Yakking with the Thunder Dragon: Walking Bhutan's epic Snowman Trek (Footsteps on the Mountain travel diaries Book 10)

Imagine a land of no plastic bags, where smoking is illegal in every square corner, and people chew betel nuts to get their kicks instead, which leave them with comical red tongues that give the game away. Suppose the economic welfare of this land is measured not in Gross Domestic Product, but a commodity known as Gross National Happiness, and the state religion preaches non-violence, resulting in a surfeit of stray dogs that nobody has the heart to put down. Imagine a ruling elite so benevolent that the king stands down every 20 years to give his son a chance to have a go at reigning.

Supposing this remarkable land really existed, and that it happened to contain some of the most dramatic mountain landscapes in the world. Any lover of high places would just have to go there to climb some mountains. Well, amazingly, it does - it's called Bhutan, and it nestles at the eastern end of the Himalayas, between the jungles of India and the desert plateaus of Tibet.

For Mark Horrell, a mountaineer, there are just two small problems with this mountain paradise. He isn't allowed to climb any mountains because the inhabitants respect the mountain deities which live at the top of them, so he has to go trekking instead. And secondly, the country's yak population is among the most dangerous in the world, making trekking a hazardous business.

He decides to travel there anyway, brave its feisty yaks, and walk the epic Snowman Trek, a long distance trail which has the distinction of being completed by fewer people than have climbed Everest. This is the travel diary of his journey and will appeal to anyone with a fascination for this magical Himalayan kingdom. It includes many of the author's photographs from the trek.