Our Bike Trip to Sandakphu was not a Cup of Tea

 Sandakphu is the highest peak in West Bengal, offering spectacular views from its impressive height of the Kanchenjunga range and also some of the Mt. Everest. Sandakphu is predominantly a trekker’s paradise.

I’ve never been to Ladakh, I’m from Kolkata and I’ve done Gurudongmar, Silk route, and several trips through the eastern part of India, and according to my experience so far, a bike trip to Sandakphu is one of the hardest and toughest routes you can consider.

No matter how hard or accomplished you are, a bike trip to Sandakphu is far beyond our imagination.

Below is the tour itinerary of our trip-

Day 1

We boarded a train from Kolkata and got off in the NJP railway station the next morning. NJP is in Siliguri which is the gateway to Sandakphu and other northeastern regions.

We booked a hotel, had our breakfast and got freshened up.

We took the bikes that were pre-booked from a bike rental in Siliguri and took a tour of the local town and spend the rest of the day roaming around.   

Day 2

Starting from Siliguri and entering Mane Bhanjan in the evening, it was rainy and we enjoyed the wet mountain roads fully.

Siliguri is not so far from Mane Bhanjan but we halted in Mirik and Sukhiapokhri in between to explore those places and it was worth it!

Day 3

We began at about 9 in the morning on the most important day, and after some time, the roads ended and a mere mountain trail continued. It was quite muddy from the rain of yesterday and with each turn, the journey was getting harder and harder.

We passed via Singalila National Park and got to Kalapokhri. It was manageable with the rain until this point.

After that things have gone crazy. The last 8 km was wild and it took me all I had to get through this. For the Himalayan, the journey is quite OK, but for the 220, things were challenging and sometimes the machine was about to give up.

It’s hard to explain in words what it takes in a rainy evening to ride a 220cc bike past 7000 rpm on a gritty rock surface with a hellish angle of inclination, but I can tell you the glorious feeling and pleasure you get after the trip is complete.

Day 4

We had expectations for Phalut but sadly our squad didn’t make 1 of 3 bikes to the peak. On the midway around 2 km from the Sandakphu, they were forced to leave their motorcycle and trek the way up. So we scrapped Phalut’s idea, enjoyed the day at Sandakphu, and took up the magnificent view of the Kanchenjunga range

Day 5

Moving from Sandakphu, going down with that propensity Read More