6 Nights Sandakphu Trek and Adventure Covered Under INR 5.7K

Day 1: NJP to Dhortey by SUV

Day 2: Dhotrey to Tonglu (Trek)

Day 3: Tonglu to Sandakphu (Trek/SUV)

Day 4: Sandakphu to Sabargram (Trek)

Day 5: Sabargram to Gorkhey (Trek)

Day 6: Gorkhey to Srikhola (Trek)

Accomodation: GTA Lodges- Per night expense INR 200/- per head

Transportation (Considering 7-8 people/shared cars)

1) Shared/private car/sumo from NJP to Dhotrey (Approx 450/-)

2) Car from Tonglu to Sandakphu (You can save this by trekking) (400/-)

3) Return car from Srikhola to Darjeeling (300/-)

February 14, 2021

“Before we part”, the ferns reached out to me once again as we left Dhotrey, “We have something to show you”. I felt a gentle brush of green on my right palm, as its leaves flickered in the morning breeze.

It was another daybreak in the hills, and my eyes peered into lucid sun rays flowing through the woods, forming abstract alphabets on the barks of aged pines.

“That’s our story. When you get back to your city and miss us, pen down your time with us for the people there. Remember those oozing green rays from the forest. Take them with you, in your mind.”

I stood awestruck, trying to decipher the alphabets cascading through the old tree trunks, maybe a hundred years old. Dazed with ecstasy tinkering my adrenaline, I realized that for the last time before I left Dhotrey, the ferns wanted to shake hands.

I could make out what those strange alphabets suggested. These were the voices of the woods and the hills. The pines, with their strange gestures, wanted these tales to be legible only to me. Staring at the crowd of trees, I heard them call upon me. The mountains wanted me to ‘see’ their voices before I left the mystic land…

June 12, 2021

Three months down, I find the right moment to oblige my friends in the hills with my pen. Eventually, this turns out to be our story of Sandakphu Trek, that we took in February this year.

“The Roof Of Bengal”, as they say, sits close to 12,000 feet above the sea level.

Quoting my friend and photographer Ritban Basu:

A trek that has all

Mountains, Snow, Forest, Waterfall…

Well, this is exactly how I would tag our journey right from day one.

There have been moments of excitement and despair, getting lost in little-known forest trails with no GPS to bail us out. And I recall the last flask of water running dry, as both of us collapsed on a massive root, separated in the woods from our team, and exhausted. And then we stumble on animal carcasses, probably the remains of a mule’s ankle, left over from a bear or clouded leopard’s supper…

Nature has unfolded it’s mysteries before us across all forms and colours. So, I get back to the time we boarded our SUV from NJP at 9 AM for Dhotrey, our destination for the first night.

Link to Part 2

Rishi Biswas (Link to Profile)

Vlog Link on YouTube (Click here)