Singhalila National Ridge through the top of West Bengal:
It was our first trek and we were excited, We started our journey from Kolkata on 25th night and reached Siliguri in the next day night. It was a 24 hr long journey due to bad condition of road, normally it takes 12 hrs to reach there, next morning we reached Sukhiapokhri by shared Jeep and hired a cab that can take us to the Dhotrey village which is 34 km away. We already lost a day due to the bus journey from kolkata, so we were behind our schedule, so we have decided to start the trek from evening even we had to take the risk of trekking in the night with torch through the dense forest of the ridge, it was an experience, i should tell you this that nobody should try this in their life because later we came o know that that jungle is extremely dangerous as it is one of the sanctuary for leopards,
We reached in Tumling at around nine and all the huts were closed, it was extremely cold out there, we somehow managed a store room for us and had to sleep there for the night. Next day we were stunned by the view from the top of Tumling, it was the Kanchanjungha which took away all the tiredness. our next destination was a place called Kalpokhri and we took nearly the whole day and reach there by the evening, we went through the ridge and we had to enter Nepal a few times during our journey as it is the border area, one can spot a number of SSB camps and Nepalese police camps in this places, we had to take Wai Wai in our lunch,
Actually Kalpokhri has a very small lake named after the foot impression of Gautam Budhha, and rumors are there that this lake never freezes even in the extreme conditions, in the evening we saw a spectacular view of clouds that was looking like a sea from the edge of the deep valley, we had yummy chicken momos and met with other fellow trekkers from Delhi who were looking for patiwala pegs, we had a very good time out there
Next day we had to reach Sandakphu via Bikhebhanjang. Sandakhu is the top of West Bengal and Bikhebhanjang is famous for the worlds deadliest poisonous flowers, it was a steep climb of 4 km long trail, we had to push ourselves to reach there, Sandakphu was so cold, and it has spectacular view of Kanchanjungha, We had good food and had a room with lovely views, one can see the entire range of Himalayas from there, in the night the feel like temperature went to minus 14, the night was extremely windy, we could not sleep at that night due to the harsh sound of the wind, next day the weather was clear and we started for sirikhola through the ridge, first we saw a bison and we decided not to disturb it, then after the dense forest was over we came down to a valledy which is called the Valley of the deads, one can spot the silence over the open valley full of dead tress, actually burnt in a forest fire, then we had our lunch in the village called Gurdum, Gurdum looks like a chinese fairy tale, you can hear the sound of an angry river from there, more you go near your destination more you get closer to the river, the river is called Siri, and we had to reach Lower Sirikhola for the stay in that night, we had campfires there, it is a place surrounded by green forest and green hills, the village is situated just beside the hilly river.
Next day morning we had to walk for Rimbik which is 8 km away from Sirikhola to get a cab for Siliguri.
