Sandakphu trek

Hello friends,

Myself and my wife have planned the Sandakphu trek at the end of May'12. We are following the route Dhottre-Tumling-Kalipokhri-Sandakphu-Gurdum-Srikhola-Rimbik. Following is our plan.

24/5/12 - SDAH to NJP (Uttar Banga Express)
25/5/12 - NJP to Dhottre via Maneybhanjan, night stay at Dhottre
26/5/12 - Start trek early morning, night stay at Tumling
27/5/12 - Tumling to Kalipokhri, night stay at Kalipokhri
28/5/12 - Kalipokhri to Sandakphu, night stay at Sandakphu
29/5/12 - Night stay at Sandakphu
30/5/12 - Sandakphu to Gurdum, night stay at Gurdum
31/5/12 - Gurdum to Rimbik, take private jeep from Rimbik to Darjeeling.

Our travel agent at Kolkata (http://www.calcuttayellowpages.com/a...rek-route.html) has reserved our rooms at Dhottre, Tumling, Kalipokhri and Gurdum and gave us tips and contacts (porter cum guide) for our journey. We have not yet booked our hotel at Sandakphu, our idea is to book the DGHC hotel at Sandakphu, booking to be done from Kolkata.

Now few questions.

1) On 31/5, we are walking from Gurdum to Rimbik and then plan to take a private jeep from Rimbik to Darjeeling. I do not think we will get a shared jeep from Rimbik. Is it feasible to go ahead with this plan? Are jeeps available from Rimbik? I have of course, asked our agent to arrange for the jeep but he has not yet confirmed yet. What cost can we expect?

2) Is there shared jeep available from NJP or Siliguri to Maneybhanjan? Or only reserved vehicles are available? What is the cost for booking the entire jeep or on shared basis, if available for this? Our agent has told that we will have to reserve a vehicle from Maneybhanjan to Dhottre anyway. What is the cost also for reserving this 2nd jeep?

Thanks in advance.

Anyone please? I may have posted in the wrong section. Please move it to the appropriate section.

Hi, abhijitkd78


There are so many useful threads on Sandakphu... you can find right side column and lower panel of your thread on the issue.... all are of great help.

However I can say that from Gurdum, you can trek upto Sepi (2 km after Sreekhola) and can get jeep from there. Before starting from Dhotray, you can arrange for the jeep or from Sreekhola Hotels, you can have Phone Nos. of those jeep. Mind it, you have to start very early from Gurdum for this purpose.


I can give one No. of Sreekhola - Hotel Shovraj [Mr. Shubhashish Sengupta (09933488243 / 9932216197)- this may help you.


NJP to Dhotray car hire charge is Rs.3000/- .. you can have shared jeep depending on availability of passengers on that route.

@jajabar - Thanks for the information. I will try that option. Can I get the jeep to Dhottre from NJP station itself?

You can speak to Driver Kamal for Dhoetry car booking -M-8927011200.

It just came across me that while going to Dhottre from NJP, we could go via Ghoom, which may be cheaper. So route is NJP to Ghoom (shared jeep), Ghoom to Maneybhanjan (shared/private?), Maneybhanjan to Dhottre (maybe private). Is this possible? What cost can be expected? So shared jeeps to Ghoom are available from the bus stand in Siliguri?

Yes,

you can go up to Sukhiapokhri as well then book a car for Dhoetry .Its easily available at NJP station.

Hello,

We are very much excited as the days counting down to our trek draws near. As I have mentioned before, we are visiting Sandakphu from 24th May-3rd June (kolkata to kolkata). All hotel bookings at Dhottrey, Tumling, Kalipokhri, Sandakphu, Gurdum, Darjeeling have been done.

Couple of questions:

1) What weather can be expected in terms of the cold? We are praying to God so that we can get some clear skies during this time.

2) What is the best option to go from Gurdum to Darjeeling? Actually I have booked two nights at Darjeeling hotel and due to that I have to reach Darjeeling on the same day we start from Gurdum. Should we go upto Srikhola or Rimbik and reserve a jeep? I do not think we will get shared jeep as it will be around 12PM when we reach Srikhola from Gurdum.

Thanks.

Hi Abhijit,

I was in Sandakphu last Saturday-Sunday.
It was quite overcast and cloudy. In the night the temp dropped to less than 2 degree centigrade (as quoted by the SSB people). Saturday afternoon I experienced rain and hailstones but it became sunny again by 5:30 PM.
Next morning was cloudy but still the mountains were visible intermittently.

abhijitkd, as lonetrotter said it'll be cold enough if rain. End of May will be cloudy mostly... don't want to dishearten you, but wish you best of luck for a clear weather and fantastic view. Precaution: keep raincoat and cover back-pack.

Start very early from gurdum and trek upto Sepi or Rimbik to get jeep from there to Darjeeling. You can talk to your hotel in Gurdum to book jeep from Sepi or Rimbik, they may help you.

Duronto jajabor is right !
I was not carrying any raincoat, so the guide adviced me to buy a plastic sheet at Maneybhanjang. It took me Rs 25 only. Also my jacket doubled up as raincoat as it was waterproof.