Today was potentially going to be one of the highlights of this trip. I was going up Tiger Hill to see the sunrise. The sunlight will gradually reveal Kanchenjunga and its surrounding mountains. Kanchenjunga is the third highest mountain in the world. The only downside was that I had to get up at 3am!
I got up on time but the homestay owner might have slightly overslept. The taxi driver was either 20 minutes late or had been waiting for 20 minutes for a call from the homestay!
There was another glitch. We went to pick up Richard, the person I met yesterday. His homestay was not on the main road to Tiger Hill. I messaged Richard and asked him to come to the main road. We backed up and saw him. Finally, we were on our way.
The ride to Tiger Hill was about 30 minutes. We weren’t the only people going. There was a cortege of cars making their way up the mountain side to Tiger Hill. Many jeeps and people carriers were going in the opposite direction, to Darjeeling, to pick up people.
On Tiger Hill, there is an observation deck. This consists of a skeleton unfinished building with four floors. However, the upper three floors were closed. They looked dangerous. The seating on the elevated ground floor consisted of concrete steps. We stood on the extreme right side because the floor was wet with footsteps. Eventually someone appeared, distributing cardboard for people to sit on.
We could see a yellow band in front of us. The sun would rise in about 30 minutes. At this point, I realised something that was lost on everyone else. Although the sun would rise in front of us, the Himalayas were on the left. I could see their faint outline in the dark. I told Richard this. We moved to the left side of the deck. Here, if we looked to the left, we would see the Himalayas being lit up by sunlight. If we looked in front of us, we would see the sunrise.
I alternated between looking to the left and in front of me. I was not looking at anything else. I was surprised at how quickly the sun rises. As I result, everything brightened up much more quickly than I expected. One minute, everything was dark; the next, it was daylight. I could suddenly see all the people standing in front of the observation deck. They were in darkness not too long ago.
Yesterday, when I got excited to see Kanchenjunga, the homestay owner, Alowkik, said it was not a particularly good view! Today, I could see what he meant.
We were blessed with a clear sky over the mountains. The view of the sun was somewhat hazy. There was a mist between the sun and us. This was beautiful.
We had come on the perfect day. Kanchenjunga’s ridge was the first to light up. As the sun rose more, the rest of the mountains became visible. The Himalayas looked majestic. Just when things couldn’t get better, we saw Everest! I’d read that on a good day, you could see the tip of Everest. I knew the day was clear and saw something on the far left of Kanchenjunga. I pointed my PeakFinder app at the range and, sure enough, there was Everest.
The middle peak is Everest:
No one else on the observation deck was aware that Everest was visible. I told an Indian man and he told his family. Gradually, the word spread. People were talking in one of several Indian languages. Occasionally, I’d hear “Everest” interspersed in what they were saying.
As it happened, what we thought was Everest, was in fact three mountains. The centre one was Everest. A local tour guide told me this. He had a panoramic photo of the mountain range with each peak labelled. For fifty rupees, you could look closely at Everest and Kanchenjunga through his telescope.
For the return journey, I wanted to walk down Tiger Hill. We’d arranged with the taxi driver, Palden, to meet him at Ghoom, a small town at the bottom of Tiger Hill.
We took a path parallel to the road. This was a pleasant 90-minute walk with good views of Kanchenjunga. Apart from one point when the path seemed to fizzle out, we were able to navigate the path with my OutdoorActive app.
At the bottom, Palden was waiting for us. He asked if we wanted to go back to Darjeeling via his village, where there was a Buddhist temple. His village name translated to “potato village” because many years ago the hillside was terraced and planted with potatoes.
This was a more interesting route than the main road to Darjeeling. When we were at Palden’s village, he told us that we was a mountaineer in Nepal for many years. He also said that the path we’d just taken down Tiger Hill to Ghoom has wild cats, black bears, and other wild animals! He added that it was safe with two people who’d make noise and scare off the animals.
After belatedly alarming and assuring us about our hike, Palden pointed to another hill. He said a few years ago a black bear used to appear most mornings. People in the village would come to see the bear on the hillside.
Palden dropped us off close to Chowrasta square. Richard and I sat in the sun for a while. Then, Richard went back to his homestay to pick up some shawls he wanted to post back to the UK.
I sat in the sun for a while but struggled to keep my eyes open. The 3am start was taking its toll. I returned to my homestay for a nap. After two hours, I went to my local favourite cafe, Himalayan Coffee. Richard joined me later.
One thought on “Sunrise at Kanchenjunga”