Nar Phu Valley Trek – Day 9 of 9: The Crossroads at Humde and The Nar Phu Annapurna Circuit Continues
Today, the Nar Phu Valley Trek ends. For Some. We woke up in Ngawal, a village that feels like a bustling metropolis after a week in the hidden valleys of Nar and Phu. For many trekkers, this is the end of the line: a short walk down to Humde, home to Manang Airport, and from there a shared jeep or flight back to Pokhara. And, what a great trek Nar Phu is.
Before we get into what Gautam and I did next, let’s close out the Nar Phu trek properly.
Ngawal to Humde: Ending the Nar Phu Trek
To reach Pokhara or Kathmandu by evening, leaving early is important. I don’t eat much on long transport days, so we were on the trail to Humde at 6am. Allowing 30 to 60 minutes depending on pace – we did it in 45. As we descended, the silence of Nar was replaced by the sight of more trekkers than we had seen in the previous eight days combined. Humde is one of the logistical hubs of the upper valley. AKA, some transport stops here. It’s not a major motorway, but after the remoteness of Nar Phu it feels busier.
Shared jeeps to Besisahar run regularly but most leave early in the morning. It is a solid five-hour ride to Besisahar, where buses connect to Pokhara and Kathmandu. The caveat is that the last good bus usually leaves Besisahar around 2:00 PM. Leaving Humde at 7am means arriving into Besisahar at noon with time to spare – provided conditions are good. In the off season or during muddy periods, an earlier jeep out of Humde is best. At worst, in Besisahar, shared jeeps continue later at a higher cost, private jeeps are available, or one simply spends a comfortable night in Besisahar and leave first thing in the morning. At some stage I’m sure it will become a regular bus route. Full details in my Nar Phu Trekking Guide.
Besisahar to Pokhara or Kathmandu
From Besisahar, the last bus to Pokhara leaves around 2pm and takes four to five hours. Keep in mind, this is often dependent on the time of year. And, on Nepal’s demented idea of creating a road network that’s badly maintained. Kathmandu is eight hours or more. Journey times lengthen considerably in the monsoon and later in the day.
The journey back is not especially scenic, but it can come as a rest for many. I like to think of a trek like this. Day 1 of this trek was anticipation (we took transport to Koto). Day 9 is reflection. We leave the trek. There is something appropriate about needing time and distance to reach the hidden valleys of Nar and Phu, and needing the same again to process what you found there. The jeep or bus ride is for exactly that.
Staying on: Ngawal to Manang and the Road Free Annapurna Circuit
For us … we will continue. The trek from Humde to Manang is a gentle five-hour climb through the Marsyangdi Valley. This is where many Annapurna Circuit trekkers will be aiming for on their second day out of Chame, and it prompts a question I get regularly: what about the road?
If you are starting the Annapurna Circuit fresh, stay in Chame for your first night, and then trek to Pisang before Manang. I’m really tired of hearing trekking agents push for a drive to Manang. Or trekkers insisting they want to skip the road and go straight to Manang. It’s too much. It would be like skipping Koto on the Nar Phu trek and going straight to Meta.
Driving directly to Manang puts you at 3,520m in a single day. In spring 2026, eight people died in the Annapurna region due to altitude-related complications. 25 died over the past year. This is not a random figure and it is not a rare event. Deaths are happening every season because online trekking groups and some trekking agents consistently understate the risk so they can cash in on travel insurance or save money in speeding up a trek. Driving straight to Manang is a red flag when a guide or agent suggests it. Trek in from Chame.
For Gautam and me, having spent several days above 3,500m in Nar Phu, this concern does not apply. We are acclimatized, our lungs are adjusted, and Manang is simply the next step. But, even at that, we stay aware of symptoms. We could make it to Kangsar, but it was a long day yesterday so a shorter trek today is preferred.
Braga Gompa: The Stop Most Trekkers Miss
Just before Manang, we stopped at Braga Gompa (Bhrakaa), one of the most significant monasteries in the entire Annapurna region and consistently overlooked by trekkers focused on reaching Manang for lunch.
The gompa sits above the village of Braga on a steep rock face, its whitewashed walls stacked up the cliff in tiers. It is believed to be over 500 years old and houses one of the finest collections of clay statues and ancient thangkas in the region – hundreds of figures arranged across multiple floors, many untouched for generations.
After the monasteries of Nar and Phu, arriving at Braga feels like a re-connection to the valley. A similar lineage present throughout the Nar Phu valley runs directly through here and on up into Upper Mustang. If you are on the Nar Phu Annapurna Circuit you’ll have time to stop here, and watch the regular APC trekkers often rush past and miss out. I don’t blame them, we nearly did the same thing. We trekked close, but opted not to go in this time. Granted we’ve seen gompas all over the Nar Phu Valley, but for those with an interest it’s good to know that it is here.
The “New” Trek: The Road Free Nar Phu Annapurna Circuit
As Gautam and I walked the trail with snow-capped mountains alongside us, the naming debate that had been running since Day 1 finally settled. The Great Annapurna Circuit. Annapurna North Circuit. Northern Annapurna Circuit. Inner Arc. None of them quite worked. The name we kept returning to is The Nar Phu Annapurna Circuit. It encompasses both treks, and Nar Phu deserves its name in there. It’s virtually road free. There’s a section from Humde to Manang where there’s an hour on the road. It also looks like they’ve started work on the Koto to Meta hydro station road (not a commercial road apparently). This is one of the reasons why we are doing this trek.
The original 21-day Annapurna Circuit was damaged by the road. Trekking on a dusty track with jeeps passing is not the Himalayan dream that filled the trekking books of the 1980s and 1990s and even 2000s. The “New Annapurna Trekking Trails” attempted to bypass the worst sections but the routes are often poorly maintained and lack the draw of the original. The short current circuit of eight days is too compressed to do justice to the region. None of these options fully solve the problem of restoring a two week trek let alone a three week trek. Moreover, there’s so much rubbish online saying things that are simply not true e.g. there’s roads around Nar Phedi (there’s not), based on AI, satellite images, and bad research, it’s almost as if some people want trekking to vanish altogether.
The Nar Phu Annapurna Circuit brings you a two week trek with no road. Here a breakdown on the available treks in the Nar Ph and Annapurna Region:
- Original Annapurna Circuit – 21 days (Besisahar – Chame – Manang – Yak Kharka – High Camp – Thorong La – Muktinath – Kagbeni – Marpha – Kalopani – Tatapani – Ghorepani – Nayapul): Still possible, but south of Kagbeni the road makes it uncomfortable to say the least.
- Current Short Annapurna Circuit – 8 days (Chame – Manang – Yak Kharka – Thorong La – Muktinath): The “insta” “tick box” trek. But really too compressed to acclimatize properly or enjoy anything beyond saying you did it.
- The Nar Phu Annapurna Circuit – 13 days (Nar Phu – Manang – High Camp – Thorong La – Muktinath): Excellent. Bypasses the worst road sections entirely and adds genuine cultural depth.
- The Nar Phu Annapurna Circuit – 15+ days (Nar Phu – Manang – Tilicho Lake – High Camp – Thorong La – Muktinath): Excellent, and in my view the best 14+-day trek in Nepal.
Why Tilicho Lake is a must on the Nar Phu Annapurna Circuit
I have said it in every edition of my guidebook: do not skip Tilicho Lake. At 4,919m it is one of the highest lakes in the world, and the colour of the water on a clear morning is a thing that photographs cannot fully account for. By linking Nar Phu with Tilicho and the Thorong La, you create a route that is almost entirely road-free, moves through genuinely distinct cultural worlds from the Khampa villages of Phu to the busy Manangi hub of Manang, and builds acclimatization properly rather than hoping for the best.
Tilicho was largely added to the Annapurna Circuit itinerary as the western road from Muktinath began shortening the lower section. It is now the most important addition to the route, and it sits perfectly within the Nar Phu Annapurna Circuit route. It is also, practically, the best acclimatization tool available before the Thorong La if just trekking the APC.
For those who have lamented the decline of the Annapurna Circuit over the past fifteen years: the reports of its death were premature. The road damaged it badly, but it did not finish it off. Unfortunately, Nepali policy may have other thoughts in the future. But for the next few years we are good to go. We just needed a better way in. The Nar Phu Valley, with its newly accessible restricted solo permit, is that way in. So, we just trekked it to show this.
More roads?
The Annapurna Circuit was my first trek in Nepal two decades ago. I remember the road being built back then and wondering WHY like this? The excuses were everything from “local people deserve access to hospitals and schools”. To the main one back then, “it will bring in Korean and Japanese tourists who want to take jeeps”. Well, I called BS back then, as I do today.
Today, there are literal ghost villages on the old Annapurna Circuit. No trekkers meant no income, so they packed up and left the teahouses in many settlements. What happened to their livelihoods and homes? If building a commercial road was so important, then why not build a trail alongside it. There has been no effort whatsoever from the Annapurna Circuit, to Upper Mustang, to Lukla or any other major trekking route to build a new trail beside or nearby the new road.
A supplemental tax on the road to build a foot trail would not have been difficult nor expensive. It would have saved trekking routes, livelihoods, homes, and an industry. Where were the national parks and their “conservation” during this? In Solukhumbu they say there will be no road past Chaurikharka (near Lukla). I honestly don’t believe them. For today sure, but just like the Annapurna Circuit plans will change.
So for me, to establish this trek here, is like a little “give back” to my first trek. Hopefully, this little extra time will give someone the opportunity to right the wrong for trail destruction that is going on. Tomorrow we leave Manang toward Tilicho. The Road Free Nar Phu Annapurna Circuit has begun.
Next: Day 10 – Manang to Tilicho Base Camp: The landslide trail, the highest turquoise lake in the world, and the next stage of the Greater Annapurna Circuit.
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The road network is something that bothers me a lot in Nepal. One of your points about putting a road tax to help pay for a trekking trail nearby makes perfect sense. It literally helps local employment short term and long term.
I don’t understand why the majority don’t seem to care in Nepal about this issue? It’s not like the Annapurna Circuit didn’t warn them that their villages may well disappear as people just drive past. The 20 deaths on the Annapurna Circuit just shows how lax rules are as well.
Yes, it’s an issue that could have been prevented in my view. The tax on roads that destroyed trekking trails to establish the trails nearby. Even a railed area or footwalk in some sections alongside the roads. But, the idea of people walking or trekking doesn’t seem to compute when it comes to the economic factors of building a road. There’s a mind set that everyone will take a car or bus rather than providing an alternative.
I also agree that the road network from Besisahar to Manang is one of the major causes of acclimatization in this region. People see the road and think “let’s just drive, we’ll be fine”. They see locals do it, so they assume it’s fine. They arrive in Manang, see the road again, and think “let’s just go”. And so the issue with acclimatization really starts.
The reality is, trekkers should drive no further than Chame, and trek from there. With two nights acclimatization in Manang. If TAAN actually had checkpoints, which the TIMS card is meant to help fund, or even ACAP had a checkpoint in Chame, they would stop vehicles and tell trekkers who were driving straight up to get out. Unfortunately, that doesn’t happen. For those that argue they are already acclimatized (from another trek) they would need to show proof. It’s the modern world, show the National Park Permit date issue, even some photos of where they’ve been to acclimatize. Or, again, if TIMS checkpoints existed, it’s just a matter of checking to see when and if that person checked in.
That’s a really nice breakdown of all the treks. Interesting also to see the APC shrink so much.
Thanks. Yes it has shrunk, but the Nar Phu sections expands it again.
Congratulations on a great well documented trek.
Thank you.
It’s wild that from remote valley’s an villages you are back a major trekking route again.
It is a major trekking route. I’d still consider Throng La or Tilicho remote in terms of location. But yes, Nar Phu Valley’s are indeed remote in the just about every way.