Travel Chronicles to Ravangla: Part 4

To set up the temperature amidst the mid 5-6'C, Menam was the best place to be in. Ravangla, a nice serene, un-commercialized hill station (with everything except ATM) has one of the best place to be in. Apart from the Kanchenjungha, which bares its' brilliance when the gorge is mist as well as cloudless, Menam (or Maenam) Forest is a good Trekking trail. But before I type down the adventure on the slopes of Maenam, I would like to show you the glimpse of the aura, called Kanchenjungha, the third highest peak in the World.

Kanchenjungha, South Sikkim. Ravangla, 2011.

The Game begins....

The climb was estimated for 4 hours. We had a 13Km steep slope climb, at the peak of which we would be rewarded with the glimpse of Kanchenjungha, hopefully mistless, as the time when we would ascend, would be evening and we shall enjoy a peek into the eternal beauty of the Himalayas. Menam is a Reserved forest. which has a treasure of flora and fauna. The most notorious is the Himalayan Black Bear and the most harmless are the 1372 variety of birds, seen amongst the mountain flora!

After having a brief breakfast, we took a storage of biscuits, cookies, cakes, toffees and supply of water and tried to ascend up the slopes. You have to have a local guide, which you can fetch for Rs. 500/-. It can be arranged from the gates, but if you go with my advice, arrange from the hotel. Our one's name was Raju, a very amicable 17 year old lad.

There are three resting place, on our way to Menam top. Due to out of practise, I could only allow the group to ascend 10.2Kms, upto the third check point. A little more endurance would have had allowed us to reach to the top, but as it was, I was OUT to a lot of extent and then the electrically charged clouds started coming in from the other side of the peak, the point that we would have had ultimately taken  our souls too. Udayan Da, Niladri, Surya and myself along with the good advice from the local guide, decided to roam around at the place (refer video for more) and savored the feeling of being into cloud NINE! I always had the desire to feel the clouds with my hands and face. I even tried to "Taste It", out of excitation.



Over there I met up with something. In the video, as hosted on YouTube, taken by Niladri, you can initially find a voice shouting "EEEi". Its Udayan Da, who was yelling at me, and warning me not to go inside the clouds too much. That point I was "Tasting" the stuff! I felt the few hair follicles bared, thanks to shortened sleeves, stood to its end. I realized "Charge". Benjamin Frankling did it with keys, I could feel them by myself, 10,000 feet above sea level! Awesome! This is one excitement that made me undertake quite a number of treks in the past. This time round, I felt enlivened with that enthusiasm. Studies are gone...now lets enjoy the Nature, through Her Natural means!

It all ended, chilled.

The parting thought that this place can put forward for my palate comes up in a very tempting manner to revisit such places, again and again... I am looking forward for many such trips and one place to plan for or rather say, get assistance is : http://www.rimoexpeditions.com

Have a nice climb...