Upper Dolpa Trek

In Kathmandu (Bed and Breakfast): Full day sightseeing tour of Boudanath, Pashupatinath Temple and Bhaktapur city

Fly to Travel to NepalJung in the afternoon. Transfer to hotel. In Nepalgunj. Explore Nepalgunj own

Early morning transfer to airport. Fly to Juphal (2354m) airstrip situated high above the river. Trek to Dunai. The administrative center of Dolpo has many shops, militery and police post, school, lodges and hospital. After lunch we stay overnight at Dunai before heading east along Barbung Khola (river). It is about 3 hour walk to Dunai.

We walk through the southern bank of Barbung Khola, cross the river to climb steadily to Heutaghar. We continue to walk up and down the trail until Tarakot. It has a police check post. The village is situated high above. The intersection at lower Tarakot is the junction of the route from the south, west and east.

We follow the trail through southern bank to the river towards east, cross the river that has suspension bridge to reach Sahartara and further up Khanigaon. Depending upon the situation we may walk further about another 2 hour to another nice camping place.

We have entered the valley made by Tarap Khola (river). The valley up stream is narrow. We travel high above the valley and continue to climb the trail to Lahini; it would take avout 3 hour. Lahini has beautiful meadow with water fall . The walk is delightful through waterfalls, meadows and forests. You can see musk deer in the wilderness. After that we climb the trail high above the narrow river valley through varieties of condition. Finally we reach Cheur that has narrow shelf with big overhead cliff. We walk further to Serkam. It is quite an arduous and long walk on this day. The narrow valley has many caves carved out for shelters. It is important to travel during better weather condition. In the past travelers have used ropes to cross difficult parts of the trail. People have been continuously making better condition, but from time to time natural elements have damaged the condition.

The trail becomes broad and well travelled as you approach Dho tarap. The fields are cultivated and people keep herds of animals. There are many mani walls and chortens along the trail. Some of the chortains are in bad shape. The ‘French School' is just outside the village of Dho Tarap. Dho is surrounded by an irregular stone wall and consists of thirty-four houses, divided into three clusters and built in a haphazard way. Tarap is inhabited mostly by Magars who have lived here for generations. There are also few Tibetans. People of Dho Tarap wear home-spun cloths which are mostly dyed into maroon colour. As for shoes most of them wear Tibetan style somba (boots with upturned toes). Both men and women normally wear religious amulets and strings of coral and turquoise. The inhabitants of this village are both Bon Po and Buddhist (Nyingmapa). In the afternoon a walk up to the Buddhist Gompa is very worthwhile. There is a resident lama who is very happy to show off his monastery and might even let you see his private Gompa and the thankas he has made himself. The Bon Gompa is about half an hour's walk.

Walk from Do Tarap to Tokyu is about 2 hour. We walk east along the Tarap Chu (river) in a plain valley that has patches of grass on both sides of the river. En-route you may visit Chaiba Gompa. The valley along Tarap Chu has pleasant trail. Tarap is a beautiful wide valley in this high mountains; it extend 20 kms along the river (Tarap Chu). Tarap has ten villages with cultivated fields, many gompas and chortens. We stay overnight near the Tokyu monastery that belongs to the Chaiba sect.

We start early on this day. The climb to the pass at Jang-la would take us about 4 hour. The trail though steep is quite easy on foot. From summit of Jang la you can get good views of the Dhaulagiri massif; it glitters in the morning sunlight. The trail from Tarap valley is quite rough that gradually ascend to the pass. We leave behind the lush green valley and get into Inner Dolpo on this day. After the pass we make a steep descend to Sibu village. We pass through a pleasant meadow where the locals usually heard their cattles. We continue to traverse towards the river Nangkong Chu and walk further on the easy trail along the river to Sibu located on the bank of the river.

Extra day for weather:overnight at Jangla base camp.

Next day we travel through Namdo. It is quite a large prosperous village. The last count was sixty houses with about four hundred inhabitants. The village located high on the slope west of Nam Khong Khola stretches for more than 5 km. The monastery at Namdo is located near the river bank. As you travel towards Saldang you pass through several stupas, chortens, and terraced fields, stupas, and chortens. You come across stacked mani stones and a Chaiba monastery. Saldang is a large picturesque and prosperous village located on the trade route to Tibet. The village is situated on a plateau high above the Nam Khong chu (river). Probably it is the biggest village in the inner Dolpo region. Because of its isolated location this village has very much Tibetan appearance. The population of the village was about 600 inhabitants with 80 houses.

Our journey continues on through the barren land with patches of green fields in places that are usual scene of the high mountain plateau. We gradually traversed the slopes climbing gradually then descend to Namjung village. This is a short day to allow us to visit village and meet local inhabitants.

Free day -Extra day at Namjung and Saldang (4000m)

Trek to Shey gompa. Shey Gompa monastery which is said to be dated 11th century. It has colorful Tibetan murals and old statues of deities. The antic Kagyupa gompa was fabled to have been built by a Tibetan Buddhist lama, arriving on the back of a mythical snow-lion

Spend the day to relax and see the monastery which is said to be dated 11th century. It has colorful Tibetan murals and old statues of deities. The antic Kagyupa gompa was fabled to have been built by a Tibetan Buddhist lama, arriving on the back of a mythical snow-lion. This has been the fable almost anywhere important monasteries were built in the nook and corners of the himalaya. It has valuable scroll that is said to describe about the mythology of Shey Gompa. There is another gompa next to the main monastery.

This day is going to be long and hard walk to Sehu –La (5000m) and kangla. Often the slopes are covered with snow. A long uphill walk in snow is expected to take about 6 hours. It is important to have good weather condition on this day to traverse all the way. A bad weather can strand most likely for days. A steady walking pace would gradually lead you to the summit. The view from the summit is stunning. After a while at the summit we descend through the steep scree slope that takes about 3 hour to go up to the summit from the valley floor. For us it should take about an hour careful walk through the loose soils to the floor. The uninterrupted sleeper slope is more than 300 meter down to the valley floor. This is the arduous walk in the travel to inner Dolpo.

After Kangla we traverse through the narrow valley. This stretch to the lake is relatively easy that descend quite steeply. We travel south along Phoksindhu river which we would be crisscrossing. The narrow river valley slowly widens up as you approach lower end of the Phoksindhu river. On this day we virtually walk through unchartered trail that descend sharply to the confluence of Phoksindhu lake.

Rest day at Phoksindhu Lake (3620m) is part of Shey Phoksundo National Park that includes a large are of Inner Dolpo; the park is established in 1984. Phoksindhu is a beautiful lake perched in the corner of the surrounding mountain range.

We descend to Ringmo (3600m) and gradually to Dunai (2150m). It takes about 5 hour to reach the confluence of Barbung Khola (river) and Suli Gadi river. We cross the bridge over Suli Gad river pass by Sumdo to Regi (3050m) - a small Gurung village. Further down the river we travel through Sepka (2670m), Hanke (2660m) and climb to Roha gaon (2970m) . We come across the winter houses of the people living in upper part of Dolpo that appear abandoned. Roha is a neat village inhabited by Magars and Chetri who dress and speaks Tibetan dialect. They are mostly traders who bring salt from Tibet to sell in the south.

We make further descent to Dunai and to Juphal: It is short walk to Juphal.

In Kathmandu (Breakfast). We take early morning flight from Juphal to Nepaljung and later in the afternoon another schedule flight to Kathmandu. Transfer to Hotel. Overnight in Kathmandu.

You never know with the flight in this section, so we keep extra day just to be sure that you have enough time to flyou from Nepal when you finish your trek and go home happily.

in Kathmandu - free day, Explore Kathmandu own. Or sightseeing tour can be organized upon request.

Free time until departure. We take you to airport to say goodbye hoping to meet you again.