Trekking in Rajkandi during rainy day

In Bangladesh currently rainy season is going on. Most of the waterfalls from this country uses to get youth during this season. I have decided to visit the Hummam Waterfall which is located in Rajkandi, Moulvibazar. We were a group of ten people who wanted to visit the waterfall which was recently discovered.

After arriving at Simangal train station the weather never seemed amicable towards us. It was raining incessantly. Sometime heavily, sometime moderately. After having a light breakfast at a roadside stall, we have hired a micro-bus for 1600 Taka for the whole day. It would take us to Champa Ray Tea Garden and return back at afternoon.

Unfortunately, After Kurma Ghat the road condition wasn’t that much good, and we had to leave the micro-bus at that place. It took 1 hour to reach at that bazaar from Srimangal town. From that point we have started strolling towards the Champarai bazar. The weather was too much murky, so walking wasn’t any problem for us.

After 1.5 hours of walking over the road, we have reached at the Champarai bazaar. During our walking, people from the village were having fun by watching us. Most of us were wearing raincoat, some of us were caring heavy camera. Those people already knew that we were going towards Hummam Waterfall. So those people were only speaking HamHam (yes, they say it hamham).

Few of us were faster during walking, so they had a snakes at the bazaar, and then joined us to walk for another half an hour to reach at the Kolabon Para village. This village is actually a labour (known as kuli who works in tea garden) village. Most of the people are Hindu (Munda cast) there. Houses of the village were made from mud. From the structures of the edifices you could depict the poorness of those village.

We have found people of the Kolabon village were waiting for us under the heavy rain. Somehow they have knew that a group were coming towards their village. Few of them were having jungle chopper (knife) on their hand. Possibly they were waiting to be hired as a guide for our expedition.

We have hired two locals from that village, Barun, and Bhaggo. I have heard that most of the people from that village were reluctant to speak with strangers. So my condition for both of them was, you have to speak a lot, and you are bound to answer any question if anyone ask you regarding the area. They have accepted that happily.

After refreshing by the well-water from the village we have moved towards the waterfall trail all together. It was raining heavily, and interestingly the more closer we were getting towards the waterfall, the rain was getting more stronger. We were happy to trek in the rain forest under rain. It was giving us an experience of raw trekking in rain forest. People normally don’t trek during rainy season. So Most of us were excited about that.

It was raining hard, and all of us bagged our camera safely. Trust me, the environment was so stupendous and it was hard to keep your camera silent. But unfortunately we had to do that. Lots of wild flowers were all around, every single leafs from the plants were green, deep green, an enthralling ambient. I can not express more the situation of standing at the middle of a rain forest in a rainy day. Better try this any time yourself.

One thing I should say, there were plenty of leeches around the path. Possibly 50/60 leeches per person. I mean we had to sweep that much from our body. It was a nightmare, they were crawling over our feet relentlessly. I was lucky enough, none of those didn’t able to suck even a single drop from my body. I was wearing only my shorts, boots with socks. But you can wear anything for your comfortable. For leaches, I prefer shorts, at least you can see them. Most of the leaches were at the Makam Pahar of the trail.

After crossing the Makam Pahar, we have reached at the stream of Hammam Waterfall. People use to say this as Gang(means River). This stream joined with the Kurma river near by. It would take only 30 minutes from that point to reach the waterfall. But everyone of us were standing helplessly at that point. Interestingly there were another group (four member) who have started before us, and was waiting at that point helplessly.

The stream of the water was so heavy that it was even harder to stand there. One of us were pushed 10-15 meters away as soon as he walked inside the water. We had to walk against the flow of the stream to reach at waterfall. It was Around waist high water level at the middle, and the force of the water was immense.

Few of us tried to move further against the flow of the water. But that took 10-15 minutes to move only 5/10 meters. They were almost having cramp to do that mighty task. According to them, it was taking all of their energies to push forward for an inch. Also according to our observation, water level can be more than six feet at some places. Those could be impossible to pass using feet. Few of us didn’t know how to swim. After waiting an hour at there, no sign of stopping the rain, the water level was increasing by the time. So situation was getting even worse. There were no place stand either. In ground it was leeches crawling. In water the washed out leeches were flowing as well. They were catching the standing feet in water.

So we had to return back from there. Sometime you have to prepare for the results against you. Also trekking in rain forest during rainy season was something that we can talk in your old days. Finally the leeches, trust me, if you ever trekked there at rainy days, you’d never fear about leeches, at least from Bangladesh. I can bet about this.

Later of the year I’ve visited the waterfall. You can see the photos and read the article from Here.

Friday, 01 July 2011