“Once a year, go somewhere… you’ve never been before.”
YouTube channel: Travel Freak
It was one of our most awaited trips. We took some tiffin on the way. The actual journey starts from Rajabhatkhawa check point, taking permit after paying vehicle charge and per head tourist charge.
From this check point Santalibari is straight 15 kms drive through the Buxa forest. Santalibari is the entry point of Buxa trek.
We did our lunch from a local momo shop and started our trek. The village trek association here has a small counter to organise the trek upto Lepchakha.
From here you need to take a guide along with a local gypsy for 2.5 kms on a flat route through the forest to reach the foothill and then the uphill trek route begins.
As this was our first trek in uphills, within few minutes we started huffing and puffing. If you want to complete the whole trek, you have to carry own water bottle and a trekking pole for stability. There is a view point at about 1 km from the trek, where you can get a beautiful view of the valley.
After almost 1.5 hrs, we reached Buxa fort. Though we see only the ruins of the fort today, there is a deep history behind it. This fort once belonged to Bhutan king, was captured by the British in 1865. British used it to detain the freedom fighters here. Later in 1959, when Tibetan monks escaped Tibet due to Chinese invasion, they used it as a refugee camp.
Once during the pre-independence time, the prisoners wrote a letter to Rabindranath Tagore who was in Darjeeling then. He replied to them (On 2nd June, 1939) which has been engraved on the fort wall.
This was 2nd in notoriety after the Cellular Jail in Andaman. After Indian independence, this fort was abandoned.
You can further trek upto Lepchakha, located at the top of Buxa Hill.
As we were too tired to do the trek, we got back to Santalibari near about 5 p.m. Here our personal car was waiting for us and then we headed towards Jayanti.
We had booked Rovers Inn Jayanti which was an hour journey from Santalibari. As darkness descends faster in forest area, there was a calmness among all of us while driving through the dense Buxa Forest.
As we were too much tired, we had our dinner early (within 8 p.m.) and took rest for rest of the evening.
This resort is surrounded by the Bhutan Hill and the Jayanti river flows just beside it. In winter Jayanti riverbed is fully dried up and is full of white pebbles and boulders, that add more beauty to the place.
Next morning we woke up late and enjoyed the beautiful scenario of the Jayanti river from the balcony of the resort. After having our breakfast we got ready for our next trek. For this the owner of our resort arranged a guide along with a gypsy.
Jayanti river flows between Jayanti and Bhutan Hill. As the gypsy goes through the stony rugged dry riverbed to reach Mahakal, it’s not possible to do Mahakal Trek during rainy season. After crossing the river there is a man-made bamboo bridge which is decorated nicely with Buddhist Prayer Flags. After crossing the bridge there is a notched narrow lane through Bhutan Hill that leads to Chhota Mahakal within 10-15 minutes of walk. A little further there is a small waterfall near Mahakal which is almost 2-3 minutes of walk. You can spend hours just sitting beside it.
We gave Pujo here and then returned to Jayanti River. Our next trek was to Pokhri lake.
The Pokhri (means “Lake”) is located at a distance of 5-6 kms from Jayanti. This is a sacred pond to local people. The lake, popular for its huge population of cat fishes (Magur) and turtles, is surrounded with greenery all around. Travellers feed the fishes in the lake with puffed rice.
It was a steep climb ans we were gasping for breath. After about an hour of trekking we reached the pond. There we fed the cat fishes and then took some rest.
Our last destination of this trip were Bhutia Basti and Chunia Watchtower. Our guide arranged the safari from the forest range office. At about 4 p.m we reached BB Watchtower. Despite waiting for an hour, we didn’t get to see any wild animal. Some peacocks and deer were seen from the far. The sun was setting down and we had to leave for our home, so we didn’t proceed further for Chunia Watchtower.
While returning we got to see a wild elephant on our way. This was the end of this trip. At about 7 p.m. we headed towards Jalpaiguri.
This was my 2nd trip with my friends. On the day of journey we started from Jalpaiguri at 10 a.m. It takes 3-3.5 hours to reach Buxa from Jalpaiguri via Alipurduar.