Girl Power in the Himalayas!

After two 2-day treks around Annapurna, I was ready for the big trek of this year - Mardi Himal!
Mardi Himal trek goes from Phedi via Dhampus to Mardi Himal's base camp on 4.500m, and I was really excited to get up to the high parts of the Himalayas again after roaming around the lower areas a couple of times.

View from Mardi Himal trek / View point, 4,500m, 7am. Left is Annapurna South, Hiunchuli and right the Fish Tail. 

Me and Anamika at the start of our trek, in Dhampus

How to cheat 4h uphill on stairs..

The trek to Mardi Himal - Dhampus is between Phedi and Pothana

Anamika from the Childreach Nepal office is apart from a dear friend, also a motivated trekker and loves the mountains and the village life. She arrived early Friday morning to Pokhara and after a nice breakfast we said goodbye to Dan who was flying back to Kathmandu to then go back to the UK, and we headed out to start our adventure.

I had already investigated if we could get a bus to the village Dhampus to avoid the 3-4 hours of steep uphill stairs from Phedi as the start of the trek (which I had already walked down the day before when Dan and I returned from our trek which linked to the same trails as the Mardi Himal trek), and I was successful.

There was a bus leaving every hour from a place outside Pokhara. We got a taxi and went to this place, to find out that the next bus was in 2h and there were delays due to a festival in Dhampus. 

After some time of wait at the shop that also works as the bus stop to Dhampus, I noticed this guy waving at us, and I told Anamika to check what he wanted. It turned out that he had picked up that we were asking to go to Dhampus, and he had found a jeep with two free seats. ACE!
Hitch hiking in the back of a jeep is common here and quite fun, see for yourselves in the video ;)

Us w the staff at Pitam Deurali hotel, and Annapurna South in the background

Day 1 - Dhampus (1,940m) to Pitam Deurali (2.030m)

Mustang Coffee gives extra warmth on a cold day

We started are first day of trekking, and went for our first stop; Pitam Deurali, a stop 30 mins walk after Pothana. This part of the trek is nice with natural trails and some flat parts, going through forest and some natural uphill parts on rocks. When reaching Pitam Deurali we found a nice place to stay, a wooden house with small rooms and a lovely woman looking after it. We had some food and went to bed quite early as our plan was to head out at 6am to make sure to reach Low Camp, if possible. As that meant an ascent of 1,000m, we weren't sure if we could make it in one go, but we wanted to try.

Day 2 - A full day of jungle exploration

 Pitam Deurali (2,030m) to Low Camp (3,050m)

Directions are good - next stop Forest Camp

The first part was quite tough but very interesting, uphill through very mossy and old forest, it almost felt untouched. The trail wasn't always clear and at times we wondered if we were lost but we found the markings and knew we were ok. In the first hour we had taken a lot of height, and reached this open space where we had an awesome view to the valley on one side. Behind us was the jungle, mossy and interesting. We found the trail and kept on going, up up up.. It was pretty tough and we got bitten by mosquitoes and probably lots of other insects, and it was so hot that my t-shirt was totally drenched. Finally we arrived to a tea house which we knew was a mid way stop, and we learned we had taken the long way up, which was much harder.. Bugger! But the tea shop offered water and a great view of the big mountains, and they were suddenly getting a lot closer.. 

We continued through jungle and natural trails, huge trees with lots of leaves hanging over the trail at places. At 11am, we reached Forest Camp and decided to have lunch there.

At noon we continued up the hill, and the same kind of nature continued, until we got into a much steeper part where the trail consisted of roots from the trees and rocks. It suddenly became a bit more challenging but after a bit of a push, we arrived to Low Camp in the late afternoon. 1,000m height done, that is a lot for anyone in one day.
We decided where to stay the night and I was wondering how to get warm. That I decided to have an ice cold shower didnt really help, but my feet did defrost before bedtime..  That evening, like many others pass by on trek, we spent in the communal dining hall in the lodge, by the fire.

Due to the bad weather that has been coming every afternoon, the lodges had no electricity so when it got dark, it was pitch dark.

So how do we stay

The rooms are very simple with 2 single beds and that is it. Toilet is sometimes a hole in the floor or it can also be a western toilet with a seat. It is although never allowed to put paper in the toilet as that would create a big mess in the pipes and blockage for a while. Showers are sometimes available, but usually cold ones unless you want to pay extra for a bit of warm water. I have found that baby wipes are very useful for these trips, even if it is a bit of false cleanliness.. 

Day 3 - Highlight was meeting Maya from Australia, 6 years old

Low Camp (3,050m to High Camp (3,900m)

View from Low Camp, with the majestic Fish Tail in the background

This was the day we actually reached the ridge of the mountains and walked in the wind with the steep falls surrounding us. The first hours were still uphill though, and very steep, through the same kind of vegetation. I never thought it would end, but we finally saw the first house, and thought "Yes, that is middle camp"! But no.. it was just a house offering a few beds for the people not wanting to climb the full 900m height in one day. We asked for Middle Camp and someone pointed to the house in the clouds, on the next hill.

Anamika on the trail with Rhododendron

That would mean that High Camp is on the next or even the further hill, even higher in the clouds.. The wind got colder the higher we got and all clothes were now on, hat and down jacket, gloves and scarves. A little puppy greeted us when we finally arrived to Middle Camp, and we stopped for some soup before heading further up. Now the vegetation was clearly mountainous, short bushes and rocks..

Finally on the ridge! 

Trails with Rhododendron flowers 

We arrived to High Camp around 2pm and even if the trek was very steep, it wasn't very long, it took around 5h for us to reach. That was good, as the hail storm began as soon as we had checked in, followed by a thunder and rain storm that didn't end until sometime in the night.

Best Dal Bhat in the world!
Same story in High Camp with no electricity, but luckily the kitchen runs with gas. As we both had lived on noodles and soup for the last couple of days, we thought we should celebrate reaching the highest camp on the trek with some Nepali Dal Bhat! For anyone who doesn't know what that is; rice, lentils, vegetables like cauliflower and potatoes, pickled vegetables.. this varies depending on where you are, local vegetables are always served though with rice and lentils. Always lovely but some places make this amazingly, and we both agreed that High Camp deserves 5 STARS for this dish!

As the evening came along and the hail kept falling, most trekkers came to the dining hall to sit by the fire. Some read, some play cards, some talk and some just enjoy the moment. Its a nice mixture of guides, porters, staff and trekkers of all ages.
This evening, we all had the pleasure of meeting 6 year old Maya from Australia. She is 6 years old and treks with her parents mainly all over South East Asia, as their work is to report on Adventure Travel with kids for different magazines and websites. Living the dream, I would say..

 Let me introduce you to a very cool kid - Maya!
 Maya's passport shows that she has been to pretty unusual places like Myanmar (Burma), Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia, India and now also up on 4,500m in Nepal. She is like a normal girl, plays with her small dolls that she brings along with her, they have clip-on dresses and she dresses them up for pool parties and birthday parties or just a day in town. But she is also really not as any other child, as she isn't baffled by cold or hot weather, she just get different clothes on, or sit down by the fire for a while if her hands are frozen as she forgot the gloves when playing in the snow... She is also very empathetic, she asked us other trekkers if we got caught in any hail or rain storms as she had seen us coming in later than her.

She comes across as any other child at first glance, but she earned all our respect when we met her at the highest view point the next morning, after having climbed 600m height in the early morning hours. Well done you, Maya! Moving on to..

Frosty paths

Day 4 - High Camp (3,900m) to Viewpoint/Mardi Himal Base Camp (4,500m), back down to Forest Camp (2,600m)

This very early morning's 2-3h ascend was hard for all of us, especially as the morning frost went and the trail got very muddy and slippery, and the sides very, very steep hundreds of meter down. The one thought we all had in our minds was the missing Dutch woman who disappeared here in February. We agreed that she could have fallen down at any point in time on the last trail from High Camp to View point. Very scary, and it made us all be very careful to where we put our feet. Saying that, none of us fell anywhere, and the trail is not "dangerous", but I would say everyone must be cautious and wear proper boots.

Sunrise over the Fish Tail mountain, 6,993m, 6am

I had a bit of an unfortunate start of this morning trek, as I slipped in the mud and did a full-on fall on a rock, landing on my thigh.. I was first sure that I had broken my leg, but then I realised I could stand on it, and if not thinking too much, I could walk. So I did complete the summit climb, the way down was however horrendous, and if I hadn't had a stick to support me, I would probably have slipped to the bottom of the valley..!

Lower View point

Jen at the Top! Macchapucchere (Fish Tail) 6,993m behind me

Annapurna South 7,219m and Hiunchuli 6,441m behind me

Some fellow trekkers reaching Upper View point, with Fish Tail in the back very close

 The walk was however very much worth while, after an hour or so of strict uphill walking, the sun starting to come up behind the very high mountains. Mardi Himal trek leads you to the side of the Fish Tail, and opposite Annapurna South, both in the 7,000m plus region and you become very humble when being both close and high up, still these peaks are much higher. Kilometres higher. Weird.

Paragliders up on this level! We were all amazed, where do they land?!

When I came to the viewpoint, a bit after Anamika as my leg made me pretty slow, she had already tagged along with some of our new friends to to reach the Base Camp. I had no plan of going further, I had reached a pretty fab point and was happy with that. After an hour, Anamika came back to fist bump me "BASE CAMP TOUCH DOWN"! Good on you, girl!

No turning back.. Down there, somewhere on the ridge, is our camp site.. 

We did it! Me and Anamika at Mardi Himal Viewpoint - she even went further to BC!

Then we started our way down, and man... I was so in pain after getting a bit cold up there not moving, to then walk steep down where your thigh muscles are the main parts of your body keeping you up straight and walking down. After way too long time, we got down, had breakfast, high-fived with Maya for us all reaching "summit" and coming down, we packed up and started to descend. I wanted to get down to quite a low level so that tomorrow wouldn't be too long to walk on this leg. We got to Forest Camp after a very long descend of 10h, which was killing knees, thighs and motivation. But we got there. We found a room and were pretty happy as they offered heated showers....! A trekkers wet dream - literally! Dal Bhat, Mustang coffee and some card games, and then goodnight. The coldest and so far hardest sleep so far.

Day 5 - Forest Camp (2,600m) to Dhampus (1,960m) and trucking it back to Pokhara :)

In the morning, we had breakfast with some mules and chicken, literally, then we started our descend through the jungle, and further to Pitam Deurali, then to Pothana and finally reaching Dhampus.

Breakfast company

At this point, we had grouped up with a Nepali trekking group of four guys and a German girl who we had seen all along.
In Dhampus, we again had the great fortune to find a truck that could take us all back to Pokhara. ACE!

Summing up this trek, I don't have much bad to say, mainly good things as every day gave us nice memories.
The trek is very "raw", it consists mostly of original trails covered in leaves and when steep you walk on roots and rocks. I personally LOVE this. Makes it much more interesting than the stairs.
Time wise - you can do this trek in 4-5 days, depending on how fast you climb. I would recommend 5 days to ensure you can enjoy the trek, see the sights, chat with the locals, have good sleeps.
Must-brings are good trekking boots with grip, map of the trek, warm and waterproof clothes, water and an open mind to speak to others at camp sites.
Limitations? Looking at our companions on this trek, anyone from 6 to 100 years can do this trek comfortably. There are steep and muddy parts, but common sense and poles will keep you safe.

Go and enjoy Nepal guys, the most amazing place!

Love & Light,
Jen xx