Days seven to nine of the Ladakh Sky Trail GHT, a three-week hiking adventure in the Indian Himalaya unique to The Mountain Company. These three days included spectacularly located monasteries, endless river crossings, and incredible landscapes.

We’d spent the previous four days hiking a challenging route between Nerak and Zangla. Between that and heading on from Zangla we took a 40-minute drive to visit Karsha Monastery. There was some wonderful scenery along the way, and locals playing cricket on a Sunday afternoon.

The monastery is located high above the Zanskar Valley with spectacular views.

Karsha Monastery is the largest and most important monastery in Zanskar, and is over a thousand years old. As usual photography is prohibited inside the atmospheric temples filled with ancient Buddhist wall paintings and statues, but outside was fine.

Returning to travelling on foot we walked up from our riverside campsite by the Zanskar River to the small village of Zangla. It was an atmospheric place, and surprisingly the only place besides Leh where we saw dogs.

On the way we passed this impressive new Buddha statue at the local nunnery, with snow capped mountain views in the distance.

On a hill above the village lies Zangla Palace, once home to the king of Zanskar. The palace is more of a ruin now but had wonderful views down the valley.

It offered some incredible views.

We spent the next five hours hiking up an incredible canyon.

The rock formations were quite amazing.

This involved around 20 river crossings. Thankfully no one fell over, but the flow was powerful, and care and concentration were required for every crossing.

There were also narrow and often precarious paths above the river, not my favourite.

I was totally exhausted by the time we reached our campsite at Zangla Sumdo, right by the river. An invigorating wash in the river helped but it was a pretty lethargic afternoon and early night.

The next day was the first time we reached camp in time for lunch, so technically it was a shorter day, but it was another tough hike.

It was a continuation of the previous day, with around 15 river crossings, but less impressive scenery.

It was the constant undulation and rough, uneven rocky ground that made it tough, plus hiking up 400m to 4,200m above sea level.

It was a relief to reach camp, though the large herd of bulls with big horns surrounding it was a bit of a worry. Thankfully after lunch they wandered on.

I had another full immersion experience in the nearby invigorating cold stream. I then did my first sketch in eight months, of our campsite.

That night was the coldest of the trip so far, but nothing compared to my hikes in Nepal and Bhutan which were later in the year. There was some rain overnight and more in the morning. For a near-desert environment there was more rain on this hike than expected but it was never heavy and rarely lasted more than half an hour.

I also woke with a bit of an upset stomach, always a risk when camping for long periods, particularly when there is plenty of horse manure on the track and around the campsites. It made the near thousand metre climb to Niri La (5,150m) the most physically challenging of the hike so far.

On the way up we were passed by a group of Frenchmen, walking much closer together than I’d be comfortable with. I appreciated our leader Almas from The Mountain Company allowing us to walk at our own pace where possible. Apparently the French group started with 12 people but in Zangla seven dropped out early! This isn’t the easiest place to hike in due to the terrain, climate, and altitude.

It was a relief to reach the pass at the same time as our horses, and sit down for a proper rest. One of the horses was making a vibrating noise. Somehow my electric shaver had been turned on…

We headed down a little way from the pass to have lunch with a view.

Thankfully I was much quicker on the descent to Niri Doksa (4,400m). This used to be the summer pasture for Shade Village, but is more commonly used now by hiking groups camping. This was by far the busiest place of the trip so far, with the Frenchmen next door, and a group of presumably Europeans (judging by their colourful hiking clothes) who camped further up the hillside.

As usual I had a full immersion in the stream, but doubt I lasted more than 15 seconds. It was freezing! Thankfully the sun unexpectedly came out all afternoon, perfect for charging my devices, drying my clothes, and I sketched Karsha Monastery.