, we didn’t care what. It was our 3rd day riding all the way from Kathmandu. The terrain, the people, the atmosphere were so much diverse than what we used to perceive in our other rides. I still remember before the moment we arrived here, we were riding through the Sinja valley and a mother with her son got so frightened, listening to our bikes she sloped up to the hill clasping her son. That moment got into my head and I was still pondering about how some region of our nation was so underdeveloped that people fear the transportation. At that very instant, we were in Talcha airport, Mugu District.
On Sunday, Feb 21, 2016, we 5 of us started this journey to Magnificent Rara lake, the western part of Nepal. We had to cover almost 2000 km up and down. The excitement was on the peak. However, it had been a while that we hadn’t got our asses hard on our rides.
Also, Read our Trip to Upper Mustang.
This ride got us pretty expensive as there was fuel shortage in Nepal. We had to fill our tanks in the black market. The following are the ride details that we endured in our journey.
Ride Details
Average Fuel per bike: 65 litres*
Total course: 8 Days
Distance covered: 2121 Km
Total expense per bike: NRs 18,000 max. (solo ride)
Day 1: Kathmandu to Kohalpur – 500 km
Highway Rides, Bardiya National Park
According to our schedule, our destination for the first day was Surkhet but my bike broke down. And we had to fuel up in Butwal and it took some of our time. Thanks to Anmol, one of our member from Flo Riderz that he managed fuel in the black market there too. But 500 km in a never ending, straight line highway was quite fatigued. We rode till 10 at night that day and decided to take rest at Kohalpur.
Day 2: Kohalpur to Manma – 250 km
Hilly and Narrow Terrain
We were already back scheduled from our plan so in order to cover that we woke up quite early and left the lodge at 5 am as we had to ride as much as we could this second day. We had our launch in Surkhet and maintained our bike as the hard and rough road would start from their according to locals. Maintaining our bikes took us a bit more time and then we continued to ride the different and narrow terrains closing the day to Manma at around 6 pm at dawn. This place was one of my favourite. It was located on the top hill, one could see the houses in the place from down the highway.
Day 3: Manma to Mugu (Talcha Airport) – 150 km
Offroad, Ice and Dust
Moving from Manma, Day 3 was an amazing day we rode maximum terrain that day. We ended our tarmac at a place called Nagma fueling up our bike again from a local store and they charge 20 bucks more than an actual rate per litre which was pretty cheap comparing to the price of Jomsom while heading to Upper Mustang they charged us about 50 or 60 bucks more than the actual rate.
After Riding to all those beautiful sites and crossing an army check post in Bulbuley, we encountered a new terrain, the icy one. I had never encountered a snow before so the excitement got fueled but trust me riding in the downhill icy trail was quite a pain in the ass. We slid down a couple of times gaining new adventure experience.
Riding on a tarmac, small rivers, ice, dust and dirt we reached Mugu that day and stayed in Talcha Airport, parking our bikes at the hanger. Rara lake was only half an hour walk away from there. The place we lingered was dull and uncomfortable. I personally recommend not to stay in Talcha Airport. However, you can go down to the Headquarter of Mugu district and live in cosy and comfortable hotels.
Day 4: Rara Lake to Nagma- 120 km
The night didn’t go well and we were blaming each other for the hotel we chose. Nevertheless, we ought to move early from the airport because our bikes were parked in the hanger. So without wasting our time we moved towards Rara Lake. The armies at the Bulbuley check post and Talcha Airport had warned us to not to take our bikes inside Rara National Park as it was prohibited. But we didn’t see any boards or any authority to stop us on the way, that took us to the heart of the lake. The terrain to the lake was a big hurdle, though.
There was no happy moment when we saw a glance of the lake.The moment we reached the bay of the lake we danced and shouted and couldn’t think much of all as all those pains, the fatigues, the bruises of the crash just healed out by a glance of the lake. She was magnificent, the tales we heard about her were probably not enough to explain her beauty. We stayed quite listening to her ripples and gazing the beauty as much our eyes could behold. I remember everyone’s face they were shining brightly as they could at that moment.
Later we started snapping pictures and taking videos. The fun part was we brought the Rara noodles in Rara lake as our breakfast. We wanted to go further to the main point or whatever there was but the thickness of ice on the way didn’t let us proceed further and we returned back after taking Rara in our eyes and memories.
We rode till night and arrived Nagma that day.
Day 5: Jumla to Surkhet- 270 km
We woke up with the memories of Rara Lake and decided to visit Jumla as it was about 40 km far from Nagma. We visited beautiful Jumla city, it kinda felt like Ason(a place in Kathmandu) to me and we had our launch in Jumla. The launch was unique, though the delicious brown rice harvested in Jumla themselves.
And again we returned back to Surkhet that same day.
Day 6: Surkhet to Chisapani to kohalpur – 220km
Last night we had a good sleep as we had boozed ourselves and the bed was so much comfortable in the hotel. We decided to visit Chisapani that day. Chisapani was the place where giant Karnali bridge was located. So we maintained our bikes again, fueled them up and checked out from the hotel at around 11 in the morning.
We visited Karnali bridge, had some fish curry which was the particular attraction of that place and returned back to Kohalpur. And decided to stay as one of the bikes was having some difficulty. So, We reached Kohalpur at dusk so we had nothing to do but to have some liquor.
Day 7: Kohalpur to Butwal- 230 km
We checked out from the kohalpur hotel at around 8 in the morning and travelled back home. After about 60 to 70 km of the ride, the bike that has been giving problem halted and denied to start up. We gave her some time to cool down and had breakfast but the consequences were the same. As there was no workshop we toed our bike with another bike. Fortunately, that worked and we reached to the workshop.
The doctor of the bike stated that she (the bike) had some serious problem with a piston or valve and had to operate her. Well, we had no other option after all. The doctor started operating the bike and discovered that the valve had ruptured badly. After 4 hours of wait, the bike was ready but obliged to go slow and steady as the engine segment has just been operated. So in the average speed of 40 – 50 kmph, we arrived Butwal.
Again the sunsetted and time for some drinks. I still cannot retrieve fitly about when and how did I go to sleep that day.
Day 8: Butwal to Kathmandu- 282 km
Ok! the last day of our journey. We checked out from the hotel and began our journey at the same average speed of 40-50 kmph. We reached Narayangarh, had our launch and got a bad news. The highway from Narayangarh to Kathmandu was closed for whole day time due to some constructions purpose. So we had to take another route from Hetauda-Kulekhani-Kathmandu which was about 60 to 80 km longer.
So the conclusion would be if you want to travel, probably you can finish it in 6 days without any distractions. But about taking your motorbikes to the bay of lake, you need to make some high-level calls or just get lucky like us.
If you have any questions regarding this trip please feel free to comment down below.
For more photos and upcoming trips and rides. Click FLO RIDERZ
Check out the video of Rara Ride
