Wednesday 19th February - Birding in the Clouds

Apologies for the late posting. We have been lacking intynet.

The a/c in our compartment is like a blast chiller but we get a reasonable night's sleep. Outside the flat countryside of West Bengal is wreathed in mist, just like the other times that we have done this trip. The train seems to be around 15/20 minutes late, no big deal. At about 06.30 a man walks the corridor chanting " Kawfee, kawfee.". On his third or fourth pass we ask about tea. Two small paper cups of hot sweet milk are produced with teabags to dunk in them. Very welcome. The vendor subsequently changes his call to "Kawfee, chai, Kawfee" We have now started our anti malaria tablets and have to eat before we take them. R goes for biscuits but D risks an onboard bread omelette. Still alive ten hours later.

Predictably the train stands outside NJP station for a good few minutes so we are closer to half an hour down when we arrive. There is a real scrum to get onto the stairs up to the overbridge. From there we can see the Darjeeling narrow gauge platform which is devoid of any action this morning. At the north end there are ramps which make life easier for us with our trolley bags. There is also an ATM for a bank that doesn't charge for cash withdrawal. While R raids the piggy bank D starts to phone the number we have been given for the driver who is to collect us. Magically a man appears and asks D his name. This is our chap. He leads us along the car park to a white Scorpio and loads the bags while we climb in.

The road between NJP and Siliguri city can be an absolute pain but it is still quite early so traffic and other impediments are on the light side. Good progress is made through the town and out to the North East along the Second Road. The driver has very limited English but does ask if we want breakfast. We go for it, sharing aloo paranthas like doorsteps and a masala omelette of infinitely superior quality to the one on the train, washed down with Bengali lemon tea. We congratulate our driver on the choice of restaurant.

After Sevoke the road gets very twisty and carries a lot of traffic, some of it lumbering heavy trucks. We see some really scary overtaking but out man stays out of it. Before too long we turn west up a rough, steep track. Some stretches are tarmac while others are just rubble and dust. There is very little other traffic and the drivers who do make the trip seem to know each other. These are not hills, they are mountains, thickly wooded and precipitous. At one stage we see a large area of bare rock where a big chunk of mountain has slipped down into the valley below.

As we climb the haze closes in and we are driving in the clouds. There are small villages along the way but it is unclear how people sustain themselves. We spot a few tiny kitchen gardens but there are no fields of crops and few animals to be seen. The road goes from OK to bad to worse and back again, and climbs pretty relentlessly. Finally we get to a well surfaced section and drive over a summit, descending immediately into quite a large village, Latpanchar, which is our destination. We are at around 4,500 feet.

The driver stops and a young man steps forward to introduce himself as Parag Gurung, the man who helped us set this up via the Birds of Darjeeling Facebook Group. Parag is the nephew of Padam Gurung who is our trip organiser. We are booked for a night at the Hornbill Nest Homestay, with two half day birding sessions. We get a choice between two upstairs rooms, both very simple but with en-suite bathrooms. We take the one with two windows. The furniture consists of a double bed, a single bed and a table with one leg so short that it needs a volume of Encyclopedia Britannica to stop the wobble.

Lunch is at 12.30 down the street a bit. Parang waits while we get settled in and Uncle Padam appears on a motorbike to say hello. When we get to lunch it appears that we are being accommodated in some kind of annexe to the main Hornbill Nest operation. Padam explains that where we are has rooms with geysers for hot water. It is not a problem to us. Lunch is egg and potato curry, with rice, dal, green beans and papads. Very tasty. We walk back up the road and round the corner to buy water and biscuits before returning to our room to get ready.

There is a knock at the door and Parang introduces his brother Rahul, who will be our guide this afternoon. He is ready when we are so we quickly sort ourselves out and set off walking, down the road past the Hornbill Nest. We switch to paths, then steps and arrive at what appears to be someone's garden. The lady of the house seems happy for us to stand there staring at trees and exchanges a few words with Rahul. There is quite a wait without anything stirring then he points up into a large tree that lacks foliage. Near the top is quite a small bird which he identifies as a Collared Falconet. This is the smallest bird of prey in India and too far away for a decent photo.

We move back up to the road and see a colourful Green Magpie in a large bush. After this we get a lot of different sightings with the pair of Sultan Tits probably the highlight although the male seemed a bit camera shy. We also got good sightings of the spectacularly coloured Scarlet Minivet as well as a dozen or more less flamboyant species. As a finale Rahul took us to look for Hornbills but in the fading light we drew a blank. There was a convenient tea stall where we sipped a cup as we waited for the car to collect us.

06.30 start tomorrow so we have to sort our admin out tonight, as well as going down the road for dinner. D rustles up cocktails as we listen to someone playing a guitar and being accompanied by a singalong bunch who cannot hit the high notes. It is absolutely pitch black outside as we walk to the Hornbill Nest. Supper is chicken curry, mixed veg and chapattis. Rahul is manning the tawa at the stove to cook the breads and R helps herself to a lesson. Two chaps from Rajasthan share the table. It is their first time here and they are feeling the cold. Apparently the low cloud set in about four days ago, and is not the norm for this time of year. We don't linger after dinner, head back to our room and set the alarm.