SANDAKPHU TREK 2015

Travel story from 27/12/2015 to 02/01/2016

Destination - Sandakphu trek

trekking distance - from maney bhajan (base-camp) 31 KM

normal time to trek - 3 days having 3 night stops.

no. of friends -5

no. of guide -1

total days spent - 6 days.

travel by car = 1400 Km round-trip from Kolkata to maney-bhajan

[this is 1st copy]

Hill-cart road Kurseong

details:

DAY-1 (27/12/2015) started from kolkata at 11:30 am on Swift-dzire car with 5 peoples. they are- me, binni (the sleeping buddha), Jsingh (the sikh), sunil (innocent), Vijay (the virgin-casher). All of them already had their break-fast in morning and, me & vijay thought of having starting milk-tea at sharma Tea near PG Gurdwara but binni was in hurry to drive, so we dropped the plan. We hit NH2 quickly at 1230 noon, after intial traffic at 2nd hooghly bridge and at kona-express. Then, crossed Toll of shaktigard and entered Burdwan town by-pass road-NH2 and lately took right and then left-turn and then took state-highway 2B to Guskhara for Bolpur-town. 

By 2 pm, we crossed Bolpur town and took Suri-bolpur road which we heard is good and having new surface. it is.Truck traffic on this route is heavy. so driving is quit tricky. Anyway, by 3 pm, Sunil took out his pack of tiffin-box which contains parathas and we not complaining, everybody took 2-3 parathas.We crossed suri and hit the Fatehpur road for Rampurhat town, traffic-jam is expected in this part, so we struck at some points, and we thought our plan was wrong, finally, we by 5:00 pm crossed Rampurhat town and hit the Nalhati-Morgram Road. The road is repaired and good in stretches and driving by binni is good but not of highway type. By 6:00 pm, we crossed, Morgram and on the Highway towards Malda. It is smooth road with small pothholes which is manageable. We stopped at BP-petrol pump before Jangipur and have some tea and snacks. we clocked 7 hours of driving non-stop and crossed difficult stretchs, and now the tricky part of crossing Farakka-barrage part which is very poor road, anyway we traveled and finally reached Malda-town by 8 pm and parked our car in Local Gurdwara at Malda. Our night stop.The Gurdwara caretaker as usual was nice and given us food and night bedrolls. we happily grabbed everything and went to sleep, thanking the almighty for such safe stay and good journey. The night was quite peaceful except the noises of snoring, this musicals will become regularly night affair in our trip. And Culprits are Binni and Vijay, sunil. we planned to start next day by 6am.

DAY-2 (28/12/2015) We took more time to get ready, finally at 8am started for Darjeeling and havg not very smooth road. From Malda, we travelled on NH-34 to Raiganj and then upto Dhalkhola, then turn left on NH-31 and after crossing kishanganj, took full Lunch of aloo-parathas at Local Dhaba at around 11:30am. Finally, got good road after islampur, so we quickly crossed Bagdogra-siliguri and took left turn to take old Hill-cart road to Kurseong. The reason is Heritage steam-train started recently by Indian railways, and we took closer look of the train and thrilled that we got such a rear life-time opportunity to see them in action.Later we also saw Diesel run train. The hills of darjeeling created excitement in us, we become more energetic and finally reached Kurseong town by 3pm. Such big town and have good view of whole valley down below. We crossed it easily and finally, at crossing of Ghoom town and from where we took left turn for Maney-bhajan small town and base camp of sandakphu-trek. Slowly the small towns in road become foggy and we felt chill for first time. we crossed sukia-pokhari and took right turn for maney-bhajan. Ultimately, hit maney-bhajan town at 4:30pm and selected Pradhan hotel 2nd floor for 1 night stay for Rs.700 per night (include 4 beds+good blankets, separate bathroom, hot-water avaliable). 

 

    DAY-3 (29/12/2015) We started around 8:30 am with usless luggage into car and went to porter-cum-guide from Association they charges Rs.700 per day (we paid for guide meals separately, usually not mandatory),took our guide Prakash. Then at 9:00 am we quickly went to entry point of Sangalila National park paid entry-fee Rs.100 per indian person. Started our trek. Initially, the trek made of road-surface and which is very difficult to start with, since we gaining height and from plains it take 1-2 hours to adjust and control your breathing and strength. Motto- should be to walk slowly for at least 1-2 hours.

Trek route for reference
 

from BASE-CAMP TO MEGHMA 9 KM is starting trek keep your breath, you are gaining height and enjoy the stop at Meghma (1 Pm)for 1st view of kanchanganja range as sky was quite clear. Enjoyed black-tea there. Good spot and take your time to enjoy.we everybody taken adequate rest. 

After taking good rest and having black tea at this spot, we clicked quite few pix for public and we slowly pushed for our 1 night halt that is at Toglu ( which is further 2 Km) which our guide advised us that it is good place and serves good food. So took his advise and slowly went ahead and we again crossed one "Cozy corner" resturant which is left from the trek road. we tried "desi" (home) boiled egg just prepared by ladies there, which we enjoyed.

Slowly we followed our guide who took short-cuts to reach our day halt at Toglu at around 4 pm.
This place which is first house at Toglu,got very good dormitory Rs.150 per bed and nice seperate dinning tables with fire which other tourists also enjoying. we are provided plenty of hot water and hot food ( now food is expensive here due to height, but we never mind). Everybody quickly went into beds to take some rest.

We are after 7 pm called to take dinner which is simple veg food and again went to sleep but cold is around 2-3 C and blankets are ok, but we are unable to get good sleep.
Day-4 - At 8 am Morning breakfast is quite good Tibetan bread and allo sabji, we are all delighted.

After taking our pix with Legendary SUV LandRovers,quickly left Toglu at 9 am  for Kaliphkhari (13 KM) (our next night stay), we first went for a downhill trek walk for 1 hour entered Sangalila National PARK AREA and we left for Garibas (our afternoon stop).We are now acclimatized by the cold and now all quite comfortable and covering our trek distance now.
Took again rest at Garibas for Black Tea and hot water quickly collected and slowly we now again gaining height and finding our breath missing. anyway we pushed for distance and after some shortcuts we took rest on steps.

We slowly and steadly covered distance and our sleeping buddha feeling the pinch of stamina and we all encouraging him to keep it up and saw our day-stop kalipokhari which very scenic and heavenly to explain. it is a sleeply small village with balck-water lake and we covered our second day trek.

 

we got good accomodation Rs.1100 for 5 persons and agreed with homestay owner and quickly took beds and all are feeling cold and we ordered black tea and hot water for all. Now we planning that whether to take SUV to top or push for walking and challenge ourself. We decided that let face it and opted for walk. Dinner time is 8 pm and we all very hungry and we went to dinning area and took our dinner and went to sleep quickly. One interesting thing, tap-water is frozen and bucket water is semi-frozen and for wash-room this is very ironic and require courage of a Indian soldier.
DAY-5 Next day at 9am, we went for breakfast after getting ready and we took heavy foods becaz of cold weather. We covered sandakphu top by 1 Pm which quite good for our standard.

We finally reached the top but unfortunately it very cloud cannot get any landscape view of mountain range. bad luck. we took rest and ordered black tea. we took return SUV to Maney-bhajan. By 4pm we return base-camp. we quickly went to Darjeeling and it is 31st day so took hotel mayfair at gandhi road.we visited local cake-shops and have our dinner and went to sleep.

DAY-6 next day is new year 2016.
So went to Famous Keventer resturant and got kanchanjanga range in background in our pix.

later in afternon took road to kolkata and crossed kurseoung,siliguri malda by 4 pm and hit the NH-34 to Kolkata and reached by 4 am next morning by driving non-stop.
enjoyed a cold infected trek...