Whether you are a Hindu pilgrim, a local Jhankri shaman or like me, a nosey onlooker, you have two possible routes to get to Gosaikunda. From the south east your way is blocked by the hefty Laurebina pass at over 15000 ft and consequently, pilgrims coming this way from Kathmandu often choose to make the walk from Sundarijal (1460m) gaining altitude slowly over a few days before attempting the pass. The alternate, much shorter and far more popular route is from the north west starting at Dunche (1960m) a town that is serviced by a main road from Kathmandu. However, at this time of the year, the road is plagued by continuous land slides which in my case caused the bus journey to be split in to 3 parts. Over the best part of 15 hours we were forced to transfer between 3 different vehicles, walking about 2 km between each ride and making our dash over the treacherous landslips aided by local ‘spotters’ who sat above the areas of rockfall whilstling a signal when the route was clear of falling debris. The route on foot from Dunche is steep and gains altitude rapidly so you are advised to spend at least a couple of days climbing the one and a half vertical miles to the lake. I stopped a night in Chandanbari and then Laurebina which allowed me to avoid any major signs of altitude sickness. If however, you are unlucky enough to get sick, around the August full moon there are a fair few volunteer doctors stationed in tents along the route to the lake available to administer treatment. Speaking to one such group I was told that the station at the lake was almost exclusively visited by people suffering from altitude sickness, especially since some of the pilgrims were making the walk from Dunche in one single gruelling 24 hour march.