We were thinking about an adventurous tour which must include trekking and an idea flashed in one of our friend's mind. We made a plan about Sandakphu trekking in last year November. Some of us have experience in trekking but most of us did not have that. The name Sandakphu actually means the 'Height of the Poison Plant', a direct reference to the richness of the aconite plants that grow near the peak. The highest peak of the Singalila Range, it has an altitude of 3,636 m and it is situated at a distance of 58 km. from Darjeeling. But we were confident enough that we could climb there. Immediately few of us went to DHGC office at kolkata and collected the information about Sandakphu .Booking of train ticket and other preparations were done immediately. We started on december 30, 2009 from Madhyamgram, Kolkata. It was the day when New Year celebration was knocking in the ears. We knew that we would miss this opportunity to celebrate the New Year occasion in Kolkata. But we hoped that we would spend that New Year in Manebhanjan. We landed New Jalpaiguri safely on the next day at early morning. We did not do sufficient homework for this trek. We started for Manebhanj at 8:30 AM from New Jalpaiguri. Manebhanjan is the gateway of Sandakphu Falut trekking route. Manebhanj was 80 KM from New Jalpaiguri.We crossed Ghum and made a left turn. We stayed there and enjoyed the last day of 2009 and celebrated the new year in their way. Next morning we set out for Sandakphu. We really had a thrilling experience on the way to trekking rout of Sandakphu with amazing natural scenarios. We were getting some wonderful views of Everest, Kanchenjunga, Makalu and Lhotse in a continuous snow-clad arc. Sandakphu is resplendent with the ethereal beauty of magnolias, rhododendrons, primulas and other sub-alpine flowers. We had taken lot of photographs there. We stayed that night there and came down in the early morning to Tumling. We spent one night at Tumling which is also a wonderful place to visit. Finally we reached Kolkata on 4th of January 2010. To tell the truth it was really an awesome experience with full of adventure, enjoyment.
