The road is long and the climb steep, but no one ever said nirvana was easily reached.

The journey begins sedately, on a train from Delhi to Kathgodam, a timber depot enfolded by the trailing petticoats of the Himalayas in northeastern Uttarakhand state. Sal sleepers gird the railway line through smoke-gauzed grasslands, lush forests and the sprawl of the city of Haldwani before reaching its terminus beside the Guala River.