The world is full of places that are brimming with awe-inspiring natural beauty, from lakes to abundant green valleys, cascading waterfalls, wide oceans, roaring rivers, delightful beaches, starry skies, and vast deserts stretching endless. It is certainly difficult to conjure the words to describe the flawless artistry of nature in such majestic landscapes. However, I will endeavour to do so by recounting my experiences of visiting a place that abounded in the beauty of nature. For our Geography excursion, twenty students visited Madarihat town in the Alipurduar district of West Bengal. This region is filled with spectacular sights of natural beauty, including the Jayanti riverbed, the Buxa forest, and Jaldapara National Park. The hotel we stayed at consisted of small cottages and was situated right in the middle of nature, surrounded by lush tea gardens on one side and dense forests on the other. Every night, the stars would come peeking from the clear, cloudless skies and I would find myself identifying constellations and marvelling at their beauty. The region was filled with mountainous rivers and small, rocky streams which looked picturesque. The vivid greenery all around us was contrasted by the bright cerulean autumn skies, gleaming with jubilant sunshine throughout the day. The national park was filled with countless species of trees and birds and animals such as wild bison, peacocks, and elephants roamed freely. I have a particularly fond memory of the entire batch, along with our teachers and all the people from the tour company, having a picnic under the mellow November sun on the banks of the Jayanti river. The river was running dry since the monsoons had ended and made for the perfect picnic spot. Beyond us, the dense greenery of forests stretched as far as the eye could see and the imposing mountains of Bhutan rose up from behind them. The place looked strikingly beautiful in the soft light of the morning and it is a sight I will remember for as long as I will live.

33% of guests said this spot was as clean as expected during their visit.