The Mardi Himal Trek is a short, newly opened route, moderate type, and hidden treasure in the Annapurna region. Mardi Himal trek offers an imaging view of the Annapurna, Dhaulagiri, Machhapuchre, and Manaslu ranges. Australian Camp, Pothana, Mardi Himal base camp, Siding village, and Lwang are the major attraction of this trek. Nepal Hidden Treks organize 5 days Mardi Himal Trek.
Mardi Himal trek starts at Kande after 1 hour of driving from Pokhara. The trail is good, first slowly up, then a bit steeper to Australian Camp (2060m – About one hour), then after that slightly downhill to Pothana (1950m), then up again to Deurali (2100m). There is a right turn in Deurali signposted “Forest Camp” the trail is through the jungle, at first up then undulating on the top of a ridge; there is a section just over halfway where the trail drops steeply and then slowly gains height and then back onto the ridge and into Forest Camp (2600m). The trail is initially quite steep, leaving Forest Camp but soon gets less steep as you get up on the ridge again. The trail leaves Low Camp again in the jungle. Still, the trees soon started to get smaller, and after about one hour, trekking broke out of the jungle and onto the open ridge with spectacular views of Machhapuchhre ahead and Annapurna South to my left. It is possible to continue trekking along the ridge for another 4 to 5 hours to Mardi Himal Base Camp (4500m) and return to High Camp in around 4 hours – This makes a long day, but there is also a viewpoint about halfway, the imaging view can be from here. After that, we trek down to Siding via Low Camp. From Siding, we drive back to Pokhara.