Eight winter days walking between rice villages in Jigme Singye Wangchuck National Park
This low altitude trail runs between five villages inside a national park, so you sleep in community guesthouses and walk with a village guide who knows which household is harvesting. Winter is the right season: the valley floor at Nabji sits near 1,000 metres and stays warm while the rest of Bhutan freezes. The birdlife in the park is the reason many guests come, and the golden langur troops along the Mangde Chhu are the reason they stay an extra night.
Walkers who want villages rather than camps, and birders visiting in winter
A long first day crossing Dochula and Pele La, with lunch at Chendebji Chorten and an evening arrival at Trongsa. Your guide uses the drive to talk through the trail and the villages ahead.
Drive down the Mangde Chhu gorge, passing the point where the road was cut into the cliff, and start walking at Tongtongphey. The trail follows the river through warm broadleaf forest to Nabji and its standing stone.
Walk the terraces around Nabji in the morning, then climb steadily to Korphu on its ridge above the valley. The guesthouse looks across to the park and the village archery ground.
A slow morning birding the forest edge with a village guide, then an afternoon on the village ground learning the local archery rules. If the community is holding a small puja you are welcome to sit at the back.
Drop through terraces and forest to Nyimshong, crossing the river on a long suspension bridge. The afternoon is for the deep pools below the village, where the water is clear and the fish are visible from the bank.
A final morning on the river trail before the vehicle meets you at the road head and returns you to Trongsa, where a hot shower and a hotel bed are waiting.
Walk through Trongsa Dzong in the morning when the police are still sweeping the courtyard, then drive west over Pele La to Punakha for the night.
Cross Dochula early, stop at the chortens, and reach Paro airport with time to spare before your flight.
Travel insurance strongly recommended: cover mountain medical care, altitude evacuation, and Paro weather flight delays. Read the travel insurance note
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