Char Dham Yatra

Arrive in Haridwar, an hour and a half from Dehradun airport, and settle near the river. At dusk join the Ganga arti at Har Ki Pauri, where priests swing tiered lamps over the Brahma Kund and thousands of leaf boats go downstream at once. Eat a simple satvik thali afterwards; the town is vegetarian and dry. An early night, because tomorrow begins before dawn.

A long first driving day, about 200 kilometres and seven hours, climbing past Dehradun and Mussoorie, crossing the Yamuna near Damta and following the river to Barkot at 1,220 metres. The road runs through deodar and chir pine with the water far below and apple stalls at every bend. Arrive by evening, eat early, and pack a small daypack for tomorrow's walk.

Drive forty-five kilometres to Janki Chatti, then walk six kilometres and about 650 metres of ascent to Yamunotri at 3,293 metres; ponies and palanquins are available at fixed rates. At the top, dip rice tied in muslin into the Surya Kund, which runs close to boiling, and offer it in the temple built by the Tehri kings. Touch the Divya Shila before darshan, then descend to Barkot.

About 100 kilometres and four hours over Radi Top, leaving the Yamuna basin for the Bhagirathi at Dharasu. Uttarkashi sits at 1,158 metres, a town of ashrams, mountaineering institutes and expedition outfitters. Visit the Kashi Vishwanath temple and the Shakti temple beside it, which holds a six-metre brass trident of uncertain age. Evening beside the river, with an early dinner and a briefing for Gangotri.

One hundred kilometres and four hours up the Bhagirathi, through the hot spring at Gangnani and the deodar forest around Harsil. Gangotri sits at 3,100 metres; the granite temple was raised by the Gorkha commander Amar Singh Thapa in the early nineteenth century. Bathe if you dare at Bhagirath Shila, walk upstream to the Gauri Kund falls, then take a night in Harsil among apple orchards.

The hardest driving day: roughly 230 kilometres and nine hours down the Bhagirathi to Tehri and along the reservoir, across to Srinagar in Garhwal, then Rudraprayag where the Alaknanda takes in the Mandakini. Stop at the cliffside shrine of Dhari Devi. Turn up the Mandakini to Guptkashi at 1,319 metres, whose Vishwanath temple marks the spot where Shiva is said to have hidden from the Pandavas.

Drive to Sonprayag, take the shuttle to Gaurikund, and start the sixteen-kilometre path up the Mandakini through Jungle Chatti and Bheembali, six to eight hours on foot; ponies, palkis and porters are available, and helicopters fly from Phata and Sersi in under ten minutes. The grey slab temple survived the 2013 flood behind a single boulder. Evening arti, then a cold night at the shrine.

Attend the four o'clock morning arti, when the lingam is bathed in ghee, then descend to Gaurikund and drive on through Rudraprayag and Karnaprayag to Joshimath at 1,890 metres, about 200 kilometres in all. Joshimath's Narsingh temple houses the Badri idol through the winter months, and Adi Shankara's math and its very old mulberry tree stand beside it.

Forty-five kilometres up the Alaknanda through the Vishnuprayag gorge, two hours on a road that runs one way in places. Bathe in the Tapt Kund, a sulphur spring at about forty-five degrees, before darshan at the brightly painted temple, 3,133 metres, with Neelkanth behind it. Afternoon walk to Mana, three kilometres on: Vyas Gufa, the Bheem Pul stone over the Saraswati, and a much-photographed tea shop.

The long way home, roughly 295 kilometres and ten hours, following the Alaknanda through the Panch Prayag: Vishnuprayag, Nandaprayag, Karnaprayag, Rudraprayag and finally Devprayag, where the green Bhagirathi and the grey Alaknanda meet and become the Ganga. Stop at Devprayag to walk down to the sangam. Reach Rishikesh in the evening for the arti at Parmarth Niketan.

Morning yoga on a terrace above the river, then a walk across Ram Jhula to Swarg Ashram, the Geeta Bhawan printing press, and the graffiti-covered meditation domes of Chaurasi Kutia, where the Beatles stayed in 1968. Breakfast at one of the German bakeries near Laxman Jhula, a last dip at Triveni Ghat, then thirty-five kilometres to Dehradun airport.