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Mitsubishi Pajero and Mahindra Thars' off-roading trip to Sandakphu

1st July 2024, 14:27 by Kanad Kalasur

Till the time we settled in, the feat for reaching our first destination for the day has just started. We sat together at the dinner table and sang together and enjoyed with all those 70s songs.

BHPian topse recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

It was a march ending month that kept me busy in finishing off yearly closing related work. I was pondering about an after March trip to the unknown and craving for something new. Got a post from Adhiraj Singh, the man behind our KO group. He and few of his friends planned a trip to Sandakphu via Nepal. It was scheduled to start from 20th March till 23 March’24. I had shown my keen interest to join although knew that it will be almost impossible for me to get a 5days leave during this year ending month. 12th of March, I enquired again and to my relief Adhiraj da told me the trip was postponed and will be scheduled during the days between 9th-20th April’24. He informed that he got few Thar owners to join him in the trip. Without much thinking I jumped in. The plan was to go up via Pashupati Side (driving almost through the Nepal side.) I was worried about documentation and he assured that not much documentation will be required since his friend Pemba Sherpa will be there to ensure a smooth passage.

Schedule:

10th April: Land in Siliguri. Drive Pashupati - Tumling

11th April: Drive Tumling - Sandakphu

12th April: Drive Sandakphu - Phalut - Sandakphu

13th April: Drive Sandakphu - Siliguri

14th April: Fly back from Siliguri

Informed my office and got the leave orally approved. Now eagerly waiting for the final day as I was way too much excited to join my first mountain expedition with my beast (Thar diesel automatic). 7th April,24: Started of from Kolkata in the morning and reached Jalpaiguri in the night, 12 hours journey, as Ranaghat railway overbridge is now completed followed by smooth Berhampore bypass, also the construction work of the second bridge over river Ganga in Farakka has started in full fledge. Only found the Raiganj bypass is still pending due to uncompleted railway bridge within that 4-lane bypass expressway. Reached home in the night, next day got my vehicle throughly cleaned in my favourite car wash center in Jalpaiguri town. Spent another day resting and arranging for dry fruits, protein bars etc after visiting nearby reliance store and scouring for winter clothes from the shelve.

Participants:

1. Adhiraj Singh (white Pajero) along with Gonu & Suvendu, 2. Sumit Periwal (Red old version Thar) and his brother Sameer Jhawar, 3. Vivek Bansal and his son Shivraya Bansal + their driver Kamat (Red soft-top Petrol automatic Thar), 4. Harsh Agarwal + his driver Manoj( mystic copper color soft-top petrol automatic thar) & 5. myself Tapas aka topse (aquamarine color hardtop diesel automatic thar).

Total five vehicles & eleven participants.

10th April’24 (Day 1):

Sumit & Sameer started from Kolkata and reached Bagdogra the previous night but they had to face much ordeal at Plassey due to crowd gathering in a cow fair and road blockade because of that. Adhiraj along with Gonu & Suvendu started off from Liluah, Howrah in his Pajero ( but they were able to avoid Plassey ordeal by crossing Hoogly river on boat) and reached Bagdogra. Manoj was bringing Harsh’s thar and Kamat was bringing Vivek’s thar and they came along with Adhiraj da as a convoy. Vivek, Sivaraya and Harsh took a flight to reach Bagdogra from Kolkata.

I started off from Jalpaiguri at 8:00 in the morning and joined Adhiraj da and others at Glenary’s next to Marina’s hotel at around 9am. Adhiraj da briefed us about our next route and itinerary at the coffee table and we formally started our Sandakphu expedition from there. Sumit and Sameer joined remaining of us at Dudhia Gaon. As I was driving alone Gonu gave me company from Dudhia, Adhiraj da provided us walkie-talkies for each of the five cars. As the convoy gathered at Dudhia we stopped for few clicks with our machines which are going to be our vahaan for our this Himalayan adventure.

We reached Pashupati Phatak at 13:10, Adhiraj da’s friend Pemba Sherpa was there. We vehicle owners had to show our vehicle RC, DL & Aadhar card both to the SSB (India side) and APF (Nepal side) counters. After document verification we were given permit to enter Nepal upon payment of a nominal fee. After getting the formal welcome by our guide friend Pemba we resumed our journey from there.

We reached Naya Bazar situated in Mechi village at 16:20. We were late to had our lunch, so it was our first Pahari lunch which was very tasty. We had our lunch with hot rice, beans, daal, aloo fry and chicken curry.

We resumed our journey at 17:00 only to find the road blockade due to a massive landslide in-front of us. We waited 15mins till one JCB cleared out the road.

It was getting dusky, we were traversing though unpaved jungle road, it was a continuous driving till a view point at Mechi, the place was windy and chilled, and the sky was glowing with the setting sun. We took few group photos and started off. It was a hour long mostly bumpy ride due to unpaved boulder filled rocky road surface.

We reached our first destination Tumling at 19:00. It was too chilly and windy outside. Took our bags out and checked into the homestay. Till the time we settled in, the feat for reaching our first destination for the day has just started. We sat together at the dinner table and sang together and enjoyed with all those 70s songs till our dinner was served at around 21:30. Food was rice, chicken curry, home grown pahari sabji and salad. The dinner tasted awesome. Entered our room, there was very high wind outside and the cyclone like noise made us feel a bit uncanny, somehow able to closed the windows. Jumped into the warmth of our bed and called it a day.

The Day-1 in Film.

Photo Memories From Day-1