A glimpse of the highest peak in the world

A long gap, almost forgot when I last wrote a blog. I thought of documenting some of the walks and travels so many times but could not manage much time to sit and write. Now sometimes I feel that probably I do not have that patience to recollect and write. Wish there were some device which could record one’s thought and convert into text.

Enough of introduction; had a wonderful Durga Puja!! Just after the eleventh day of Puja, I started for Sandakfu. This is a place in Northern side of Bengal which offers a magnificent view of Mt. Everest. There are in fact very few places in India which offers a clear view of Sagarmatha (Everest).

As the trip to Sandakfu was pretty hurried one, did not get time to do some study on the place overall. This is not exactly my nature. Wherever I go, I try to get some information about the place beforehand.

This time I just packed my bag and dropped at my friend’s place on the day of journey.
She screamed, “Are not you taking a jacket!”
I said “No! Why, is that necessary?”
“Well, Sandakfu is the highest point in West Bengal. It is somewhere around twelve thousand feet. It must be cold.”
“Oops!!!” I was happy though. The facts sounded cool.

I was very happy throughout the day and got it confirmed after a brief browsing that the facts are alright indeed. Managed to get a jacket which helped later when it was sub zero at night…

Train journey was great. One of our friend’s mother joined us for this trip. She is an avid traveler. She goes to lot of places for bird watching. She is associated with a very old club of nature enthusiasts called “Prakiti Samsad”. This club is based in Kolkata. They are the first to publish a nature and travel magazine in Bengali, first of its kind. “Aranyak”, they named it. The magazine is quite informative and the lady is pursuing her hobby very seriously. She writes in the magazine, goes for regular treks to different places in India to get glimpses of different species of birds. It was very different for me and I was completely enjoying the conversations.

Well, we had to hire a land rover from Mane Bhanjan and reached Tumling on the first day. That place falls in Nepal. This is bit funny. I did not even know about this. Well, I really stepped into and spent one night in foreign land. That too without a passport or for that matter any sort of checking. First comes a place called Chitrey when you start from Mane Bhanjan. This place offered us fantastic views.

After Chitrey the road condition is pathetic, primarily because it is a trek route; not a road meant for vehicles. But unfortunately vehicles do ply on that. It feels odd to see some trekkers gasping for breath and vroom crosses few four wheelers.

Next day morning, Kanchendzonga was visible from Tumling. The place where we stayed was tiny but the food that we had was real yummy. Night was cold but the sunny morning cheered all of us. We reached Sandakfu at around noon. Last stretch of road for Sandakfu was exactly similar as Zoro’s mark. It was a real difficult job even for the land rovers. But that machine really did wonders. We all fell in love with this vehicle. Our driver, Pasan was telling that they do not use the 1950’s engines anymore; they had replaced those with Tata Spacio’s ones.

Sandakfu currently has more than one accommodation options, all are at the same place. We ate like gluttons until our stomachs got full with organic vegetables and tasty chapattis. Few hours of chatting and then a long episode of Sun set. I walked alone a little bit far to get somewhat good angle for shooting. Came back only when it was dark and wind started to blow heavily. The place was amazing.

Oh, and forgot to mention. The whole day, Kanchendzonga range (from at least Kumbhakarna to Siniolchu) was visible. This of course added to the beauty but the Everest range was completely covered with clouds. I did not even have the faintest idea how the highest peak of the world would look like, I was only praying to God for a cloud free day.

Next day morning was definitely one of the most cherished moments of my life. It was very windy and cold at dawn. There was a large crowd waiting for a glimpse of the first ray of Sun. I was busy at shooting Kanchendzonga range and trying hard to stabilize my tripod. After one hour or more, someone screamed, “Everest!!”

I looked left and it was a magnificent view. The whole Everest range was clearly visible and it was big in size. Initially I thought that it would be tiny, it would be distant and difficult to get a proper view. On the contrary, it was huge and looked lovely in the morning golden light. I was still not convinced and only believed when I saw a photograph back at Tumling. It had all the peaks marked and that matched my shots. Everest and Kanchendzonga offered us clear views throughout the day. Everyone was very happy and excited.

Back at Mane Bhanjan we had quick lunch with steamed momos. This is one thing that you get everywhere. It was delicious. We started for Darjeeling shortly after. Darjeeling is one of the places mostly thronged by Bengalis. For me it was the first time. Road to Darjeeling was ultra smooth compared to one of those at Sandakfu. We hired a jeep and it took close to one hour and a half to reach.

We headed straight towards the Mall. Checked in a small hotel near the stable, dumped our bags and came out as soon as possible. Excitement was still running high as we saw photographs of everest range at Das Studio. They have a pretty good collection of old photographs on display. Had a great dinner at one of the most favourite restaurants. I forgot the name. They have a huge collection of cookies and cakes too. Later sometime we visited the same place for evening snacks. The place is quite old and had a charming feeling. If you are in Darjeeling, you can not avoid the crowd much though. But I like these places because lot of people essentially means a lot of different activities. This provides good opportunity to observe. When I do not carry camera with me, I still compose frames, think of angles and look for expressions.

Darjeeling is a beautiful place. Sit on one of those wooden benches near the Mall, look beyond the clouds and you will see Kanchendzonga smiling nicely at you. I watched the group of old gentlemen laughing at silly jokes and bathing in mildly warm Sun rays at dusk. Children were having ponny rides. One gentleman was sketching the mountain range on the next morning. I was chatting with some local school boys. My camera was hanging from my neck and couples were approaching me to help them with a snap. It was truly refreshing after the Sandakfu trip. This hill town is quite old. I was completely soaked in the atmosphere.

Next day, we had a quick visit to Tiger Hill, Batasia Loop, Ghoom etc. That was pretty much like the usual city trips. But sometimes these breathers are needed so that I can appreciate the treks and the climbs again. Jokes apart, I will also go back to Darjeeling. The tea gardens are beautiful; these come on the way down to NJP. Tiger Hill was very very crowded again.

It was full of cloud, still people were going mad and every random peak was being pointed as Kanchendzonga.

To be continued…