The Sandakphu sojourn

“Once the travel bug bites there is no known antidote, and I know that I shall be happily infected until the end of my life” – Michael Palin

I always try to juxtapose the above expression of Michael Palin, the renowned TV presenter and travel writer,  with my feelings towards trekking in particular. Something that started out as an innocuous one time trek to Triund a couple of years ago, has quickly metamorphosed into a major addiction of sorts. Since then, I have tried to religiously convert every conceivable long weekend and my annual leaves into trekking trips.  So, in February 2017, when I had an opportunity to take a week off from work, I decided to head to the mountains again- this time on the Sandakphu trail.  Having travelled with Indiahikes (IH) on two occasions in the past and having had a fabulous experience, I did not think twice before deciding to travel with the IH team again.

My trek journey (albeit virtually) began almost a fortnight before the actual trek departure date – on the WhatsApp group. I got introduced to twenty wonderful individuals with whom I would spend close to a week on the Sandakphu trail.  There was a lot of excitement in the group and none of us could actually wait to meet each other and put a face to the names we had been interacting with.

So after what seemed like an eternity, I boarded the flight to Bagdogra on the 4th of February and was really looking forward to spend the next week in the lap of the mountains- away from the chaos that is Delhi.  Unlike most of my fellow trekkers who decided to spend the evening in New Jalpaiguri/Siliguri, I opted to travel to Darjeeling and spend the night there at a place appropriately named Pahari Soul 😀

I was quite tired by the time I reached the guest house pretty late in the evening and decided to have a quick dinner and hit the sack immediately. I had butterflies in my stomach when I thought about the week ahead. Then it all began!

Day 1 (05/02/17) – And then there were nineteen!

I had the best start to the journey when I woke up in the morning. When I drew aside the curtains, lo behold, I could see parts of the Kanchenjunga range right from the comforts of my room. When the guest house owner mentioned that the sky was never this clear for the past two weeks and that I was lucky to spot the ranges, I was grinning from ear to ear.

Reflection of the Kanchenjunga range on the windows of my room

Sixteen folks from our trekking group were scheduled to depart from New Jalpaiguri to Jaubhari (the start point of the trek), while there were three people travelling from Darjeeling to Jaubhari. One person had to unfortunately drop out at the last minute due to personal circumstances.

There was palpable excitement on the WhatsApp group – people meeting each other for the first time and selfies galore! I strapped on my backpack and set on my way to the Darjeeling Club Taxi Stand which was the meeting point to take the cab. Since I reached a bit early, I walked about the town square marvelling at legendary outlets such as Glenarys and Keventers. 

After a short walk, I returned to the taxi stand and met with Juby and Dharti, my fellow trekkers travelling from Darjeeling. When I met them, my initial impression was that both these girls were long-time friends given the camaraderie and comfort level they shared and I was very surprised to know that they had met each other only a day ago!

After exchanging pleasantries, we played hide and seek with our cab driver and after much effort, we finally pinned down the driver and the cab at the town square. The drive from Darjeeling to Jaubhari was quite scenic and replete with road signs with quirky one-liners. Sample these- “If you love her, divorce speed!” and “Drive like hell and you will be there”.

Road signs apart, we crossed by some interesting places such as Sukhiapokhri and Maneybhanjan and before we realised, we were at Jaubhari.  After descending for about 50 metres on a fairly well laid out staircase, we reached the famed blue coloured Indiahikes tea house where we would be spending the night. 

                                   The tea house at Jaubhari. P.C- Basu Da

There were four rooms in the front portion of the tea house apart from space in the attic which was reserved for the trek leads and the guides. There was a small room in the back portion which served as a dining hall. It was flanked by a beautiful rhododendron tree which had just begun to bloom. We were lucky to find some lunch and we helped ourselves to generous portions before heading back to our rooms. 

Shortly after that, a young boy walked into the tea house and introduced himself as Sushant Ale.I initially mistook him for a fellow trekker and I realised my folly when he mentioned that he would be our trek lead on this trail. Sushant had been with Indiahikes for a while now and had completed quite a lot of high altitude treks. He mentioned that our batch would be his fifth consecutive batch on the Sandakphu slope and that he would be clocking 400km by the end of our trek !  After a brief chit chat , Sushant headed to make final arrangements before our entire batch turned up at Jaubhari. 

Juby, Dharti and I spent some time marvelling at the landscape and forging new friendships with the lovely mountain dogs. Around the same time, we heard some noise and saw a group of people descending the stairs that we had taken earlier, making their way towards us. It was a no brainer that these were our trek-mates – members of the group travelling from NJP. It was a pleasure meeting everyone and I was trying my best to confirm, reconfirm and memorise names of everyone I had just met.  After a brief period of rest, everyone assembled in the dining hall for introductions, document formalities and medical examination. This was followed by Sushant sharing an introduction to Indiahikes, the Green trails concept and the plan for the trek over the next 6 days.

We were nineteen trekkers in total, apart from the Indiahikes team.  Mayank and Jim from Bangalore. Arijit Da from Kolkata. Utkarsh from Ahmedabad, Vishwanath Uncle, Shailaja Aunty and Ramya from Secunderabad , Parth and Priyanka from Indore, Sunny, Kanchan and Richa from Mumbai, Anu di , Anisha and Dharti from Mumbai, Juby from Bangalore, Basu da from Chennai and Nilanjana Ma’am from Pune.

We were also introduced to Buddha Ji who would be our trek guidel. Sushant remarked that Buddha ji was a great asset to him on the Sandakphu trail. Whenever trekkers are not able to see the Sleeping Buddha ranges, he simply compensates by showing trekkers a sleeping version of Buddha Ji 😈 While we were amused, we also silently hoped that we would get to see the Sleeping Buddha range over the course of the trek.

The Indiahikes crew also comprised of Dawa , Subash, Phorba and Shering.

After a lot of friendly banter over medical examination and dinner, we went to bed early so that we would be up in time for the trek to Tumling the next day.

Day 2 (06/02/17) – Jhum Jhum!

We woke up on Monday to shouts of “Wake up ! Wake Up ! Wake up guys ! “. We realised that it was Sushant calling out to us to be ready on time! This became a custom of sorts every morning during the following week , when Sushant would come over and call out to us in the same tone and rhythm.

After breakfast, we were ready to go by 8:30 am. Sushant gave a short briefing on the day ahead and then Buddha let out his famous war cry- “Jhum Jhum …. Yella Yella “and then added a “Chalo chalo” to relieve us of our confusion just as we were trying to decipher what we had just heard 😂

Picking up our backpacks, we took the same set of stairs which we had descended the previous day to get to the main road. For most of us, it was a torturous climb and served as a grim reminder of the days to come ! After a lot of huff and puff, we reached the main road where our friends who had opted to offload their backpacks arranged their bags at the designated spot.  

Subsequently, we set off on the trail finding our way through the pine forest. Enthusiastic as all of us were, we duly stopped at every turn to either put our photography skills or modelling skills to good use 😃 

      Posing enroute to Chittrey- Jim, Kanchan, Anisha, Dada, Utkarsh and Subhash (PC- Anisha and Jim)

The views from the forest were extremely beautiful  but the big mountains were yet to come into sight. We slowly made our way slowly to reach Chittrey which was our first pit stop for the day.

While we were helping ourselves to some tea and biscuits at the tea shop in Chittrey, we noticed a dog that we had seen earlier in the day at Jaubhari. It had followed us all the way and was going from one person to the other to get its share of love and biscuits. Inspired from the sight of alcoholic beverages stacked at the tea shop, Parth jokingly decided to christen the dog Whisky as we remarked that she would be the one responsible to keep the group in good spirits. Interestingly, she kept following us beyond Chittrey as well and as everyone kept calling out to her in love, the name Whisky just struck.  So, not only was she informally anointed as the 20^th trekker in the group, Whisky also completed the entire trek with us !!

                                  Little Whisky- the superdog  (PC- Anisha)

After a brief halt at Chittrey, we started on our way to Meghma which would be our lunch point for the day. As we started walking, I felt as if the weather god was playing hide and seek with us. One second it would be completely clear and the next second, the entire trail would be engulfed in fog.  We tried to walk together as a group to avoid any (mis)adventure. After about an hour, we reached Lamydhura, a small village where we stopped for tea. Visibility was reduced to less than 30 metres. The fog and the hamlet made for a dramatic setting. The Game of Thrones fans amongst us (Mayank and Jim) remarked how trekkers walking through dense fog and making their way towards us reminded them of Whitewalkers.

                                         A hut in Lamydhura, Nepal

When we started on our way from Lamydhura to Meghma, the trail got a little steeper. We had to walk for most part on a motorable but rocky road. We were amazed to see Landrovers plying on such roads. The engineer in Mayank was out in full form as he went on to explain the technicalities of the vehicle 😁

As it was our first day on the trail, everyone spent time in getting to know about each other’s lives as we marched on our way to Meghma. The hearty discussions made distances seem shorter. We soon began to see the SSB checkpost and trudged slowly towards it. After getting our IDs verified, we went on to a small teahouse next to the checkpost where piping hot buffet lunch was ready for us. It was extremely windy and cold and never before had a hot meal of dal chawal tasted as heavenly as it did that day.  

As we sat inside the comforts of the teahouse, the epic battle between wind and fog didn’t seem to relent.  After a heavy lunch, we made our way through the fog enroute to Tumling. During this stretch, there was a point when Utkarsh and I were walking together and suddenly we had a doubt if we were on the right trail. The entire area was engulfed in a thick layer of fog and we could neither see people ahead of us nor those trailing us.  While we were trying to make sense of the route, we suddenly saw Whisky running towards us. It seemed as if she was mocking us for walking so slow and was asking us to buck up and play catch up with her. We tried to keep pace with our guardian angel and she guided us all the way to Siddhartha Lodge at Tumling which would be our pit stop for the night. 

 

                             The village square at Tumling (PC- Basu Da)

Once we reached Tumling, Sushant put us through a quick session of stretching to relax our muscles before we made our way to our designated rooms. We were told that the teahouse had a great view of the Sleeping Buddha but it was mostly hidden behind the fog cover at that point of time. We were assured however, that the next morning, we would get to witness the range in its full glory. After gorging on pakodas and tea, we made our way to the fireplace where everyone jostled for getting the best seat in the house.  We engaged in a lot of bonfire talk, and Sunny regaled us with his singing.  Arijit Da also had us in splits when he sang “Dost Dost Na Raha” lamenting about his friend who had misguided him about the difficulty of the trek terming it as a 'cakewalk'.

Day 3 (07/02/17) – Tryst with the Sleeping Buddha 

While I struggle to get up any time before 6:30/7 am when I am in the city, I was surprised with myself that I was up without any alarm prompt at around 4:30 in the morning. Thanks to the creaky door of our room, I unintendedly disturbed Sunny and Parth in their sleep and to avoid disturbing them any further, I rushed out to the balcony to catch the sunrise. Basu da was also ready and we were fully packed like Egyptian mummies to face the cold and windy morning. I thought it was the coldest morning that I have ever experienced but I was to be proven wrong in each of the succeeding mornings. 

As the first rays of the sun started coming up, I stood in the balcony gazing with absolute amazement at the Kanchenjunga range in a beautiful Sleeping Buddha formation. It just kept getting better and better.  Basu da and I walked in pursuit of the best vantage point to capture the ranges in her full glory. But little did we realise that no matter how many pictures we took, it could never do justice to the beauty and wonder that we could perceive through our naked eyes. It was truly magical to see the first rays of the sun hitting the peak of the Kanchenjunga range giving it a golden tinge. The light slowly made its way down-enveloping the huge sky-punching mountains in its honey-gold embrace. 

                                The Sleeping Buddha Range from Tumling


After witnessing the magic for close to an hour, Basu da and I made our way back to our teahouse to get ready for the day ahead. After our customary group photographs, Buddha Ji gave out his war cry “Jhum Jhum” for the group to march ahead. 

                        The customary group picture at Tumling (PC- Buddha Ji)
                  

We kept walking till we reached the entrance of the Singalila National Park. We saw a signboard highlighting the animals that inhabit the national park. While some of us hoped to spot a few innocent animals such as the red panda, some of the daredevils in the group were eager to spot snow leopards and bears  😈 

                              Signboard at the Singalila National park (PC- Kanchan)
                                                                  
Inside the park, we lost count of the ascents and descents we made. We were racing away to Garibas- our first pit stop of the day and before we realised, we had descended about 1500 feet. The trail took us through dense forests and was extremely beautiful. While we were delighted with the descent that this stretch brought along, we knew that every foot of descent would only mean an equal amount of excruciating ascent – sooner or later. 

Apprehensions aside, we made our way to Garibas where we made a brief stop at the Magnolia rest house. Whisky who was missing since the morning suddenly made a heroic entry – this time with two new dogs as her friends. The group wasted no time in pampering her. After gulping some momos, we started on our way to Kaiyakatta. 

While the distance from Garibas to Kaiyakatta was just 2 km, it involved a steep 1.5km ascent. Sushant motivated us by saying that this was the single stretch which held the best chance for spotting a red panda. That was enough to get us to strap on our backpacks and trudge ahead. On this stretch, I walked along with Anu di and Jim and we had a range of discussions ranging from Gen X vs Gen Y to startups in great detail. As was the case on the preceding day, discussions with friends were extremely potent at reducing the perception of distance and making it a tad easier to keep walking on the trail till we reached our lunch point “Bird’s nest” at Kaiyakatta. 

                       The entrace of our lunch point at Kaiyakatta (PC- Anisha)

While we were a bit disappointed to again have dal chawal for lunch as it had been a constant for the past two days , our hunger got the better of us as we helped ourselves to generous servings of rice and vegetables. While walking along the Kaiyakatta trail, trying to spot the Red panda, we couldn’t help but remember Pappu, the red panda from the Jungle book. One thing led to the other and Mayank, Jim, Utkarsh, Parth and I were soon discussing childhood favourites starting from Swat cats to Dexter’s Laboratory while humming their title songs.

Post our lunch, we had to walk about 4 km to reach out pitstop for the night- Kalipokhri.  Arijit da kept us in good humour by putting across his fundas and theories for not being able to spot a single red panda or for that matter, any animal at all. Half way into this final stretch, we reached an army checkpost where we exchanged pleasantries with soldiers before continuing on the final stretch to Kalipokhri. Kalipokhri derives its name from Kali - black and Pokhra-lake and literally translates into black lake. While I had seen pristine bluish/greenish lakes in Kashmir a year ago, I was very curious to see a lake which was black in colour. 

When we finally reached Kalipokhri, we made a brief halt but it started to get very foggy again. So, lest we go off track, we decided to continue to our tea house and decided that we would pay a visit to the lake in the morning.  

                           Kalipokhri Lake(PC- Basu Da)
                                          
We kept walking till we reached Pandim lodge, our pitstop for the third night on the trek.

That night, Sushant and Buddha Ji regaled us with stories of Kalipokhri and the legends associated with it.  Buddha Ji mentioned that there was a local belief that Kalipokhri is the footprint of Lord Shiva. Sushant also narrated stories about Nanda Devi – the highest mountain situated entirely within India and the conspiracy theories associated with it. His stories quickly brought back fond memories of the Kuari Pass trek and the books penned by Eric Shipton and Bill Aitken on the venerable mountain goddess.

After the story telling session, we prepared to have our dinner and observed that it was dal chawal yet again for dinner but I felt that the ghee laced version which we had that night was the best one we had during our entire trek.

When it was finally time to hit the sack, Sunny warned us of dire consequences if we dared to wake up early and disturb him in his sleep 😜

Day 4 (08/02/17) – Treading new highs

As we woke up in the morning, we saw that frost had covered most of the outside surroundings. As we got ready, Sushant mentioned that it would be the trek to Sandakphu would be the shortest one of the entire trek. This was received with a lot of relief and happiness in the group. And there was also a lot of excitement to reach the highest point of the trek during the day’s journey.

So, off we started from Kalipokhri!  As we traversed our way through small village setups, we were surprised that there were hardly 4-5 families making up a settlement. Most of the households seemed to rear goats and there were nice fences for housing cattle. It was at this time that it occurred to me that apart from cattle, we would also get to see yaks on this trail and just as I was wondering why we had not seen one on our way yet, we reached Bikheybhanjang where we saw a few yaks grazing. Sushant warned us against going near the yaks lest we provoke them into aggression.

                                      Approach me at your own risk (PC-Kanchan)

We chose to stay safe and enjoy the sights of the yaks from a distance.  Bikheybhanjang diabolically translates to “valley of poison” though we wondered why. After a brief halt, we continued on our journey to Sandakphu top. For most part of the day, I had Anu di and Jim for company and it was a great delight to continue our discussions on a wide range of topics. 

                         Scenic route from Bikeybhanjang to Sandakphu Top


Slowly and steadily, we made our way up on the steep incline and reached a resting point at the foot of a small hillock. We unstrapped our backpacks and made a dash to the top of the hillock.   It had a nice view of the Sleeping Buddha range and we took turns in getting photographed in front of it. 

The group on top of the mini hillock (Juby, Dharti, Basu Da, Priyanka, Parth and Mayank)

At this stage, we started to see the huts dotting the Sandakphu landscape at a distance. While it looked as if it was just around the corner, it took us about forty five minutes to finally reach the top. As soon as we reached there, we congratulated each other and I really felt happy for two people in particular- Kanchan who was struggling with knee problems in the preceding days had persevered and was really gutsy to continue on the trek and reach the top point of the trek. The other was Arijit da. It was his first trek as well and while he did feel stretched out in the initial couple of days, he got to Sandakphu top like a boss 😎

As we stood at Sandakphu top, in front of us was the Sleeping Buddha range in all its grandeur. While the Everest range was in its vicinity, we couldn’t spot it because of the cloud cover. 

View from Sandakphu top

After a brief halt at Sandakphu top, we made our way to the Sandakphu campsite. When we reached the campsite after a short trek, we were greeted by tents which were already put up by the crew.  This was the first night when we would stay in tents during the course of our trek.

There were two things that stood out when we reached our campsite- First was the vantage point since the entire Kanchenjunga range was right in front of us and the second one was the windy conditions there. Never had we experienced a place this windy. Every second that we were there inside our tents, we felt our tents would fly away, carrying us with them. Since we had a short day, we had lunch at the campsite after which most of us retired to our respective tents. 

                                                    Sandakphu campsite (PC- Basu Da)

                            The group along with Whisky at the Sandakphu camspite (PC- Basu Da)

In the evening, the entire group got together to play Dishkaon –a game where the group formed a circle and when a particular individual's name was called out, the person standing on either side of that individual had to be the first one to shoot the other one while shouting 'Dishkaon'. Sushant who moderated the game also ended up winning it thanks to his god level response times. We were in splits for most of the game because of the funny antics of everyone who got out. Later that evening, when we went to see the sunset from near our campsite, it was an experience like never before. We were standing above a bed of clouds with the Kanchenjunga ranges at a distance with the sun slowly going down on the other side. For a while, I fidgeted with my phone camera but then I put it away and just enjoyed  nature’s beauty playing out in front of us.

                                                                Sunset at Sandakphu 

That night was the coldest one in our entire trek. We had a full moon that night and the winds kept growing in its intensity. We sat huddled inside the dining room around the angithi. One thing that made the night a wee bit better was the heavenly gulab jamuns that were served over dinner. Never before had gulab jamuns tasted as heavenly as it did that night. 

                                        Huddled around the angithi to beat the cold ! (PC- Jim)


After having our dinner, we rushed to our tents and quickly made our way into the sleeping bags. As we called it a night, we let out a silent prayer for the tents to stay intact in face of the ruthless winds.

Day 5 (09/02/17) – Nostalgia galore

We had a disturbed sleep that night thanks to the cold fuelled by the winds.  Buddha Ji had told us the previous night that he would taking the interested folks amongst our fold to watch the sun rise the following morning and had requested us to be ready by 5:30 am.   I somehow mustered the courage to wake up by 5 am and then reluctantly made my way out of my tent. Buddha Ji then led a team of three comprising of Basu da, Anu di and myself and we walked towards the sunrise point. The cold did not help one bit – while Basu da raced ahead in anticipation of being there at the point in time to capture the beauty of sun’s play through his DSLR, Anu di and me trudged ahead and slowly made our way to the top. The view from the sunrise point left us agape. It seemed like we were on walking on clouds and the mountains seemed a handspan away. Starting with the Sleeping Buddha range on our right, it extended to the Everest range in the left comprising of Everest, Lhotse, Makalu, Nuptse and then the Annapurna range to its further left. 

                                                      Sunrise at Sandakphu


After spending close to half an hour watching the sunrise, we made our way back to our campsite. After having our breakfast, we picked up our packed lunches before starting on our way to Sabargram.

Half an hour into the trek, we were in for a visual delight. We were walking in a large meadow and it was probably the most beautiful stretch over the past five days. We crossed an army camp whose name eludes my memory. It was amusing to see Old Monk bottles tied to wires and hung across the perimeter fence. A soldier told us that its purpose was to alert them from the noise made when an animal would come in contact with the bottles.

                                      Yaks grazing on the meadows

After about an hour of walking from the army checkpost, we reached our lunch point. I quickly devoured the Tibetan bread and potato curry that we were carrying and headed to fill our bottles with water from an adjacent stream. 

Post our lunch, we started on our final stretch to Sabargram. I was walking with Anisha and it was fun to go on a nostalgia trip – what started off as a discussion about Amitav Ghosh and his Ibis Trilogy quickly shifted to a range of topics including a discussion about our childhood especially about the common experiences we all as kids shared when we would go to our grandparents’ houses during school vacations. This is one thing that I really like about treks. We have a tendency to hide many things in our memory palace and we seldom get a chance in our busy lives to go down that rabbit hole to relive those memories. All it takes is a simple conversation to bring a barrage of memories rushing to your mind!

So as we walked discussing, before we knew we were at Sabargram. Anu di had a surprise for us as she showed us a snowman that she had created. Our pitstop for the night was the closest campsite to the Sleeping Buddha range on this trek. While we would go closer to the ranges the following morning, this was the nearest that we could get to camp on this trail. 

                                       Sunset at Sabargram


As we sat around the angithi in the dining room having our soup and popcorn, we hoped that the night would not be as cold as the previous one. We had an early dinner and while the rest of the folks retired to the tents, a group of us including Mayank, Jim, Arijit Da, Utkarsh, Anisha, Juby, Dharti, Ramya and me decided to stay back in the dining room for some time as we had an absolute laugh riot regaling each other with our experiences and idiosyncrasies of people. As the fire in the angithi grew weaker, we made our way to our tents bidding a good night to our friends. Just as we were about to about to hit the sack, we found an innocent Whisky searching a warm place to spend the night. The only thing that we could do was to arrange a spot in the balcony section of our tent. While it was not the best place, we hoped that it would atleast protect her from the cold winds.

Day 6 (10/02/17) – Om Mani Padme Hun

When we woke up in the morning, there was frost all over our tent. It was quite cold but the group got together for watching the sunrise. 

                             Pehchaan kaun ? The cold did this to us 😅

We were quite excited as it would be the day we would be getting to Phalut top which would be only 18km from the Kanchenjunga ranges (from an aerial distance POV).

Unfortunately, the group had to be split into two on that day. Twelve of us opted to trek to Phalut top and then make their way down to Gorkhey (21 km overall) while the seven folks from the group opted to take the option of trekking directly to Gorkhey (12 km overall). While the cold had made things difficult for a lot of us, the steeper section of the trek in the preceding days had also taken a toll on the knees of some folks – particularly Mayank who already had a niggle in his knees prior to the start of the trek. Buddha Ji took the responsibility of guiding the group directly trekking to Gorkhey while Sushant and Dawa decided to walk with the group to Phalut top.

So after bidding temporary goodbyes, we started on our way to Phalut top. If I thought the route to Sabargram was beautiful, the trail to Phalut was even more beautiful. The Sleeping Buddha was more prominent than ever before,  dotting the landscape to our right as we raced on our way to Phalut. 

                                                              Enroute to Phalut


After half an hour of our walk, the Everest range came into full view to our left. We had never seen the ranges this clear over the course of our trek. 

                                             Makalu, Lhotse and Everest dotting the landscape

                      Selfie enroute to Phalut (with Parth, Priyanka, Dharti, Anisha, Jim and Anu Di)

The sky was crystal clear without a single cloud dotting the sky. We just hoped that the weather conditions would hold good till the time we reached Phalut.  The stunning views did not tire us one bit and we reached Phalut quite comfortably. After taking a short tea/Wai Wai break, the group made its way to Phalut top. It seemed as if the mountains were deceiving us as we trekked on a steep section. Just when we thought we were at Phalut top, we would see that the mountains would give way to another section which would rise higher. After much effort, we finally reached Phalut top in twenty minutes.

                                                          With Arijit Da and Utkarsh

No words can do justice to the view that was on offer. The Sleeping Buddha and the Everest range- Too much grandeur in a single frame. I felt a sense of calmness that I had not felt in a long time and I let out a silent chant- “Om Mani Padme Hun”.

                                                                              Sushant - our trek lead and champ

                                                                   With Jim and Anu di

It was truly magical. We got together as a team and thanked the powers that be, for giving us an opportunity of a lifetime to be there- standing there at that moment, savouring every bit of the experience.

                                                           View from Phalut Top

Nature brought out the creativity in all of us, especially Parth who directed the team to pose for a wide range of dramatic photographs. After spending about half an hour at the top, as we were set to go, I looked around and took in one final mental map and imagery of the entire place before I started walking down. This was indeed a moment of a lifetime!

As we trekked down our way to Gorkhey, the group was all pumped up and we marched along singing together. But the enthusiasm dried up a bit as we started to feel hungry. Arijit da threatened Dawa of dire consequences if he did not come clear on the exact time it would take to reach our lunch point 😂

The witty exchanges kept us in splits. Dawa was relieved that no longer than 10-15 minutes after this exchange, we were at the lunch point. As we having our lunch, my blisters had started acting up and I found it quite painful. But as was the case in the preceding days, Anu di was there to my rescue. She was carrying this magical tape which she kindly rolled around my feet and it did wonders. At that moment, I felt a huge sense of gratitude towards her and reflected on the unconditional love that I had felt from everyone on this trek.

Thanks to her, I was up on my feet and we started on our final lap to Gorkhey. We walked through a beautiful bamboo forest and while Sushant had asked us to be alert to spot a red panda, it kept eluding us!   

                                             Bamboo forests enroute to Gorkhey (PC- Anisha)


The bamboo forest gave way to steep downhill sections which had to be carefully negotiated.  While many of us were delighted to trek on a downhill section rather than an uphill climb, reality struck sooner or later, when we realised downhill section was more painful than what most folks had imagined. As we kept walking, we started hearing a noise that (we were sure) was coming out of a waterbody and we realised that a settlement was nearby. That motivated us to pick up pace as the forest opened up to a stunning view of the Gorkhey village flanked by a river with the same name. As we quickly descended and traced the path to the village, we saw Whisky there waiting to greet us. The other group who had trekked directly to Gorkhey also reached around the same time and contrary to what we all thought, the 12km walk was not a cakewalk either and was of comparable difficulty to the trail the Phalut group had taken.

The group gave standing ovation to Arijit da, Utkarsh, Dharti, Jim and Anisha as they made their way to the village 😀

                                                         Gorkhey village

                                                        Our dining area at Gorkhey
After treating ourselves to some hot pasta, the group congregated in the dining hall for the certificate ceremony. Everyone shared their experiences and when it was my turn, I had a lump in my throat. I had so much to talk about yet I couldn’t express myself the way I wanted to. Here was a motley group of individuals (most of them who were meeting each other for the first time), and yet there was so much of love and we all became an inseparable close knit family within 4-5 days. Perhaps this was the reason I had come to love treks so much!

Juby, Priyanka, Ramya were the stars of the trek and were felicitated with special certificates.

What was also special was that Parth and Priyanka were celebrating their first anniversary the following day. Buddha Ji was so sweet that he prepared a special cake for both of them to commemorate this special occasion.

After our dinner, we all had, what was perhaps the best night of the trek. We all let our hair down for a night of music and fun. It was a night which would remain with most of us for a long time to come 😆

Day 7 (11/02/17) – Bidding Adieu only to meet again

As we set off to Sepi in the morning, the group was to split in Ramam as there were folks who had to reach NJP on time for taking their onward trains. Contrary to my expectations, the trail from Gorkhey to Ramam was extremely beautiful. After an initial 100-200 m ascent, the forest cover opened up to a small village which amazed me with the simplicities of life in the mountains. Kanchan and I had discussions around how mountain life seems so romantic yet how it is replete with so many hardships. The village soon gave way to the forests again which had many beautiful sections having small waterfalls, brooks and some mini bridges. Slowly and steadily, we reached Ramam. Vishwanath uncle and Shailaja aunty had been great benchmarks for us- not only as good human beings but also as a married couple and it was a joy to see their romantic side come to the fore. 

                               The sweetest family, hands down !  (PC- Parth and Priyanka)

The group also made sure that Parth and Priyanka had their anniversary photoshoots in the stunning backdrop of nature.

                                             Ajab prem ki gajab kahani  😀


After some group selfies and photographs, the group parted ways as Arijit Da, Utkarsh, Kanchan, Sunny and Richa boarded a cab to NJP. 

                                   Selfie Le Le Re at Ramam

Mayank took the lead in changing the sombre mood of the group by singing a witty “Babul ki duaein leti jaa” while others gleefully joined in.

Post the goodbyes, we continued on the way to Sepi. Basu da shared his experiences of his life especially about Couchsurfing - how he has had the opportunity to host various people around the world, and also how he has been welcomed by hosts when he has travelled abroad. Jim, Anu di, Anish and I kept walking as a group discussing about myriad topics and there was a unique moment when Anu di and Jim overtook Juby – even though it was just for a moment. Juby had always had a record on the trek for reaching the destination atleast 30-45 minutes before the others did 😎 So, this was a rare record of course!

We continued our friendly banter as we reached Sepi and took turns to be photographed under a suspension bridge. 

Sandakphu trek -Done, Dana , Done !!

Once the entire group got together, we had a quick lunch before we boarded a cab to Jaubhari. Sitting in the front seat, I got to listen to some nice perspectives about life in general especially from Basu da who shared about his experiences about how he started to trek. When we reached Jaubhari, it was already dark. We rushed down the stairs to pick up our bags which we had left at the start of the trek. On our way back to the road while taking the stairs, we had a flashback of sorts- taking us back in time by 6 days when we took these same set of stairs as we started on our journey to Sandakphu and what a journey it had been. 

We bid adieu to Vishwanath uncle, Shailaja aunty, Ramya , Nilajana Ma’am, Dharti and Juby as they boarded a cab on their way to NJP while Mayank, Jim, Anisha, Basu da and me boarded a separate cab to Darjeeling. 

As we sat in the cars reflecting at the past few days , gazing at the bloodred moon in the sky, the silence was broken by the cab radio blaring cult Bollywood songs from the 90s which we not only started humming but also started sharing trivia about them. We finally reached Darjeeling at around 9pm at night and then post our dinner, we all hit the sack. Cliched as it might sound, it had been an amazing week which had given me fond memories of a lifetime.

As I lay in bed feeling bad about returning to Delhi the following day - away from the mountains and the wonderful people I had befriended on the trek, I remembered some lines narrated by Utkarsh in the dining hall at Gorkhey-

Sitaron ko aankhon main mehfooz rakh lo

Bahut der tak raat hi raat hogi

Musafir hi hum, musafir ho tum

Kisi mod par phir mulaqaat hogi

                                                                       The family !