Shey Phoksundo Lake Trek

Met at Tribhuvan International Airport and driven to your hotel. In the evening we meet to go through the route day by day, check your kit and answer questions.

Dolpo trips carry more paperwork than most. If anything is missing from your documents there is time to sort it tomorrow.

Altitude: 1,400 m.

A short morning flight southwest to Nepalgunj on the Terai plain, close to the Indian border. The change is abrupt. You leave a hill city at 1,400 m and land in flat, hot farmland where the air is thick and the evening smells of dust and diesel.

The Juphal flight leaves early, so staying here is not optional. Use the afternoon to repack: what flies to Juphal is strictly weight limited.

Altitude: 150 m. Flight: about 1 hour.

The flight to Juphal is the one everybody remembers. Thirty five minutes in a small aircraft, climbing out of the plain and into the Bheri gorge, then a landing on a strip cut into the hillside.

From the airstrip the trail drops through terraced fields to the Thuli Bheri and follows it upstream to Dunai, the district headquarters of Dolpa. It is an easy first afternoon and a gentle way to start moving.

Altitude: 2,140 m. Distance: 4 km. Walking: 2 to 3 hours.

A long day up the Suli Gad, the river that drains Phoksundo. The trail crosses to the west bank and climbs steadily through pine and walnut, past the national park checkpost at Sulighat where your permits are recorded.

The gorge narrows as you go. By Chhepka you are properly inside the park and the villages have thinned out to a handful of lodges.

Altitude: 2,670 m. Distance: 14 km. Walking: 5 to 6 hours.

More of the Suli Gad, steeper now, with the river loud below and blue pine giving way to birch. You pass the waterfall that most people stop for, a long thin fall coming off the cliff on the far bank.

The climb is persistent rather than brutal. This is the day your body starts to notice altitude, so we keep the pace deliberately slow.

Altitude: 3,110 m. Distance: 13 km. Walking: 5 to 6 hours.

A short day with a sting in it. The trail climbs a steep spur to a ridge at about 3,780 m, and from the top the lake appears all at once, a sheet of turquoise held between cliffs.

From the ridge you drop into Ringmo, a Bon village of flat-roofed stone houses and mani walls, and camp or lodge within walking distance of the shore. The colour of the water is not a trick of the camera. It comes from the minerals in the rock and it changes through the day.

Altitude: 3,640 m. Distance: 5 km. Walking: 3 to 4 hours.

A full day at the lake. You can walk the old trail along the western cliff, the one cut into the rock face that appears in Eric Valli's film Himalaya, or visit Thasung Tsholing, the Bon monastery at the far end, or simply sit.

Bon predates Buddhism in Tibet and Dolpo is one of the few places where it is still the everyday religion rather than a curiosity. Walk the mani walls clockwise and you will be doing it the local way.

Altitude: 3,640 m. Walking: 2 to 4 hours, as much as you want.

Back over the ridge for a last view of the lake, then the long descent down the Suli Gad. Going down is quicker but harder on the knees, and the air thickens noticeably as you lose height.

Altitude: 2,670 m. Distance: 19 km. Walking: 6 hours.

The final walking day. Down the gorge to Sulighat, across the Thuli Bheri and up the long climb to the airstrip at Juphal.

The climb at the end is unwelcome after a week of walking but it puts you at the airport for a morning flight, which is what matters.

Altitude: 2,475 m. Distance: 17 km. Walking: 6 to 7 hours.

An early flight off the shelf to Nepalgunj, then a connection to Kathmandu. You are usually back in the city by mid afternoon.

Altitude: 1,400 m. Flights: about 1 hour 40 minutes in total.

This day exists because Juphal flights cancel. If everything ran on time it is yours: Patan, Boudhanath, the shops in Thamel, or nothing at all.

Altitude: 1,400 m.

A second buffer day and a chance to see the valley properly. We can arrange a guided walk through Bhaktapur or Patan if you want one.

Altitude: 1,400 m.

Transfer to the airport about three hours before your flight.

Altitude: 1,400 m.