After day 1 we got down at the Jalpaiguri station
in West Bengal. From the station we had to carry our heavy bags
to the bus stand. There we were joined by 5 guides, one of them
a woman and they were to travel with us. The guides were experienced
trekkers. We took pleasure in their friendliness.
Though the walking part was rigorous, the bus journey
was neatly comfortable and nice; we were captured by the place’s
serene beauty. The Teesta River was flowing along with us and trees
formed a green carpet. The guides then gave us breakfast packets.
After that we reached Okhrey, took our lunch and
went to Versey. The road here is a narrow strip, the bus cannot
go any further and we got down. Now begins the real journey. The
guides told us to take out our torch lights as soon as we got down
from the bus. It was dark. We started trekking the hills, a sanctuary
it was, and the road was scary, slippery and forests surrounded
us in both sides. We were sad to miss the animals, besides the 5
kg baggage on our backs for 5 kilometres was little pleasure. We
were at our destination after one and a half hour. We entered a
lodge named Last Valley, which it is said once lived the Prince
of Sikkim. We were shivering like anything here, the temperature
was 2 degree, though a cup of tea we found refreshing.
