Lower Mustang Trek From Pokhara

This version skips the Kathmandu travel days entirely and begins with a dawn flight from Pokhara. The early departure is not optional: the wind funnelling up the Kali Gandaki closes the Jomsom airstrip by mid-morning nearly every day of the year.

The 20-minute flight is one of the most spectacular anywhere — the aircraft flies straight up the world's deepest gorge, between Dhaulagiri (8,167 m) and Annapurna I (8,091 m), with both eight-thousanders filling the windows on either side.

You land at Jomsom (2,700 m) in the Himalayan rain shadow — bare brown hills, a vast gravel riverbed, and hardly a tree. After breakfast we walk north for about three hours on level ground beside the river to Kagbeni (2,800 m), a medieval village of mud-brick houses, tunnelled alleyways and a red-walled monastery at the gateway to Upper Mustang. Overnight in Kagbeni.

The one substantial climbing day — a full kilometre of ascent out of the main valley into the Jhong Khola.

The trail leaves Kagbeni heading east and climbs steadily through wind-carved, almost lunar terrain. It passes through Khingar and then Jharkot (3,550 m), which is worth a proper stop: a ruined fort on a bluff, a red-walled Sakya monastery, and apple and apricot orchards that make an extraordinary splash of green in an otherwise bare landscape.

A final climb brings you to Muktinath (3,800 m) in the afternoon. The Thorong La (5,416 m) descends into the village from the north — this is where Annapurna Circuit trekkers finish their pass crossing, and you will usually meet a few of them looking suitably wrung out. The evening view south to Dhaulagiri and Nilgiri is superb. Overnight in Muktinath.

A full day at a site sacred to two religions. To Hindus this is Mukti Kshetra, the place of liberation, one of the 108 Divya Desams of Vishnu and one of the most important pilgrimage destinations in the Himalaya; to Buddhists it is Chumig Gyatsa, the hundred waters, linked to Guru Rinpoche.

The temple stands in a poplar grove. Behind it, spring water is channelled through 108 bull-headed spouts set into a curved wall, and pilgrims bathe under every one in turn — a serious undertaking at 3,800 m before sunrise. Close by, the Jwala Mai temple shelters a natural gas flame that burns over running spring water: fire and water together, which is why the site is understood as the meeting point of all five elements.

The rest of the day is unstructured — the Buddhist gompa, the surrounding villages, or the ridge walk behind the settlement for the wide view. Overnight in Muktinath.

A long descent back to the main valley. The trail drops from Muktinath through Jharkot and Khingar and down the Jhong Khola to rejoin the Kali Gandaki near Ekle Bhatti.

Turning south, the walk puts the famous valley wind squarely in your face, and by early afternoon it takes real effort — a buff or scarf against the grit is worth having. As you go, watch the gravel of the riverbed for shaligrams: black spiral ammonite fossils, marine animals from the Tethys Sea that lay here before the Himalaya rose, and revered by Hindus as forms of Vishnu.

The day ends at Marpha (2,670 m), the prettiest village in the valley — whitewashed flat-roofed houses along paved lanes, a gompa on the hill above, and orchards on every side. Marpha apples, and Marpha apple brandy, are known across Nepal. Overnight in Marpha.

A short, easy walk of roughly two hours, best started early before the wind builds.

The trail runs north along the Kali Gandaki through orchards and pine, passing Syang and other Thakali villages. The Thakali people of this valley gave Nepal its most celebrated version of dal bhat, and if you get the chance to eat one here, take it.

Reaching Jomsom (2,700 m) before midday leaves a free afternoon. The Mustang Eco Museum is genuinely worth an hour on Thakali culture, Tibetan medicine and the region's geology, and there is a short climb to the viewpoint above town for a final look at Nilgiri and Dhaulagiri. Overnight in Jomsom.

An early flight again — Jomsom's wind window is a morning one, so departures go at first light.

The 20-minute flight runs back down the gorge between Dhaulagiri and Annapurna, and the change of world visible from the window is remarkable: within a few minutes the brown high desert gives way to the green, terraced, humid hills around Pokhara (822 m).

You transfer to your hotel with the whole day free — a hot shower, lunch by the lake, and an afternoon doing very little. Pokhara is a good place to be at the end of a trek: the lakeside is full of cafés, and the Annapurna skyline you have just flown through stands above the far shore. Overnight in Pokhara.

A deliberate buffer day, and a genuinely useful one. Jomsom flights are entirely weather-dependent and cancellations are common, so this day exists to absorb a delay without threatening your onward travel. If yesterday's flight went as planned, it is simply a free day in one of the pleasantest towns in Nepal.

There is plenty to fill it. Phewa Lake can be crossed by rowing boat to the Tal Barahi temple on its island, and from the far shore a footpath climbs to the World Peace Pagoda for a panorama over the lake to the Annapurnas. Sarangkot is the classic sunrise viewpoint, and one of the best paragliding sites in the world if that appeals.

Closer in, the International Mountain Museum covers Himalayan climbing history and the peoples of the range, and Devi's Falls and the Gupteshwor Cave sit opposite each other on the south side of town. Overnight in Pokhara.