Wednesday 24 April 2013

Neora Valley National Park

Neora Valley National Park…..May be it is one of the heavens on earth…. And that is dared to touch. We stayed there only 2 nights and 1 full day. And we understood that 5/6 nights will not be enough to explore its wildness. We trekked upto PHE Water source from ChoudaPhery via 0-Point. The total route was 14km (up and down). First 2km was so called motor able road and next 5km was totally off root. While you are on trek and weather is against you, it is very tough to take a snap up to your satisfactory level. We tried to capture some moments of this wildness … those are in front of you…

 "uki mara"



 Black-Throated Sunbird...



The Road was tough....The Time was dark...It was raining....



"Aronnye Bodhan"....



Pahare Poth Chola.... 



Sada Kalo .... 



Sada Kalo .... 




    The Young Man of “0-Point”… 
We were returning from PHE camp…after 14km off-root trekking we were completely exhausted ….He made some tea and offered us ….The 0 point is 17km away from the main city Lava… And He has to hick that distance whenever He needs some support from the city….He is only around 80….

Sada Kalo .... 



The Lil Beauty in the Forest..Black-Throated Sunbird



Sharing one more shot of this beauty...Black-Throated Sunbird...



 Valley 



 Valley



 Kuyasha Dhaka ek sokale



 Jungle er pothe ghate....



 Sukno ful....



 Subhamoy da .....



 Again Subhamoy da ....



 Subhamoy da with Anti leech socks ......



 Colours of Nature 



The essence of Radodendron....



 The Third Eye....."Searching Red-Panda with Head Light"....Hah ha...



Introducing G-Baba Sumanta Singha as "Nikhil"...


 Sathe ami achhi..... :) .....



 Having Break-fast....Black-Throated Sunbird



 Hobe kono buno ful.....



 Grey-Headed Canary Flycatcher....



 Knowing, it is not a good image ...Sharing it...Verditer Flycatcher... 



Jungle ye poth cholte cholte ....


"Jori-Buti" against the Orchid..



 The Hero...Bodhan 



 Subject er avab kintu motei chhilo na.... tao.... :) ....



 era "koster Feriwala"....
 The Way towards 0-Point ....



Neel-Sobuj ar Sada.....



 The Colours of Nature ....



 Playing with the leaf .... Green Backed Tit ....



 Valley....



Hey ...What's up..??..Green Backed Tit....



 Snake Flower....



The Spider Hunter...searching for honey ...Black-Throated Sunbird

May be next time our tour schedule will be like this::

Day 1: At evening Shealdha station for kanchankanya Express.

Day 2: Around 9.30am will reach new Malbazar Junction. Taking (sharing) cab, Lava  can be reached within 3 hrs. You can get your permission, needed for Neora Valley trekking, from the lava Forest Office. Night stay at Lava. 

Day 3: At morning, as soon as possible we have to start our journey for Neora Forest. From Lava, Choudaphery, the entry point of Neora is 16km away. This can be achieved easily by cab, road is so called motorable. It will take almost 1.15 hrs. Cabs cannot go far beyond this point. From here, the actual hiking or trekking is to start. Our first camp (night stay) will be at PHE Camp, via 0-point. 0-Point is 2km away from Choudaphery and PHE is more 5km far from 0-Point. For one day 7km trekking, of which last 5km is tough, no road so called, only foot prints marked as road, sometimes you have to make your own path, sometimes you will find road is 45 degree angled down. But remember that you are going down towards the valley of river Neora. So getting down is not a great problem. PHE Camp rest house has 2 rooms and a small kitchen. Kitchen utensils are also there. Potters and guide will help you to manage the food.

Day 4: If you are not tired, then get ready for another achievement. Next point is Alubari Camp, via Joributi Camp i.e. 2km away from PHE. Instead of staying at PHE we can stay also at Joributi. But it has no arrangement of kitchen utensils.
Alubari is 5km far from PHE. Path is inclined and is going higher, so, take your time and enjoy the nature while you are on the way of Alubari. Alubari has also 2 rooms and a small kitchen  .

Day 5: Now we are on the way of Rachela Camp. This is the highest point of Neora Valley Forest. It is 5km away Alubari. So far I know, is road is awful for hiking and as well as awesome regarding the views and sighting of wildness. Night stay at Rachela.

Day 6: Now if you have no time left for your tour and have to back city, then you have to hick almost 17km to reach nearest place, connected to Malbazar by road.
Otherwise from Rachela, there is a small village (I forgot the name :( ), you can stay there for night and take some rest. This village is 8 km away/ down from rachela.

Day 7: From that village, we have to travel more 10km to get connectivity to reach Malbazar. At evening at Malbazar and it is time to back in the concrete jungle, Kanchankonya Express will do this job happily :( .

Day 8: By morning we will be at Kolkata. Office calling :(.

Remember:

1. Try to avoid cooking during day time. Carry enough dry food for yourselves and as well as potters and guide.
2. You have to collect foods from Kolkata, in Lava you will not get any variety.
3. Kitchen utensils are guide’s/porters’ responsibility.
4. Anti-leech socks and rain coat are must because you are going to travel through a rain forest.
5. Best time to visit December to March for Birding and March to June for flowers.
6. During Dec-March, sleeping bag is required, so carry your own.
7. Neora Trekking is not considered as armature, it is a Pro-Trekking Route, so keeping body fitness is mandatory.
8. Phone booking is not available right now, you have to get your permission from office directly. Or your would be guide can do it personally once you contact him.

The cost is nothing much higher. For first two days it is 300 rupees per head per day, then for next every day it is reduced to 200 rupees per head per day.
Guide charge is 500 rupees per day, porter charge is 200/250 rupees per day.
One porter will carry 20kg load, usually guide will not carry the luggage but if you are lucky, he will also carry some weight.

Almost every govt. guides are same and good enough regarding birding, spotting them or in behaviour. But Mr. Ram kumar is exceptional. He is a government Forest Guard.If you can manage him as tour guide then it is an achievement indeed. Keep in mind that officially he cannot be your guide. Here is his phone no. 09775831135. If he is not free, he is so kind that he will arrange another guy for you. Our guide was Guddu da.

In one day, we reached up to PHE Camp and returned to lava. That was a hectic 14km trekking. PHE Camp is the entrance point of “untouched rain forest” and we think nature placed “heaven” just behind that “Gate”.

Poth chola sobe toh suru holo....

11 comments:

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    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi,
      Wordpress is one of the most powerful cms system, don't know which types of hacking problem you are facing but if your site coded properly and followed some basic security procedure then the problem your are facing can be solved.

      Delete
  2. Hi,
    I never used Wordpress.
    This is Google's own blog site, BlogSpot.com. Till now I did not face any problem like hackers. I tried to open your blog site, but failed, it is saying that there is a problem with domain for the main server. Google's blog is okay, you can use it.
    Regards...

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi,

    Can you please let us know whether we need to book in advance for night staying at PHE camp. Alubari & Rachela?

    Thanks in advance

    Regards
    Santu

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Santu,

      No..... no need to book those camps in advance..... throughout the year, most of the time there is no rush..... .... But, if you know any guide there, you can book the camps through them in advance by depositing a nominal money as an advance ..... I do not have any official phone number to book those place..... when I was there, one forest officer told me, no need to advance booking, just come you guys would get the booking ..... that's all ....

      cheers ....

      Delete
  4. Thanks for the info..just have one more ques :)..do we need to carry tents for night staying at these camps?

    Regards
    Santu

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hello Santu,

      No need to carry your own tents .... PHE Camp, Alubari and Rachel have accommodation... while Jaributi Camp does not have any accommodation .... So, if you plan your trip with PHE, Alubari and Rachel, you do not have to carry your tents .....

      Thanks and regards ...

      Delete
  5. Can i know the room or the camps tarriff? We are a group of 6 friends wanting to visit it in the month of february. So please provide me with the details.

    ReplyDelete
  6. could you please provide your email id, I need few more info.

    Regards

    ReplyDelete