Nature journeys across India

India stacks half a dozen climates into a single journey. In July the Valley of Flowers opens above Ghangaria, a hanging valley at about 3,600 metres where blue poppies, cobra lilies and anemones flower for roughly eight weeks and then vanish. Ladakh does the opposite: Pangong Tso at 4,350 metres holds a blue that changes hour by hour, and Tso Moriri, higher and far quieter, draws bar-headed geese and black-necked cranes to its marshes in summer. Himachal's Tirthan Valley is trout water and oak forest at the edge of the Great Himalayan National Park. Sikkim's Yumthang turns pink and red with rhododendron in late April. Meghalaya measures rain in metres: Nohkalikai near Sohra drops 340 metres in one plunge, and the Umngot at Dawki runs so clear in winter that the boats appear to float on air. In Chhattisgarh the Indravati spreads wide before it falls at Chitrakote. Down south, Munnar's tea slopes climb into shola forest, and Chilika, the largest brackish lagoon in Asia, holds Irrawaddy dolphins off Satapada. We build these trips around the season rather than the map, with short walks, local naturalists and enough time to sit still.