Trek towards Sandakphu

It has been more than a month I came back from my first ever trekking experience. Last month me and my brother teamed up with 4 of my friends for this trip. Being first ever trek for most of us, we were really excited for this. Perhaps being overenthusiastic, I purchased one 65L rucksack also from UBAC and a pretty good hiking boot from Woodlands. But at the end, I think everything paid off.

We started walking from Manebhanjan on 15th August afternoon. We took a local boy 'Buddha' with us as our guide. The very first thing he told us that he was Buddha, not Buddhadeb the WB CM. Not sure if he was trying to make any political statement! Anyways, we started after covering ourselves with a plastic, as it was raining continuously. But boy! First two kms appeared to be real difficult for novices like us, particularly for me. Perhaps I should have rechecked if I could carry so heavy a backpack. Buddha came to remedy, he carried the backpack for me. We reached Chitrey in the evening and decided to stay the night there. A hotel called Hawk's Nest is available there. We kept some of ours luggage there and started trekking towards Tumbling next day morning around 8 am. We reached Tumbling at 12.30. We stayed the night at Siddartha Lodge. As Singalila National Park was closed due to the monsoon season, we decided not to proceed any further. We also had some time constraint. But next day was like a dream. I got awaken as Soumen jumped from the room, shouting sun has come out. We all came out and saw the majestic Kanchenjunga slowly revealing all its beauty. Clouds disappeared one after another. Sun brought the white icy cover to light, with all its glittering sunlight. Local people say Kanchenjunga family of hills are nothing but Lord Buddha sleeping gracefully. Close look makes the story clear. Kanchenjunga does look like a man sleeping in the eternity. After taking lunch we started trekking again. This was very short. We reached Tonglu in almost 2 hours. It started raining again. We stayed another night at the Trekkers Hut in Tonglu. Buddha went downhill to get some chicken for us. This was another good thing about our trip: we never compromised about our food! Next day, we started in the morning and reached Chitrey around 12'o clock. We took our lunch there and started the return journey. With help of Buddha we contacted a person at Manebhanjan, who is popularly called as "Masterjee". Though we did not meet him, but he arranged a car for us.

The trek was difficult sometime. But we really enjoyed the trip. Whereas it is impossible for me to describe how it was in the hill, but let me just put few of the snaps taken by my friends.

Kanchenjunga

Picture Perfect

Few things which I found important for a novice trekker like me:

1. Do a reality check, can you really trek? Don't just get carried away by what your friends say.
2. Make sure you are not carrying anything redundant. Make your backpack as less as possible.
3. Avoid shorter but difficult routes. Let it take some more time.
4. Take a guide.
5. Most importantly, you need a fit and strong health to trek.