Finally penning this after over a full year of the trip.
I had been toying with the Sandakphu idea for a couple years and finally, it panned out towards the end of November 2018. As one may have guessed, It was always a hard decision if this was to be a trek or a birding trip. I decided to partly trek and partly do some birding, kinda have the cake and eat it too 😉
24th Nov 2018: The flight to IXB ( Bagdogra) was a messy one with us getting stuck between two bawling kids one behind us and one in front of us. I tried to jam in my headphones but not much help. I was looking out of the port side window for the Everest and the Kanchanjunga and, see it we did. The pilot didn’t announce ( the good ones do announce that you can see the tallest mountain in the world on this flight ). Perhaps just as well I thought. Since we were flying Jet airways ( the airline was in big financial trouble) , he probably hadn’t got his salary ! Also the super dirty windows made taking an aerial shot an impossibility. All the camera picked up was the dirty window and a blur of a mountain. Manual focusing too didnt help. Sigh…
Our guide for the trip, Shering was at the airport to receive us. We jumped into a scorpio and made our way out of Bagdogra directly to Chitrey. Chitrey was to be our first night halt. Halfway to Chitrey, we stopped by at the Gopaldhara tea estate. Having zero knowledge of tea, we ordered whatever Shering was having. On asking it was “Black tea” which is their fine grade, brewed local style and without adding milk. Since we had not had any lunch, we also ordered some really yummy veg momos from the restaurant below the tea stall. Totally worth it !
Tip: Afternoon flight arrivals at IXB, grab some lunch outside the airport before you head out of the city !
We picked up two cases of water at Manebhangyang and reached Hawks Nest lodge, Chitrey around 6 pm. Chitrey is at around 2542m ( ~8300ft) height.
The temperature difference from the plains was stark. Chitrey was starry skies, windy and very cold. Probably some 5-7 deg C plus wind chill made it feel closer to zero deg C ! We had to pull out our down jackets and wooden caps. We dumped our bags in the room and sat it out in the dining area near the kitchen waiting for dinner. Food was dal rice which was preceded by some nice hot soup and a lot of petting with two adorable plump, we fed cats, that were permanently begging for food.
The room was basic and no heating, though they did have mattresses and blankets/ quilts. Getting undressed for the first night was a game of who goes first. Fingers were numb in the cold and the song I hummed out was ” garam garm sambar mein doob ungli” and I got strange looks for it ! I suggested that we sleep with whatever we were wearing but, was promptly vetoed. This would change over time and I would win this argument I knew 😉 We opened up our sleeping bags and crawled in with the quilt/ blanket over it. Overall the system worked well. We had brought along a steel flask and that helped keep some warm water to drink for the night. This was from my earlier Kibber in the winter experience and it was to be very useful.
Tip: Carry along a steel flask/ bottle on winter trips. And a head lamp too.
25th Nov 2018: In the east, the sunrise is by 6AM. Peeping through the window we got this view.
A quick warm “chai” and Shering took us around the Chitrey monastery for some birding. The very first bird was a Blue Fronted Redstart. We would see this bird pretty much everywhere. We spotted a pair of Chestnut headed Laughing thrushes and a Rufous Breasted Accentor that morning. A blue whistling thrush came in for a quick drink by the stream.
Tip: From a birding point of view March April is the time to visit. November gets pretty cold and the birds by now would have moved to lower altitudes. But November is the time if you want great views of the mountains since the weather is mostly clear.
We wrapped up birding by 8am and sat down for some hot breakfast of omelette and coffee. We had planned for a vehicle to follow us and we loaded the bags into a Bolero . Purba was to be our driver and he was well experienced on this route. The reason why a bolero, while we had the choice of a vintage landrover was to be clear later.
The trail from Chitrey climbs almost all the way to Lamaydhura. Its a one and a half hour hike through a trail and a very pleasant one at that.
Since our lungs were only beginning to get worked out, we had to do frequent halt to catch our breath. My usual saying from earlier hikes was “ Agle mode pe jyada oxygen hai, Aage aa jao ( More oxygen available at the next higher bend, come up !) !”Just thirty mins out and we started to peel off our outer layers. It gets pretty warm quickly walking an upslope in brilliant sunshine. But as soon as one is in the shadows, it gets cool very quickly especially because one has been sweating it on the trail. The first glimpse of the Kanchenjunga is on this trail with clear views of Mt Pandim which is to the west of Mt Kanchenjunga. Enroute we spotted the Red Vented Yuhina and another which was to be rather common, the White Browed Fulvetta. This one looked pretty much like the one in the video game “ angry birds” ! The trail towards the end descends into a shop at Lamaydhura. All I could see on the shop display was alcohol.
But we managed to get some “Appy” apple juice to slake our thirst. After a short rest at the shop, and since were were quite tired, we took a lift the Bolero to ride out the next one km which is a steep climb. We got off the bolero and resumed our birding and walk. I think it was a good idea to bird, since its made us do frequent stops and also gave us much more time to enjoy the views. Had we been just walking , we would have been concentrating on our lungs and muscles to the exclusion of pretty much everything else. ( Thats why hiking and trekking is meditation !) Also, since were were birding, there was no particular rush to reach any point. Any bush or tree of interest was there to stop and investigate.
From the drop off, we walked into Meghma in about an hour or so. All along , the Nepal part is on road left (west side) and the India part is road right ( east side) and one keeps dipping in and out of both the countries on this trail. We organised noodle soup at Meghma for lunch and dozed in the pleasant warm sun that filtered through the windows.
There was no rush to get to Tumling since it was just another hour and a half easy walk. You could see Tumling from Meghma. The cemented road however goes higher to Tonglu and then climbs down to Tumling. After lunch we took the lower Meghma – Gursey- Tuming route. At Gursey there are a few water turned prayer wheels and I saw a white capped redstart there.
The dog that was near the border pillar post at Meghma, was following us all the way to Tumling. The old woman at Gursey wasn’t happy to see the dog since it used to lift the goat kids from her village/pen. The dog got a fair bit of abuses and a few stones which it jauntily ducked and dodged 😉
We got into Shikhar Lodge, Tumling at around 2.30 pm with plenty of time to spare for the sunset. Shikhar lodge is one of the best lodges to stay at Tumling.
The rooms are super comfy and the food is to literally die for. Since it is jeepable to Tumling, one can come here just for a regular chill out break too.
Around 4.30pm we headed out to see the Mt Kanchenjunga sunset in all its glory. What a mountain, and it is the fourth highest in the world.
The light drops quickly and it becomes cold in an instant and, the jackets promptly came on. The dinner was par excellent with some amazing local chicken in a curry form and fried aloo chips. Potato chips, who’d say no to that !
The bong baba trekker on the next table, who was definitely down a “few tots”, was waxing eloquent and called the chef to know the recipe. His repetitions and “wah wah” were too funny to observe ! The cook, a short cheerful Nepali chap , was no doubt amazing. Pretty sure the bong baba wouldn’t recall zilch the next morning 😉 If you want gorge on great food, this is the place to stay , Shikhar lodge, Tumling. Also, this is the last place on the trail where there is regular electricity. So charging up all electronics is most recommended.
26th Nov 2018: Last night the unpacking was a bit more organised with much less stuff outside 🙂 . As usual the wakeup was at 5.15 am to be ready to get out by 6 am. The tea wasn’t ready at so we had to wait out a bit before we could get something warm inside ourselves. While waiting we spotted a few resident Rufous Breasted Accentors just below the seating terrace. A few Yellow Billed Blue Magpies flew in for a quick look at the kitchen leftovers.
We then trudged up to the viewpoint for some morning birding. Not much action and we had to wait for the sun to really come up. Then we spotted red vented yuhinas , green backed tits. A spotted nutcracker flew around in the valley below. The fulvetta also made a few brief appearances. All in all some new species for me, but due to the cold , not many birds at all. March November is the time for birds Shering told me. I noticed that the birds were pretty flighty and seldom still. I got this pegion in flight, possibly a “Speckled Wood Pigeon” .
Speckled Wood Pegion ?
Id initially thought its a yellow footed or a Oriental dove but from the Grimmets, it dosent look like either. But all in all good fun birding, that crisp cold morning.
Whiskered yuhina
The breakfast was uber yummy Dum Aloo with tibetan bread, omelette and coffee. The bread is kinda sweet and like a fried poori , only thicker. It tasted and looked very much like the Goan / Mangalore fried sweet bun.
After tucking in countless breads, and a grand breakfast, we were wondering if we needed to walk again ! groan … !
But, todays walk was going to be an easy downhill to Gairibas and, on a cemented road through the Singilila forest. Somehow a cemented through a pristine forest with the endangered and unique red panda was something we were not very cheerful about 🙁 This was core red panda territory . We got the first view of Mt Everest a little ahead of Tumling. At the gate of the Singilila park a mountain hawk eagle was circling high in the sky. The trail was easy with dense mossy foliage and the birds were pretty high in the canopy. We heard a lot of them but hard to spot them in the dense undergrowth. We saw the Black faced laughing thrush, the barwing, the spotted laughing thrush and Yuhinas on the trail. But no luck with the red panda.
Very Nice !! I like your writing style. Its easy to follow along and gives a really intimate peek into the actual experience of the outing as whole. Great pictures BTW.
Thank you !
Reading this is like following you on the trek. So detailed! Thanks for writing this.
Great read! Lovely pics
Thanks !