A horrible night in Srikhola Trekkers Hut

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ello  dear viewers, after returning from trek I was again engaged with routine life & almost forgot about posting my experiences during this journey. However a small escape from regular work just recapitulated me about my works. Today I’m going to share a strange experience about which I was completely aware of. A night in Srikhola Trekkers Hut was never ending like a semester period when you’re unprepared.

 

I must recommend you, before going through this article you must know the aired Horror story of Srikhola Trekkers Hut, that I had listened from the local people.

 

Srikhola is a lovely village in Darjeeling district, at a very low altitude. There’re trekking routes available from sandakphu & phalut which passes through Srikhola towards Manebhanjan. One may also have the option to come directly here by road from Darjeeling / siliguri. If you’re coming down from Sandakphu, the route to Srikhola comes via Gurdum over a distance of 16kms. If you’re coming down from Phalut, you will need to cross through Gorkey and Rammam village travelling a distance of 26kms through a dense forests of Singalila National park, with view of oaks and rhododendrons.

 

No, no don’t get panicked, I’m not describing a travel article here, I’m just making you clear about the geographical location.

 

Its around 6PM of December 10, 2016 – five fatigued human beings were approaching slowly down towards Srikhola. They were returning from Falut trek. 5days of continuous walking made them extreme slower, untidy & tired. It was dark all around, we lighted up flash lights & were making our way. A ripple from a short distance can be heard & no doubt it was Srikhola river at a further distance, we confirmed.

 

 

As this Singalila forest is vast & dense, people avoid crossing the jungle after sunset due to presence of wild animals, in case of any emergency they prefer a group than an individual. One of our team mate was severely injured at his legs. So altogether even after the sun set, we were late, without guide. Why without guide ! I’ll surely make a separate post regarding this. You know when you’re at the desk, so much things you care about to share.

 

It does not took much time – we crossed a narrow turning & my previous experience just reminded me that we are almost there in Srikhola. The shallow darkness, river sound, freezing cold wind was completely unbearable. A murky, blur vision was covering my entire eyesight, only the river was appearing clear with its silvery path, on the other hand some lighted windows, having candles inside the room. It was unpleasantly cold, mystifying, even the Moon was sheltered by the looming clouds. We had a prior a booking at the Trekkers Hut. So, without wasting a single moment we rushed to Trekkers Hut & informed the care taker about our booking for the night. The care taker is an aged Nepalese man. He was surprised at our arrival in this odd time, because trekkers or tourists are not expected to come down at this time. However, it was not an issue, we climbed the stairs up to find out our rooms. Needless to say, it was the same ‘darkness’ inside the house who accompanied us just a while ago.

 

A small bulb was inside the room, Oh my mistake! we can call it a hall rather than calling it a room. 15-20 beds were there side by side, just to provide comfort & sound sleep to trekkers for the night. We were not happy, because today was the last day of our trek .We dumped the backpacks, sticks, shoes, socks & the entire room filled with the foul smell that we befriended in last days of survival. we started to remember the good things, the bad things of these 5 days. I heard some paranormal stories about this Trekkers Hut from my guide. So, it was too in my mind. To overcome the silence & cold, Soumyadip ordered some drinks about which we have no ideas at that time, because a new discussion was live then. There were two washrooms at the exit, one was marking as closed, another one was open. After hearing the paranormal stories we were quite sure about the reason of the door to be closed.No one checked that in except Pritraj, for that Tanay shouted for some couple of minutes.

 

We had some drinks & side dish was chosen as egg fry. & you cant believe 5 people ordered 7plates of egg fry, which contained (10*7) = 70 eggs, costing of (200*7)=1400 INR for just side dish purpose. Holy shit! Such an end to a memorable trek. Last but not the least, we had  dinner with egg curry again. I really felt guilty for the chickens.

 

Happy dinner time ended. The care taker came & informed us that a share will be available on next morning around 6 AM. We soon packed us inside the sleeping bag & waited for something unknown about which we’re not sure enough. We just knew, at any cost we need to take the shared car on next early morning. The rest was known to the invisible person who kept eyes on us.

 

Now you may be thinking of what’s horrible so far, as you already might read the horror story of Srikhola Trekkers Hut which I already had shared in my blog. Well, the night was not finished yet. I shared my story to my fellows. some of them just cared a hang. But soumyadipta listened carefully the whole story & we both took it lightly. Like the other days, I opened my sleeping bag, packed myself inside the bag like a mommy, wearing jacket, muffler, and socks.

 

Clock was ticking very fast, as the night was deep. Our discussion entered into a new dimension, where everyone was engaged in talking about some paranormal experience they had (lots of doubts!), lying on beds. My bed was in between soumyadipta & Pritraj, I moved it much closer to pritraj, so that in any situation I’d be able to knock the lazy man.

Believe me, it was not comfortable to have a sound sleep when your mind was awake & continuously it was hitting to remain alert. I at least spent one hour with different position on bed just to fit for the ideal sleeping condition. On other hand, my dear friends were in a different world I guessed. Peeking through the little passage of my sleeping bag I found the room is completely dark, silent except the silvery moon light which actually made the entire room ready for a dramatic horror event. The roof was not concreted, which was drawing my attention again & again, may be some object could draw my attention. No! It was nothing wrong there. I resumed my endless efforts as my wake up time was predefined for we had to return the next morning.

 

“My voice was choked, I felt like someone was forcefully pushing me to bed & all my organs were of no use. Even I tried to call Pritraj’s name, but I found I don’t have power to shout. Even for me, moving my own hands seemed to be an impossible. No, this is not happening the first time, I knew, even I have faced this trauma earlier, I don’t know where. But I tried my best to overcome this situation – gathering all my mental strength to a point against the negative force, I re-flexed to raise my head. Yes! Now I overcame & found everything is normal, I checked the time in cell phone, it was near about 4AM. I poked that guy to ask if everything is normal to him or not. He behaved casual.” I shared my last night’s experience to Soumyadipta just after waking up at dawn – the guard was shouting from outside as our car was almost there.

 

Soumyadipta shared he had a strange dream last night. Although he was conscious too like me,but had a sound sleep & witnessed a dream which is almost similar like the story of the lady.

 

 

 

 

Excluding us another person was there in the room -A very little & fairy baby was roaming around the room, touching each bed of us. And soumyadipta was not only the spectator for this incident, there were some local people who was staring through the window – watching the baby, but the bruise below their eyes looked sore. Breaking the silence of the room, a stepping sound was heard from a distance. A hard, heavy sound of stepping woods which could easily attract one’s attention. After this sound, the baby’s rambling was suddenly paused. The further side of the room was consisted with a large window made of glass through which they were looking into & the room could be merely seen by silvery moonshine. With the immediate effect of a trespasser & her sound, all these nightly beauty just vanished within a second. What was left was the frightened baby approaching towards the window and the shining, dispersing moonlight was slowly replacing by a narrow beam. The walking sound came to an end at a distance of the door of room & the little fairy baby disappeared from the room. Only the narrow beam was found on the wooden floor which was much concentrated, converged to a point. Soumyadipta stopped here.

 

 

I don’t know how to interpret all these with the story, or to analyze them. All I know is we had an unforgettable night in Srikhola which actually made no sense. We were tired of whole day’s journey & the horror story of this place made us to think about all these stuffs which were prevalent in our sub conscious mind & resulted in an unreal dream – this could be the only logic I know. But no logic for my experience. I never used my brain in this matter more. The journey was about to end. Our car has arrived on the other side of Srikhola river. Tomorrow in this same time we would be in a different world.

You might want to read my post on the reverse trek from Srikhola to Gurdum.