Upper Dolpo (Nepal) - August 2003


Upper Dolpo is, before anything else, a myth : this place wasn't unknown before "Caravan (Himalaya - l'enfance d'un chef)", but this aesthetical movie contributed to its knowledge in France and the western countries. But the myth is not easy to reach : a four weeks hike, six passes above 5000 meters (16400 feet), a US $70 per day special trekking permit plus the price of the travel itself. Upper Dolpo is also the stronghold of maoist rebels, which are now in truce with the nepalese governement, but will ransom you anyway, they have to earn their living ! And if all this hasn't discouraged you, know then that if Dolpo can be reached during monsoon, the planes going there can have problems to deal with bad weather : we waited five days for a plane to Juphal airstrip (with two aborted flights) and the sixth day, we were taking an helicopter to reach Dunaï (thanks to Terres d'Aventures).

But the reward is there : a wild and harsh land, with no tourists and even few hikers, and with, here and there, a few villages. Wonderdul landscapes, monasteries ... poor ones, people, yaks of course, and this feeling of being very very far away. But enough words : look at the pictures, listen to the movie music, and dream.

www.flickr.com
This is a Flickr badge showing items in a set called Upper Dolpo Trek. Make your own badge here.

Photo galleries


You can see the photo gallery of the trek on this site.

You will need Adobe Flash Player to see this gallery. The lower right button of the gallery navigation bar will allow you to see the page full screen with a larger image size. Click on an image to see it with full screen size.

An HTML photo gallery is available if you don't have Adobe Flash Player.

You can also see the trek photos on Flickr. You will find there pictures in their original size, technical informations about them and the place where these pictures were taken. You can leave comments and see the pictures as a slideshow (if you have Adobe Flash Player installed).

Maps

Thanks to Google Maps, you will see below the trek map.

Click on "View Larger Map" to see a full screen map and to be able to load it in Google Earth and see a 3D view. The trek trace you see is not coming from a GPS, so do not try to use the coordinates to perform some actual navigation.


View Larger Map


If you can't see the above map, here is an image :

Last update Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009. Copyleft Franck Zecchin 2009.