I am a travel enthusiast and I never leave a chance to explore different places. I am more into exploring nature, in love with hills, mountains and lakes. Being in the hospitality industry, its actually important for me to have knowledge about the touristic and adventure destination of the country.
I along with some of my friends decided to do Mardi Himal Trek and we fixed the dates and outlined the itinerary. After doing some research on the internet and consultation with some of the travel expert friends, we had chosen this trek as we were told that this is a short trek and not very difficult but absolutely rewarding in comparison to other treks. We were 8 friends, everyone very excited for this amazing trek and actually this was the highest altitude for all of us that we had ever been to. We did our necessary preparations, bought the essentials and finally the day arrived i.e 20th March 2020. We took the flight to Pokhara and from the Pokhara Airport; we took the vehicle up to Kande and started our trek from there.
To our amaze, the trek turned out to be the best travel experience for all of us. It is a hidden gem in the Annapurna region. This is one of the shortest trek but one will reach at the height of 4500 meters in just the matter of 4 days.During the 5 days Mardi Himal Trek, we walked through different uphill and downhill of the Annapurna region witnessing some of the amazing creation of nature. The views were breathtaking, the mountains were majestic and the walks through jungles were as adventurous as it could be.
Imagine the beauty of sunset over the Mt. Machhapuchre and the sunrise over the mountains while waking up from the Rest Camp experiencing the chilling cold weather. This is indeed a lifetime experience. On the way, you encounter the Rhododendrons (national flower of Nepal) while walking through the forests, also get to witness the Yaks grazing on the ground. Among different birds, we also saw Pheasants (national bird of Nepal). We were amazed by the beauty of so many beautiful snowcapped mountains from the upper viewpoint at 4200 meter. It had surreal view of South Annapurna (7219 m), Hiuchuli (6444m), and Annapurna I (8091m), Annapurna III (7555m), Machhapuchhre (6993m) and Mardi (5587m). The view was beyond magical. I definitely recommend the Mardi Himal Trek for all the adventure seekers who have very less time to explore but want to have the best trekking experiences wondering the beauty of nature and have the lifetime experience. Refer below for the itinerary that we followed for this trek:-
Day 1: Pokhara, Kande , Australian Camp, Pothana (1890m) to Pritam Deurali (2100m)
Day 2: Pitam Deurali to Forest Camp (2600m)
Day 3: Forest Camp to High Camp (3550m)
Day 4: High Camp to Mardi Base Camp (4500m) & back to Forest Camp to Lwang Village (1550m)
Day 5: Lwang Ghalel Village to Pokhara
The most interesting thing is that during our last day descending down to Pokhara from Lwang Village (about 30 km northwest of Pokhara). We stayed at Ghalel home stay, the best home stay during our whole journey; it was very organized and very hospitable hosts along with the undisturbed view of Mt. Machhapuchhre. We had to walk for about 35 kilometers to reach Pokhara because the lockdown had started in Nepal from that very day in context with the Covid 19. So, all of us mutually decided that we will walk up to Pokhara. We started to walk from the morning 8 after breakfast and reached to the hotel in Pokhara at 8 in the evening. We were completely exhausted but all those beautiful experiences and memories made us forget our entire physical struggle. This indeed was the best trip of my life.
Written By: Niraj Shrestha, Sales Manager at Hotel Yak and Yeti, Kathmandu