Himachal and Spiti Circuit

Meet at Chandigarh and drive 115 kilometres up to Shimla, about three and a half hours, or ride the narrow-gauge Kalka-Shimla railway, a UNESCO line of 96 kilometres, 102 tunnels and more than 800 bridges. Afternoon on the Ridge: Christ Church, consecrated in 1857, the Gaiety Theatre, and the steep walk up to Jakhoo temple at 2,455 metres under a 33-metre Hanuman.

Leave early for Sarahan, 170 kilometres and about six hours through Narkanda's orchards and down to Rampur, once the seat of the Bushahr kings. From Jeori the road climbs seventeen kilometres to Sarahan at 2,313 metres. Evening arti at Bhimakali, a slate-roofed tower temple of timber-bonded stone with two shrines side by side, one of them several centuries older than the other.

Rejoin the Sutlej and turn up the Baspa at Karcham, climbing to Sangla and then Chitkul at 3,450 metres, the last inhabited village before the Tibet border. Roughly 100 kilometres and four hours, with a stop at Kamru fort and its wooden Badrinath temple. Walk the river meadow, look into the old Mathi temple, and drink chai at what every sign here calls the last dhaba in India.

A short fifty-five-kilometre transfer to Kalpa at 2,960 metres, and then very little to do except the right thing: sit with chai and watch the light move across the Kinner Kailash range, whose rock lingam changes colour through the day. Walk out to Roghi village along the cliff road, through apple terraces and chilgoza pine, and look into the small Hu-Bu-Lan-Kar monastery in the village.

The long day into Spiti, about 170 kilometres and seven hours. Permits at Jangi, the Khab bridge where the clear Spiti meets the muddy Sutlej, switchbacks up to Nako and its willow-fringed lake at 3,662 metres, then dry desert past Sumdo. A short detour reaches Gue, where a monk's naturally preserved body, dated to roughly five hundred years old, sits upright in a glass case. Tabo by evening.

Morning at Tabo Chos-Khor, founded in 996 by the translator Rinchen Zangpo, where clay bodhisattvas stand almost life size out from the walls of the assembly hall and photography is not allowed. Then Dhankar at 3,894 metres, wedged on a spur above the meeting of the Spiti and Pin, and the hour's climb to Dhankar lake. Into Kaza, 3,650 metres, by late afternoon.

A full day above 4,000 metres. Key monastery, stacked in tiers at 4,166 metres and the largest in Spiti, then Kibber at 4,270 and across Chicham bridge, at 4,037 metres the highest in Asia, spanning a gorge some 300 metres deep. Langza's fossil beds and its seated Buddha, Komic's monastery at 4,587 metres, and a postcard franked at Hikkim, 4,440 metres, which will take a month to arrive.

West up the Spiti past Rangrik and Losar, then the climb to Kunzum La at 4,590 metres, where drivers circle the Kunzum Devi chorten before descending. A twelve-kilometre spur, or a two-hour walk from the Kunzum side, reaches Chandratal at 4,270 metres, crescent-shaped and fed by snowmelt. Camps sit two kilometres back from the shore by rule. Roughly 100 kilometres and five hours on rough road.

Down to Batal for parathas at the Chacha Chachi dhaba, then the notorious stretch along the Chandra past Chhatru and Gramphu, water crossings included, to Koksar. From there the 9.02-kilometre Atal Tunnel, opened in 2020, replaces the old Rohtang crossing and puts you in Manali in under an hour. About 110 kilometres and six hours. A hot shower, and trout for dinner.

Morning among the cedars at Hadimba Devi temple, built in 1553 with a pagoda tower twenty-four metres high, then the stone-and-timber houses of Old Manali and the Manu temple. Soak in the sulphur springs at Vashisht, buy Kullu shawls at the Bhuttico cooperative, and drive fifty kilometres down to Bhuntar airport, or take the overnight coach to Delhi.