Sandakphu Trek

Take on the scenic drive to Maneybhanjyang once you land in Bagdogra or New Jalpaiguri railway station. The route passes by the tourist destination of Mirik and then crosses Sukhiapokhari to bring you to the lovely village of Maneybhanjyang bordering Nepal. We stop in Maneybhanjyang for some time and head towards Chitre which is our base camp for the trek. Its a high land with good open views all round and a small monastery to offer our prayers to..

The climb to Chitre from Maneybhanjyang is very very steep in which even cars have problem in first gear and stop or smells of burning clutch. Since most of the trekkers who come to trek for Sandakphu are beginners, we cut off this difficulty by starting the trek from Chitre

Today we start our trek from Chitre after a good breakfast feeling all excited about the day's trek. We leave for Tonglu and start walking on the trek trail and leaving aside the motor-able road used by the land rovers. We trek through the rhododendron forests on this route. During spring, this route is covered by colorful rhododendron flowers.

Most of the time, this area remains misty. We cross by the small settlement of Lamadhura and then reach Meghma. 'Meghma' means 'through the clouds' and rightly named so. It has a SSB checkpost where we validate our identities and also has a small Chorten - Buddhist Stupa. We have hot lunch here in one of the local family's house. 

From here, it a little climb to Tonglu with beautiful views of the valleys of Nepal and India. We prefer Tonglu as that place is higher and has views right outside our tent or window. The Kanchenjunga massif stands right in front

Today we get the first view of The Sleeping Buddha and the magic of the dawn on the high white mountains.

Early morning we wake up and leave for sunrise view. Our heart flies out to the mountains as we see the Sleeping Buddha being lighted up with the early morning rays of the sun. With a panorama of more than 16 peaks, its a grand view to our eyes. Kanchenjunga, the 3rd highest peak of the world dominates them all.

We can also see Mt. Everest from here from a little hidden corner. After satisfying our eyes with the dramatic views of the mountains, we come back for tea and freshen up to get ready for our trek for the day. We leave after breakfast and as soon as we leave, we enter into the Singalila National Park.

Our trek route is beautiful today through the forest offering us a chance to see lots of wild animals while we reach Gairibas, a village in Nepal. We might chose to break for tea and then head to Kayakatta, a 2 KM gently steep climb. We have hot lunch in Kaiyakatta.

From Kayakatta its almost a flat walk of 4 kms to Kalapokhari - 'Black Pond', marked with furling Buddhist prayer flags and a small Chorten. Watch out for wild animals and birds in the entire trek trail today.

Today, we start bit easy as we have very short distance to cover. Its an easy walk initially before hitting the steeper stretch to Sandakphu for the last 2 kilometers. Keep an eye for Kanchenjunga and Kumbhakarna on your right while walking through the beautiful landscape.

At 3636 meters, this is the highest point of West Bengal and is shared between India and Nepal. From here, you can see more than 20 peaks of Everest and Kanchenjunga range and that of Bhutan.

Sandakphu remains above the clouds most of the time and seeing pictures of dense 'sea of clouds' is not a surprise here. On a clear day, the visibility goes very as far as the plains of Siliguri and the Queen Of The Hills - Darjeeling.