Badimalika Trek

Welcome to Nepal. You land at Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu (1,400 m), where our representative meets you in the arrivals hall and drives you to your hotel in Thamel.

Your guide joins you for the briefing: the thirteen-day plan, two flights each way with the second into a hill airstrip, the camping routine, and the realistic possibility that the Kolti flight moves by a day. We go through your kit list carefully, since nothing can be bought after Nepalgunj.

The rest of the day is yours to recover from the flight. Overnight in Kathmandu.

A short flight west across the country to the plains, with the Himalaya along the right-hand windows for the first half hour before the mountains fall away and the flat green of the Terai takes over.

Nepalgunj (150 m) is a working border city near India — hot, busy and about as far from mountain Nepal in character as the country gets. It is not a tourist town, but the evening bazaar is worth an hour.

The afternoon is deliberately empty because flights to Kolti leave early. The crew buys the last of the fresh supplies and your guide confirms the morning departure with the airline. An early dinner and an early night. Overnight in Nepalgunj.

The weather-dependent leg. A small aircraft leaves Nepalgunj at first light and climbs from the plains into the hills, landing after about 45 minutes at Kolti (1,600 m), a short strip cut into a hillside in Bajura.

From the airstrip a jeep takes the group west along a rough hill road to Martadi (1,500 m), the district headquarters — a single street of shops and offices, a hospital, and the last place on the route with a bank or a reliable shop.

The afternoon is spent organising porters and loads. Martadi is a good introduction to the far west: busy, functional, and almost entirely untouched by tourism.

Around 3 hours driving after the flight. Overnight at Martadi.

The first walking day, climbing out of the district town into farming country.

The trail leaves Martadi and climbs steadily through terraced fields of millet, maize and buckwheat, with villages of stone and slate houses on every shelf and shoulder. The Budhiganga river drops away below.

This is ordinary far-western hill country and there is no trekking traffic at all — the people on the path are going to market, to school, or up to the pastures with stock. Your guide's translation is the difference between walking through and actually seeing it.

Dahakot (2,100 m) is a village on the hillside with flat ground for the camp and, on a clear evening, the first view north to the high ridges.

Around 5 hours. Overnight camping at Dahakot.

Out of the farmland and into the forest, on the path the August pilgrims use.

The trail climbs into oak and then rhododendron forest, thick, mossy and full of birdsong. In April and May the rhododendron flowers overhead for hours of walking — this is one of the finest forest belts in the far west and almost nobody walks it.

The path is worn by pilgrim traffic rather than trekkers, so it is clear on the ground but rough, and steep in stretches.

Ratapani (2,900 m) is a clearing with water used as a stopping place on the pilgrimage, with room for the tents. There is no settlement here and no shelter apart from what the group carries.

Around 6 hours. Overnight camping at Ratapani.

The big climbing day, out of the trees and onto the open ridge.

The forest thins around 3,300 m and the country opens into high pasture — grazing ground used through the summer, with herders' shelters and a great deal of sky. The change is abrupt and the views arrive all at once.

The climb is sustained, gaining a thousand metres, and the altitude begins to be felt in the last hour. The group takes it slowly.

The camp at around 3,900 m sits below the temple ridge on flat pasture with water nearby. From here the northern skyline takes in the Saipal (7,031 m) range, and on a very clear evening the Api massif further west.

Around 6 hours. It is a cold, exposed night. Overnight camping below the Badimalika ridge.

The day the trek is built around, spent on the ridge above camp.

The walk up to the Badimalika temple (4,214 m) takes an hour or two on open grass and rock. The shrine itself is modest — a stone structure with tridents, bells and offerings — and its power is entirely in the setting: an exposed ridge with the far-western Himalaya to the north and the hills of Bajura and Achham rolling away south.

For one week each August this ridge holds tens of thousands of pilgrims for Janai Purnima. For the rest of the year it is empty, and standing there alone is the experience most people come for.

The rest of the day is for walking the ridgeline, which gives new angles on Saipal and, in clear conditions, an enormous view west. Herders are usually camped on the pastures in season.

Overnight camping below the Badimalika ridge.

Back down off the ridge and into the forest.

The descent is steady on the same pilgrim path, dropping a thousand metres through the pasture belt and back under the trees. Poles help on the steeper forest sections, where the ground is soft with leaf litter.

Coming down gives the forest properly — the birdlife, the moss, and in spring the rhododendron canopy, all of which are easier to notice when you are not climbing into them.

Ratapani (2,900 m) in the early afternoon, at the same camp used on the way up. The night is markedly warmer than the ridge.

Around 4–5 hours. Overnight camping at Ratapani.

A long descent back to the road, covering two days of the ascent in one.

The trail drops through the forest and back into farmland, past Dahakot and down through the terraces to the Budhiganga. It is 1,400 m of descent and it is felt in the knees by the end.

The villages on the way down are worth the stops. With the trek behind you and no schedule to keep, tea in a courtyard with your guide translating is where a far-western trek actually pays off.

Martadi (1,500 m) in the afternoon, with a guesthouse, a hot bucket of water and mobile signal for the first time in five days.

This is where the porters and cook crew finish and tips are given. Around 6–7 hours. Overnight at Martadi.

A short jeep transfer east along the hill road back to the airstrip.

Around three hours on a rough road with the Budhiganga valley below and terraced hillsides above. It is a pleasant, unhurried drive and a good chance to see the district from a different angle.

Kolti (1,600 m) is a village strung along the airstrip with a few shops and simple lodgings. Aircraft come in low over the ridge and stop within a few hundred metres, which is worth watching.

The afternoon is free. Your guide confirms the morning flight, and if the weather looks poor he will make a plan for the contingency day. Overnight at Kolti.

An early start for the morning flight out, which is the only kind Kolti has.

The aircraft drops off the hillside and out over the foothills to Nepalgunj (150 m) in about 45 minutes, and after a wait on the ground you connect to the hour-long flight to Kathmandu (1,400 m).

The temperature change is the memorable part: a frozen ridge two days ago, the heat of the Terai this morning, and the mild valley air of the capital by early afternoon.

Transfer to your hotel with the rest of the day free. If the Kolti flight does not operate today, that is what tomorrow's spare day exists for. Overnight in Kathmandu.

A day held in reserve for the flights, and a free day in the city if they ran on time.

Far-western itineraries without a spare day are the ones that end with a missed international connection, so this is part of the plan rather than padding.

If you came out of Kolti yesterday as scheduled, today is yours. Boudhanath in the late afternoon, the old town and pottery square at Bhaktapur, or Patan Durbar Square and its museum are the three best uses of it.

Thamel handles the shopping — pashmina, singing bowls, Himalayan tea and gear. Overnight in Kathmandu.

Your last day in Nepal. If your flight leaves later there is time for Swayambhunath or Pashupatinath, which after a pilgrimage trek makes a fitting last stop.

Our representative collects you from your hotel and transfers you to Tribhuvan International Airport around three hours before departure.

Bajura sees almost no foreign visitors, and the Badimalika ridge fewer still outside the August pilgrimage. If the far west suited you, the Api Himal base camp trek and the Humla Limi valley circuit are the two other routes out here, and both are just as empty. Safe travels.