Day 14: Marpha to Larjung

I hiked the Annapurna Circuit with Michelle from Full Time Explorer. She did a great write-up of our trek which she kindly let me borrow, so what you see below is Michelle's text and my photos. You can find her original article at Annapurna Circuit Itinerary.

I recommend leaving Marpha at 7:00am to avoid the intense afternoon winds. After walking through town, you can cross over the bridge to get off the main road and onto the trekking trail. That path goes through beautiful apple orchards that reminded me of upstate New York in the fall. On the way, we went by the Tibetan Refugee Camp where many of the shop owners told me they lived. A bit past that is a military base. We walk right through it, following the circuit trail. It’s one of the coolest yet most bizarre things I’ve seen on the trek.

After the military camp, the forest opens up into the river bed. It’s hard to see signs from here, and there are several different paths across the open space. If you look closely enough, you’ll see the red and white markers. It feels a bit like playing a game of Where’s Waldo. When you reach the other side, stay to the left near the small village and apple trees. There’s a path that cuts through. After the adorable little town, there’s another opening where you have to keep an eye out for the path again. It eventually leads to a path with a 250m (820 foot) incline, but beautiful views of Dhaulagiri.

After descending back down to the river, we stopped in Saura for a cup of tea at the only teahouse in town. The owner directed us across the river to Larjung. There are small wooden beams positioned across the areas that are harder to walk through, so we got across the river easily without having to walk out of the way to the next suspension bridge. This river bed used to be a sea and the entire area was underwater before tectonic plates moved. The cool thing about this, is there are fossils of sea creatures in the area which are millions of years old.

Larjung is a small town. Honestly, it’s one of my least favorite places we’ve stayed. It’s the only place I’ve been where we said “Namaste” to people on the street and they didn’t reply. That being said, our teahouse owner was lovely and made incredible food. The place felt cozy even though we were the only ones there. Our original plan was to hire a local guide for the next day for 1500 rupees ($15) to see the Dhaulagiri Icefall. Unfortunately, road work caused a blockage on the path that even a guide wasn’t willing to attempt going over. We skipped the side trek the next morning, and without the side trek there’s really not much reason to stay here. I’d recommend going to Kalopani if you don’t plan to do this trek or if it’s not accessible.