Amazing Adventures in the Lake City Pokhara

█ By Ramesh Tiwari

Nepal is considered an adventure destination all over the world. More than 40 per cent of the total tourists visit Nepal for trekking, mountaineering and adventure sports each year. Adventure tourism is an outdoor leisure activity that takes place in an unusual, exotic, remote and wilderness setting, sometimes involving some form of unconventional means of transportation and tending to be associated with low or high levels of physical activity.

According to the experts on travel and tourism sector, Hard Adventure includes trekking and mountain, rock and ice climbing and these activities are of high risk and require a high level of specialized skill, whereas Soft Adventure represents trips worldwide exploring different activities and destinations.

Against this background, Nepal is popular as one of Asia’s most amazing adventure tourism destinations. The Himalayas, spectacular mountains and rivers offer various opportunities for adventure lovers. Mountaineering, rock climbing ,mountain biking ,mountain flights, trekking, white water rafting, canyoning , kayaking, paragliding ,ultra light aircraft flight and bungy  jumping are also regarded adventures by the tourists visiting Nepal. Everest Skydiving is a unique adventure of experiencing the Nepal Himalayas.

In context to adventure sports, Everest Marathon is held each year in May to mark the first ascent of Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Sherpa, which starts  from Everest Base Camp at 5,356 metres and ends  at the Sherpa village of Namche Bazaar (3,446 m)completing 42 km of challenging Himalayan journey.

Likewise, Annapurna Marathon (42.19 km) , which is organized to celebrate the first successful ascent of Mt. Annapurna (8,091 m)  by a French expedition team led by Maurice Herzog on June 3, 1950,starts from Annapurna Base Camp (4,395 m) and ends in Dhampus village (1650 m) of western Nepal .

Pokhara,the second popular destination of Nepal located 200 km. west of the capital city ,is popular for adventure sports . Pokhara is blessed with stunning panoramic views of Annapurna 1 to IV, Annapurna South , Machhapuchhre (Mt. Fishtail ) , Dhaulagiri (8,167m) and Manaslu (8,163m).You can enjoy panoramic  views of 23 peaks in the Himalayan range  through adventure sports and new tourism products developed in the ‘Lake City ‘ of Pokhara.

Pokhara is also an adventure seekers paradise, with many treks in the Annapurna region starting and ending in Pokhara and adventure sports like Paragliding and ultra-light aircraft taking off from a surrounding hill, Sarangkot.

Paragliding is a popular adventure sport in Pokhara  to experience aerial views of the magnificent Himalayas including Machhapuchhare, Dhaulagiri, Annapurna and Manaslu .Sarangkot, at 1,592 m above Lakeside in Pokhara Valley, is the jumping off point for paragliders and a popular hill for sunrise .

A total of 16 paragliding companies are involved in this business in Pokhara and around 80 flights including tandem and solo flights take off daily from Sarangkot. The best season for paragliding is from Septemeber to April each year.

A foreigner will have to pay Rs 7,500 per flight of 20 minutes to half an hour and Rs 10,500 for an hour long flight. The rate for paragliding for half an hour flight is Rs 5000 for domestic tourists.

Paragliding companies have also started offering commercial paragliding from Banidpur in Tanahun district of Nepal .Gliders take off from Bandipur bhanjyang located at an altitude of 1,215 meters and land at the Piple ground there at 865 meters .As you can experience magnificent view of the mountains and settlements of Tanahun, Gorkha and Lamjung districts, Bandipur hopes to be a popular paragliding spot and hill station after Pokhara .

Ultralight aircraft flight offers spectacular views of the lakes, mountains and villages. Flights are operated almost throughout the year except during the monsoon (June – August). You will fly over beautiful Pokhara city, Phewa Lake, Sarangkot Hill looking  at  Machhapuchhre and Annapurna Himalayas through this flight. The flights take place from sunrise to 11 a.m. and from 3 p.m. to sunset everyday during September to June. Avia Club is the pioneer in ultra-aircraft aviation in Nepal and its aircraft was introduced for the first time in 1996.

Similarly, Skydiving is an adventurous sport where divers jump from flying aircraft with the help of parachute. Alexender Havard, 40, from England became the first person to enjoy skydiving in Pokhara, who jumped from the altitude of 8,000 ft and landed at Khapaudi near Lake Side. Jorge, a Canadian of Venezuelan descent, has become the first person to make a freefall from an ultralight over Pokhara during a test flight on 19 October 2003.

Pokhara has introduced another attraction in adventure sports recently. Zip Flyer is the world’s longest, steepest and fastest zip-line to give you the ultimate adventure experience. Around 1.8 km-long steel cables are installed at Sarangkot to connect Hemja for the adventure.  The Zip-Flyer reaches to Hemja (3,000 ft) from Sarangkot (5032 ft) within 1.30 seconds offering views of the Annapurna mountain range and the Pokhara Valley at a speed of 140 km per hour.

Golchha Organization Nepal and Mangalam Group jointly invested Rs. 130 million to introduce Zip Flyer in Pokhara. A foreigner will have to pay Rs. 5,890 while a Nepali could enjoy the Zip Flyer paying Rs. 3,890 for the single trip of the flyer from Sarngkot to Hemja.

Paragliding, Ultralight aircraft flight,Sky diving and Zip Flyer are thus major attractions for adventure tourists visiting Pokhara .These new adventure tourism products would attract more tourists to beautiful city Pokhara and contribute to promote Nepal as an adventure tourism destination in the years to come.