holidays

Lachung serves as a basecamp for visiting the Shingba Rhododendron Sanctuary, Yumthang Valley and Zero Point. Leave your hotel at 7am and travel straight to Shingba, which will be your first destination for the day. After driving through the fairy-tale landscape of the sanctuary, you will reach Yumthang. Don’t stop here to visit the majestic valley and continue your ascent to the Zero Point.

Once you are back in the valley in time, you are free to spend as much time getting drenched in the serene environs of this gem of a valley. End your trip with a dip in the Yumthang Hotspring, followed by lunch at the Yumthang Cafeteria. Even after covering all these spots, you will make it back to Lachung maximum by 2pm. You can spend the rest of the day taking rest or taking a walk around Lachung.

Shingba Rhododendron Sanctuary
On your way from Lachung to Yumthang Valley and then further up to Zero Point, you will first have to drive through the drop-dead gorgeous Shingba Rhododendron Sanctuary, which lies only 8km ahead of Lachung. Blessed with a landscape that looks more Japanese than Indian, the sanctuary offers amazing views of snow-covered peaks as you drive along myriad rhododendron trees. Surrounded by the Chuba-Sagochen mountain ranges on its east and Chomzomei Tso extending till the Lava Pass on its west, the sanctuary sprawls across an area of around 43 sq km and is perched at an altitude of 3048m-4575m. The landscape is dotted with massive grey rocks covered with red algae.

The Yumthang Chu (river) meanders through the sanctuary adding to the beauty of the breathtaking landscape. Blessed with a rich natural vegetation cover and a rich wildlife, the sanctuary is famous the world over for being home to over 40 species of rhododendron shrubs and trees. Apart from the Rhododendrons which bloom from mid-April to mid-July, the sanctuary is also dotted with other trees including poppies, aconites, saxifrages, gentians, potentillas among many others.

The best time to visit Shingba is during the spring season when the sanctuary comes to life with rhododendron flowers that sprawl far and wide and paint the landscape in a riot of colours. The sanctuary falls under the East Himalayan Mixed Coniferous Forest, Birch-Rhododendron Shrub Forest type and Alpine pastures type.

The sanctuary is also a paradise for bird watchers and some of the commonly spotted birds here include the blood pheasant, alpine accentor, rufous bush robin, White wagtail, yellow-bellied fantail, rufous gorgeted flycatcher and firetailed sunbird among others. The sanctuary is also home to a number of mammals including musk deer, blue sheep, serow, himalayan black beer, goral, Tibetan wolf, otter and if you are lucky, you may even spot a snow leopard or even the untraceable red panda!

It is advisable to keep to the permitted treks and trails, carry back your tins and plastics and keep the noise levels low. Visitors are not allowed to organise merrymaking like camp fire, play loud music and pluck flowers. When done, soaking in the beauty, head to Zero Point.

Zero Point
A trip to the Zero Point is usually clubbed with the Shingba Rhododendron Sanctuary and the majestic Yumthang Valley. To visit all these places, you will have to be stationed at Lachung. When you leave from Lachung, you will first cross the Shinghba Rhododendron Sanctuary, then Yumthang and the last stop would be the Zero Point. It’s best that you travel to Zero Point first and explore Yumthang Valley during your return journey.

Reaching Zero Point, the last outpost of civilisation, is an adventure in itself. The route is embraced by soaring snow-capped peaks adorned with chimal trees in green, red and yellow hues. Carpets of red moss beautifully decorate the roadside as you drive up towards the scintillating Zero Point. The way to Zero Point offers brilliant valley views and is lined with myriad trees.