Sleeping Buddha Part I

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You know you read about it, you listen to a lot of stories, go through YouTube Videos, stalk many hashtags, just to really have an idea, what is the fuss about this place, that you really want to visit. I heard about Sandakphu while I was on the trek in Kanchendzonga National Park in May’18. One of my guide back then, claimed this trek to be the easiest and how he kept probing me, why I did not do Sandakphu first. I guess, everything happens, when it is suppose to happen. So Sandakphu was my 3rd Trek in the Himalayas and the most recent one.

I started to plan this trek in August ’19, when my husband was in Tibet, on his Kailash Manasarovar Yatra and I was back home, with severe pain from 2 root canals. I stayed up whole night watching Netflix, doing random stuffs which I usually do when i get off track from the daily routine. I had then recently made an account on https://www.indiahikes.com/ website and got an email about the upcoming treks and there it was Sandakphu trek. Right at that time, I felt, my time has come to experience it. IH had an intimidating eligibility criteria.

Everything was favorable when I was planning, October is idle for this trek, to see panoramic view of the mountains and peaks. Although this month and season does not display the beautiful colors of Rhododendron, but the beauty of Autumn with it’s red hue can be seen in the Singalila National Park. I decided the dates and booked with Indiahikes. Getting geared up for the trek was the next step. So I planned to go running midnights, as I am not a morning person. I was all set, things were progressing and right when everything seemed to be going perfect, something evil was waiting for me. Just one month before this Trek, I suffered from UTI, high fever, severe weakness and decrease in RB count. Although I was up and about after 14 days, I was weak and completely lost the track of running, but somehow managed to recover and finally before 15 days of the trek I could share my best run and got the Approval.

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In the last week of Oct’19 I started from my home city, Pune towards Bagdogra via Hyderabad. The future journey was :Bagdogra ->Lepchajagat->Lamahatta->Kalimpong->Maneybhanjang->Jaubhari -> Sandakphu trek

On one hand I was excited about my 3rd trek in the Himalayas and on the other hand, this was my first solo travel, exploring a new place, Darjeeling district.

Day wise itinerary for the Trek

• Day 1 : Reach Jaubhari
• Day 2 : Trek starts from Jaubhari to Tumling
• Day 3 : Tumling to Kalapokhri
• Day 4 : Kalapokhri to Sandakphu
• Day 5 : Sandakphu to Sabargram
• Day 6 : Sabargram to Gorkhey
• Day 7 : Gorkhey to Sepi and trek ends in Sepi.

After 4 days travelling around Darjeeling District, my trek journey started from Kalimpong to Jaubhari 4-5 hours of car drive. I was passing through the beautiful terrain, tea gardens, marigolds and  garden cosmos on both sides of the road.

Peaks were visible as I crossed Lamahatta, Darjeeling district.

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Locating Jaubhari was difficult on Google Maps, enveloped somewhere after Maneybhanjang, into big Mountains with thick Alpines. As I approached towards Jaubhari, mobile signal started getting weaker

With my 2 heavy backpacks I was dropped near a cliff and was directed by someone waiting near the red cottage, that I needed to descend and settle myself in the IH Base site.

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I was the first one to reach the base village, so I could share my google location to my fellow trekkers to reach Jaubhari. I stacked my packs in one of the rooms, which were funnily named after peaks of the Himalayas. I opened the window of my room and gazed outside.

Soon after exploring near by area of this village, the trekkers from my batch started to arrive and by evening, we were introducing each other in a cozy tea room and were getting examined by our trek leader. The instructions from the leader were quite intimidating but informative, especially AMS(Acute Mountain Sickness). Dinner was followed after a long session of instructions. Knowing marathon runners, Yoga experts and experienced trekkers were part of the group, I was charged for the next 6 days of the trek.

Next 6 days we were going to cover around 70-75 km.

Sleeping Buddha Part II => Click Here => https://trail2happiness.in/2020/01/06/sleeping-buddha-part-ii/