Trek Diaries: SandakPhu – Day 2

Day 2: Tonglu to KaliPokhari
In continuation of day 1
The morning of Tonglu has already planned a special thing for us. At night, the temperature has got dropped drastically; we woke up to see frozen water. Our trek organizers were busy in providing us the warm water. No, this is not the special thing I am talking about. Special things do require patience. They always want to mark their presence. I am talking about the Kanchenjunga. Each one of us was keen on having the glimpse of the peak. You can clearly see snow peaks outlined as Sleeping Buddha.
Everyone was ready with their gears to catch up the perfect Kanchenjunga range. Slowly- slowly the yellow shining sun started rising; shading its colours from behind the mountain ranges all decked up with snow. It filled the sky with mighty colours of pink and splashed the clouds with endless rays of Purple. Clouds made the space for Kanchenjunga, like the way any emperor comes to his kingdom. I felt like we were the luckiest fellows on earth at that moment of time.

With such a special start, we kicked off our trek of 15 km.
Tonglu is a small hamlet located at an altitude of 10,130 ft. Most of the trekkers take the halt at this place. Tonglu is actually one of the peaks of the Singalila ranges. This place is used to known as Mount Tonglo in the 18th century. From Tonglu, you can get a lovely view of Darjeeling and Kurseong towns.

2 km, a quick and steep descend from Tonglu takes you to the small village called Tumling. One can notice small cottages and huts. Tumling is actually a part of Nepal but there is no restriction to visit this place. During December one can witness heavy snow fall here.

About 1 km from Tumling we reached the Singalila National Park, which is the highest altitude national park in the state of West Bengal.

This trail goes through the thick forest of the Singalila National Park. This park has some of the rarest animals like Red Pandas and Pangolins, Himalayan Black Bear etc. If you are lucky you can spot Red Pandas. The national park is also a home to a variety of birds. Here you will need to take the entry permit for the national Park.

 

This trail is a combination of High-low Ascents. What one should enjoy here is the beauty of nature. Clear Blue sky, green landscapes greet you.

Don’t know how many of such we have walked 🙂
We got amazed when we saw something beautiful which can’t be described in words. One should need to witness this by their own. The Frozen River. Truly speechless. The state of water looks like flowing river.

 

 

 

Each mountain, every path has its own beauty. One can see hues of yellow, green, blue. Mother Nature has given plenty of surprises.

The final destination of the day is a small black lake known as kaliPokhari. You will find many prayer flags hanging above it. This placed has named KaliPokhari because of the pond filled with black water. This small lake is considered sacred by the local people here. Water remains available all time. This is the place for second night halt amongst the trekkers.

After witnessing such a magnificent sunset we ended our day.