India - Sikkim (North-East) 2018

From June 19th till July 8th 2018 we, an Alpine Garden Society group http://www.alpinegardensociety.net) visited Sikkim, a northeast state of India to botanise in the mountains. We flew to Bagdogra and then travelled overland to Darjeeling, with is wonderful tea gardens. From there we drove to Gangtok. With jeeps we drove more north towards the high mountains up to 4600m. We had reasonable weather if you consider that this was monsoon time. Most of the rain came late afternoon. We managed to explore many valleys, all full with special flowers. One of the highlights was finding Rheum nobile in flower. At the end of the trip we visited the Taj Mahal in Agra.
Our travel agent was Nature Himalaya Tours ( http://www.naturehimalayas.com) who I can recommend to anyone who wants to visit this beautiful part of India.