My sabbatical: Mardi Himal trek

20 September - 25 September

If you go to Nepal you need to trek (South Africans read ‘hike’). Well, that is how it seems, if you listen to any conversation, by anyone, at any time, anywhere. So, when in Rome – trek.

I had got into contact with a fellow solo traveller over Facebook, who was also interested in doing a trek and we met up the second day I arrived in Pokhara. After chatting for a little while, we both seemed to feel that we could bare each other for a few days, and had the same ideas about the type and length of trek we wanted to do. Great, we agreed to be trekking buddies and sought to find a trek.

Luckily (but not unexpectedly), the person at the hotel we were staying at was able to assist with organising the whole trek. From route, through to guide and transport. After a few discussions and negotiating, we had the trek planned. We were going to climb up the Mardi Himal trail, which was a 6-day round trip, that should lead us to the Mardi Himal mountain peak.

We met our guide on the morning that we left for the trek. Lallie was a soft-spoken, timid, 49-year old local Nepali who had been trekking for over 20 years. We jumped into the taxi and headed off. The taxi stopped a short way out of town, for us to get our first views of the Annapaurna range in the distance. Crazy to think we would be up and really close to these mountains in a few days.

Our first view of the mountains.

We supposed to climb that in 6 days?

The smooth asphalt however quickly gave way to rocky, graded sand roads and we knew we were getting further out of the city, and all quite relieved that we made it to the starting point without flipping the car or busting a tyre.

We started at a village called Pedi and our first destination was a steep uphill ascent of more than 500m to Dhampus (that is steep if you are unsure what that translates to 😊). The sun was beating down and the introduction to our first day was not that gradual, but the sights of the vast paddy fields and small villages made us take little notice.

Our first break, after climbing up a lot of stairs
to Dhampus

The paddy fields of Dhampus

Our initial goal for the first day was a village called Pothana, and we entered the jungle as we climbed towards it. The remainder of the walk was not too troublesome, and it seemed like we had conquered the major challenge for the day. I though had a far larger, more unexpected challenge that was building up – how to deal with my new princess hiking companion.

Getting into the jungle on the Mardi Himal trek

I am sure you all remember Princess, my fashion influencer / 21-year old / 3-brush carrying travel buddy from Spiti valley. Well, while my hiking partner had (thankfully) not brought a roller bag onto the trek, but nonetheless, just as blatant red flags were beginning to appear.

Lady Princess was complaining that there was a lot of uphill (on a climb up to a mountain peak), but also every time she stepped in mud, she tried to wipe it off, because her shoes were getting dirty (Oh God, 6 days).

We though soldiered on, and got to Pothana by midday. We were all feeling quite fresh, on account of it being Day 1. And on account of there be nothing else to do, we walked some more, to the next camp, and reached Deurali village by early afternoon and felt we had done enough to call it a day.

Deurali: our first (well second) village,
where we were to spend the first night

The traditional dal dhaat,
a hearty curry and rice dish.
Well deserved and filling after a day's trekking

The mountain peaks were starting to get
a little closer.
From Deurali village

Sunset from our guesthouse,
at the end of Day 1.
Deurali village

For those hardened trekkers who carry their own gear, and food, and sleep in tents, Nepal is nothing of the sort. Disappointingly, and to cater to the ever-increasing amount of people who think they can just rock up and climb a mountain, these trails have become exceptionally comfortable by all accounts. There are villages every few hours, offering places to stay, including electricity outlets; restaurants, offering pizza and beer; and most things in between. If you are willing to pay, even wi-fi and a warm shower are available. Seemingly, everyone wants to get away from everything and into nature, but just not too much.

Oh, if you don’t feel like it, you can buy a human to carry your pack too.

The trails are therefore busy. The stops are crowded with people. All of this means that some of the fun of going out and hiking is really spoilt. Though, and in between the large amount of construction going on, and the raising of new tea stands and guesthouses, there is still a vast expanse of mountainside and some amazing views and nature.

The misty jungle

Apparently, there are some nice mountain views here,
somewhere

We were unlucky enough though to be catching the late end of the late monsoon, and most of our days were therefore surrounded by cloud, drizzle and fog.

As we climbed higher over the next two days, Princess’ lungs were starting to struggle and our pace slowed considerably. We picked up another trekker, who we met at a lunch stop, and Princess knew from Kathmandu, but who suffered from the altitude just as much. To her credit, she soldiered on, and managed her trek through a combination of a cocktail of pills (vitamins, anti inflammatories, pain killers) and some rum at each overnight stop.

The trekking crew.
Took about 5 minutes until they caught up,
to take the photo

The wet weather also brought leaches to the surface at the jungle, and we had to be careful not to touch any plants (which Lady Princess did a lot) or be stationary for too long (which Lady Princess was for a lot of time), as these crafty blood suckers would attach to you and suck your blood. They were not poisonous, or painful, just a pain in the ass (😊) and could only be removed by dissolving them with salt. We put salt on our boots and socks as a precaution, which seemed to help everyone except Lady Princess – whose constant complaining and frieking out about these little buggers nearly got me to asking her for some of her pill-cocktail to deafen out the noise.

Salty shoes, classic leach prevention technique

They were pretty avoidable,
as long as you did not touch anything, ever

We reached out final camp on the third day and were not excited to be waking up at 4:30am to climb up the peak at sunrise, especially since we had seen almost nothing but rain and cloud for the past few days. We were though blessed with clear skies when we got up in the morning (me about 20 minutes ahead of the others, because I was not missing sunrise because these slowpokes could not breathe – shame).

5am and on the last leg up to the top

Even the yaks wanted to take in the view

Me and our trusted guide, Lalli, taking advantage
of some clear weather on the way to the top

Away from all the villages and tea stalls, and early enough to have arrived before the crowds (and clouds), we had about 2 hours of absolute entrancing views of the Mardi Himal and surrounding peaks at 4000m above sea level, and happiness and friendship and smiles and joy returned to the group as we made the most of our window to take many many pictures, each better than the next.

Sunrise at 4000m

Getting to the summit on the stroke of sunrise
(trekking crew somewhere in tow)

Calls for a little celebration

When the clouds dissappear (slightly),
there are some truly amazing view

As we were climbing down, with the clouds covering the peaks once again, and the rain setting, the slow pace of group got worse on the descent, and slippery path. After 4 days together, nerves started to fray and after 6 I think we had worn out our friendship. We hugged, and parted, and promised to stay in touch, but no sooner as we got off the bus back in Pokhara, I knew that was not going to happen. All in all, a nice trek though 😊