The trek from Lukla to Namche can be boring after the first two times. Even the dogs recognise you as you trudge up past Phakding and Monjo. To Namche there is just one way in and one way out.

But there is always the side trip you can make from Phaplu up the Hinku valley. On the flight from Kathmandu the Twin Otter just about grazes the tops of pine on Lamjura and turns sharply down for the landing. You wonder what that pleasant smell is, and of course it is the smell of fresh air. Who said oxygen has no odour?

Just out of Phaplu, you see why this trip is different. The trail to Pangkhongma is what the Namche trek was like before the tourists got there. No elaborate tea shops selling San Miguel, no fading posters of Brooke Shields. The forests through to Chereme are alive with wildlife, the rustle on the top branches is a family of Himalayan red panda. Choughs soar high in the updraft of the moist and warm breeze blowing up the valley. The beauty of trekking in the monsoon is that the green goes right up to the snowline. The sound of falling water is everywhere, day and night: rain dripping from trees, gurgle of brooks in the forest, splash of water falling from a rock face, sighs of long white tendrils slanting downwards, the roar of an unseen river deep in the valley below.

In Chereme, Gambu Sherpa shows you a renovated 150-year-old gompa (above). The monastery now looks spick-and-span with its elegant cupola. Prayer flags flutter noisily emphasising the serenity of the place. Up the valley, the afternoon clouds are already massing up against the eastern faces of familiar peaks you see from around Namche: Thamserku, Kangtega, Ama Dablam. They are mirror images, the only difference is that the eastern sides are less steep, there is more snow and the glaciers are fuller.

The air gets thinner, you pass the last few clumps of juniper bushes and enter the moraines. Our destination is Mera Peak, at 6,600 m one of the highest trekking peaks in Nepal. You can get to the top from highcamp and down to Khahare in one day. But why would you want to hurry with such superb views of Chamlang, Lhotse South Face, Everest, Makalu? Anywhere else in the world Mera would be a major peak, here it is just one of the little sisters of Thamserku.

The climb itself is not technical, some French school kids even skied down from the top in 1998. On the way back, you can walk over Chhataro and descend to Lukla instead of going back to Phaplu.