Mardi Himal Trek, 8 Days

We leave Pokhara mid-morning and reach the Kande trailhead by jeep in about 90 minutes. From there the trail climbs a steady set of stone steps through terraced farmland and pine, gaining under 300 metres in the whole afternoon. This is a deliberately short first day.

The 8-day is the slow, cultural version of Mardi, and it starts slow on purpose: a gentle half-day walk gives your body its first taste of altitude without asking much of it, and leaves the afternoon free to settle into Australian Camp at 2,060 metres, where the first open view of Annapurna South and Hiunchuli appears above the ridgeline.

Overnight in a teahouse at Australian Camp. Early dinner, and a night that sets the tone for the whole trip: nothing here is rushed.

The trail continues through Pothana, where the ACAP permit is checked, and on to Pitam Deurali at 2,100 metres, the junction where the Mardi route leaves the busier Annapurna Base Camp path and turns onto its own quiet ridge. Lunch is usually taken here.

From the junction the path climbs through cloud forest, oak, maple, and rhododendron thickening as the trail gains height, to Forest Camp at 2,550 metres. Langur troops are common in the canopy on this stretch, and on a clear afternoon Machhapuchhre starts to show itself through the trees.

Overnight at Forest Camp. Still an easy day by Mardi standards, well within a 5-to-6-hour walk, and another rested night ahead of the bigger climbing to come.

This is the main altitude day, a little over a thousand metres of net gain, but it comes after two easy warm-up days rather than on a rushed first or second morning, which is the whole argument for the 8-day version. The trail climbs past Rest Camp at roughly 2,700 metres and on to Low Camp at 2,985 metres, where the trees thin and the full Annapurna massif comes into view for the first time.

Above Low Camp the route breaks onto the open ridge, crosses Badal Danda (Cloud Ridge) at 3,210 metres, and climbs steadily to High Camp at 3,580 metres. Pace is kept deliberately slow on this stretch, and because the itinerary has already banked two gentle acclimatisation days, most trekkers find this climb noticeably more comfortable than on the shorter versions of the trek. If altitude is new to you, our guide to altitude sickness explains what to watch for.

Arrive High Camp in the afternoon with time to rest before the cold sets in. Machhapuchhre stands directly across the valley, and the dining hall fills up early as everyone settles in for the summit morning ahead.

The summit morning. We leave High Camp around 04:30 with headtorches for the pre-dawn ridge climb to the Mardi Himal Upper Viewpoint at 4,200 metres, the highest point of the trek and the reason most people come. On a clear morning the sun lifts over the eastern peaks while Dhaulagiri sits far to the west and the sheer Annapurna wall fills the sky directly in front of you.

We return to High Camp for a proper breakfast, then begin the descent. Unlike the shorter itineraries, the 8-day does not push all the way down in one push: we stop for the night at Low Camp, 2,985 metres, keeping the descent gentle and giving knees and joints an easier day than the summit-plus-full-descent push that the 3 and 4-day versions require.

Overnight at Low Camp. The hard climbing is behind you now. What is left is four unhurried days walking down through Gurung country to Pokhara, rather than a race for the road.

This is where the 8-day itinerary earns its name: instead of jeeping straight out from the base of the mountain, we keep walking, dropping through forest and terraced farmland to the Gurung village of Sidhing at 1,860 metres.

Sidhing is a working homestay village, not a trekking-lodge strip, and the change of pace is immediate. Stone houses, millet drying on rooftops, and a community that has hosted trekkers on a homestay basis for years rather than running purpose-built teahouses. We stay the night with a local family rather than in a standard lodge.

This is the first of three homestay nights that make the 8-day the most immersive way to walk Mardi Himal, and it is a very different trip from here on than the itineraries that jeep straight back to the lake.

A gentler day, following farm trails and forest paths between villages rather than a defined trekking highway. The walk drops steadily through terraced fields to Ghalel, another Gurung homestay village at roughly 1,500 metres.

Ghalel sees far fewer trekkers than the main Mardi route, and the day is as much about village life as mileage: greetings from farmers in the fields, tea offered along the trail, and a homestay evening that usually includes a shared meal with the host family rather than a printed menu.

Overnight in a Ghalel homestay. Two villages down, one to go, and the pace by this point of the trip is closer to a slow village-to-village walk than a mountain trek.

The shortest and easiest walking day of the trip, dropping gently through forest and past Lwang's tea gardens, the village's best-known feature and a striking change of scenery after a week of high ridgelines and forest trail.

Lwang is the largest and best-organised of the three homestay villages on this route, with an established community homestay programme, and it is a fitting place for the last night on the trail. Most groups mark the occasion with a small farewell gathering, sometimes with local music, before the final night.

Overnight in a Lwang homestay. Tomorrow is a short morning and a jeep ride, the only day of the trip with no real walking.

A relaxed final morning in Lwang before a local jeep collects the group for the drive back to Pokhara, descending through the lower Annapurna foothills to the lakeside at 820 metres.

We arrive back in Pokhara by early to mid afternoon. Hot shower, a real bed, and a trip success certificate to mark eight days from the lakeside, over the 4,200-metre ridge, and back down through three Gurung villages that most Mardi itineraries never see.