Nar-Phu Valley & Tilicho Lake Trek

A 5- hour bus ride takes us to the starting point of the trek: Besisahar (900 m), the capital of Lamjung District. Two and half hrs gentle walk will take us to Ngadi, to avoid the crowded town of Besisahar. Also, it is a nice walk and a better way to experience village life in Syange from the first day. Great mountain views!

At the beginning, we will be walking on the road for 3 hours, and after that we will be walking on trail all the way up to Tal. On the way to Tak, we can see beautiful waterfalls, Beehives. Tal is the first village of Manang district. A paradise along the Marsyandi River. We can see beautiful waterfalls from the hotel. A Buddhist shrine called chorten is located in front of the waterfall and according to the villagers the shrine protects the villages from natural disasters.

The trail is gentle on the west bank of Marsyangdi River the trail continues crossing through a beautiful village of Dharapani, Bagarchhap and finally reaches Danaque. After Dharapani, we can see Annapurna II Mountain view and Manaslu view too.

We continue to follow the river and reach Koto (2600m). This village is famous. And close to the Koto village is Chame. Chame is the districts headquarter of Manang district. Many administrative offices are located in Chame. The trail continues thru pine and rhododendron forests with spectacular view of Manaslu. The lower route is faster, but is not as scenic as the higher route.

After Koto enter the hidden valley and Buddhist area. We walk through Juniper and pine forests and reach Meta. We will have long walk, through nice river view and waterfalls. We can see few small tea house in between Jungle and we can have lunch in there. Mostly trail is gentle. Just before Meta village, we should have to walk steep jigjag up hill around 2 hours. And then, We can see Meta village. This village is smaller than Koto.

After Meta to Phu, way is gradual, along the river side. We can see nice rock cliff, desert area, traditional few village Chyakhu and Kyang. In winter time, Phu village people move to Kyang to live. And Kyang to Phu its takes about 4 hours. And then we can see Phu village. This village is a very old and traditional village with a historical monastery. So better to have rest day and visit here.

We stay at Phu Gaon, which is a small and beautiful village. It is rest day and so we do some sightseeing. We can see beautiful mountains and old monasteries.

Phu village to Nar phedi is the same back for more than half way. We should pass Chyakhu village. After Chyakhu, two hours. We cross a nice bridge over the Mahendra khola. And then climb steep up hill to Nar Phedi in Gumpa where there is better accommodation facility and serve good food..

It is a long hard day but it is worthwhile The trail is slowly uphill around 3 hours after that climb steep up hill to the top around two hours. There is a beautiful view of Annapurna range. From top to Nawal steeply downhill.

The trail out of Nawal village descends steadily down on the dusty slope with the great views of the Manang valley and Hungde airport. We are soon on relatively level terrain with trees and bushes. We pass the village of Munji and eventually reach the village of Braga, from here Manang is just 1.5 km ahead. Manang offers fascinating mountain views of Annapurna range. The doctors of Himalaya Rescue Association provides talks on mountain sickness at 3 pm every day for trekkers.

We stay at Manang for a day and take rest. We can do side trip to Gangapurna Glacier for better acclimatization.

Today we leave the Marsyangdi River and follow an easy trail to Khansarkar village (3734m). After this village, trail is steep up hill to Shree khadka (4100m). There are three hotel for the trekkers in Shree khadka, where it offers the beautiful mountains view.

This is an unreliable section with a steep slope. Leaving Shree Kharka , we climb gently to a new lodge. A path descends down from here making ups and downs contineously and reaches the landslide area. This section is more scary, with the bare precipitous scree slope through rock falling Zone, still we have the stunning mountain scenery of Gangapurna and Kangsarkang.

Early in the morning we move towards Tilicho Lake. Tilicho is the one of the highest lake of the world. It lies at the bottom of the mountain.

Same way back until Khangsar village. It is a pleasant walk through the woods and the path is mostly level from Khangsar. We pass the Annapurna and Gangapurna range on our right. We will see the Himalayan Griffon gliding over the pastures and after dive down in search of food. The trail drops rapidly down to a log bridge over the Jhrsang Khola. Crossing the bridge we climb a rocky path that leads us to the main trail to Yak Kharka.

Today we climb up to Phedi (4450m) at the foot of the Thorung La pass. We might be lucky to spot a herd of blue sheep. Afternoon stroll to a higher altitude and return to stay in Phedi for well acclimatization. After an early supper we retire to our sleeping bags – full of anticipation for the next day.

Today it is a big, tough and an exciting day. An early rise at 04.30am. After 4 breathtaking hours we reach the Thorung La pass (5416m), one of the worlds highest passes. An exhilarating moment! We then start our steep-down descent to Muktinath (3800m), a pilgrimage center for Buddhists and Hindus.

Muktinath is one of the pilgrimage sites for Hindus & Buddhist – we can visit the Buddhist gompa and the Vishnu temple of Jwala Mai. Every year many pilgrims make a visit to Muktinath especially in spring season. Mountain on the other side such as Nilgiri, Dhaulagiri, Tukuche peach, etc can be seen. The trail to Kagbeni (2800 m) is all the way downhill, crossing the authentic village Jharkot. Kagbeni (2895 m), a Tibetan-influenced settlement surrounded by a patchwork of fields and fruit trees

Morning flight to Pokhara.