Deolo Hill, Kalimpong
From the lawns on top of Deolo, the ground drops some 1,500 m (4,920 ft) to the river, a pale thread at the bottom of its gorge. Here is how to see it on a clear morning, and what to do when the cloud wins.
Photo: Pranta Roy
1,704 m (5,590 ft)
Deolo is the higher of the two hills the town hangs between. Three reservoirs sit on its summit, and two of them still hold Kalimpong's drinking water. The road up passes the cottages of Dr Graham's Homes, opened in 1900.
Photo: Mosharraf Hossain / Unsplash
06:00
The summit gate opens at 06:00, so leaving at 05:00 gains nothing. Read the sky from your hotel first. In December you reach the top for sunrise itself; in October and November the sun is already up and the snows are sharpest in the hour after.
Photo: Parag Shah / Pexels
From the garden
From the garden you look down on the Teesta and the Relli valley. On a clear morning the snows of West Sikkim stand to the northwest. Coffee on a bench in the sun is the whole plan, ahead of the picnic crowd.
Photo: Pranjal Panchal / Pexels
The confluence
On the road over from Darjeeling, a stop above Peshok looks down on two rivers joining far below. The road then drops in tight bends almost to river level at the Teesta bridge, before 16 km of climbing to Kalimpong.
Photo: Boudhayan Bardhan / Unsplash
NH10
From Bagdogra, NH10 follows the Teesta up its gorge from Sevoke to Teesta Bazaar, 215 m (710 ft), where the climb begins. In July, with about 630 mm of rain, the river runs brown and loud below town, and slides can close the road.
Photo: Sajal Devnath / Pexels
If the cloud wins
If cloud sits on the ridge at dawn, sleep on and try Durpin after lunch: it also looks north to the Sikkim snows and down the Teesta valley. October to December gives the clearest mornings of the year.
Photo: Unsplash