The Dhampus hike is a day hike from Pokhara through the Annapurna foothills. A private vehicle drives you to Kande, you climb to Australian Camp (about 2,060m), walk the ridge to Dhampus village (about 1,650m) for lunch, and then take the stone steps down to Phedi (about 1,100m), where the vehicle waits to drive you back to your Lakeside hotel. It is five to six hours of walking, roughly 300m up and 900m down, over 9 to 11 km. We pick you up at 7:30 AM and have you back around 4:30 PM. It is one of our Day Hiking routes and it starts and ends at your Lakeside hotel.
The Australian Camp hike starts at Kande, 27 km from Pokhara and 45 minutes to an hour by road. The first two hours climb through forest on uneven stone slabs, with signposts that count the distance left. At the top there is a cluster of lodges, a tea stop and the first open view: Annapurna South, Hiunchuli, Machhapuchhre and Lamjung Himal, with the Pokhara valley far below. The place is also called Thulo Kharka, the big field, from its days as a grazing pasture. We stop here for tea. Then we follow the ridge to Dhampus.
Dhampus village is a Gurung village, and it is the half of the day we like best. The houses are stone with slate roofs, the lanes hold prayer flags, and there is a school, a monastery and a few shops. Lunch is dal bhat or momos at a local lodge, eaten in no hurry. Phewa Lake shows from the village on a clear day. The walk between Australian Camp and Dhampus village takes about an hour and is the gentlest part of the day. After lunch the trail drops about 500m on stone steps to Phedi, and your knees will tell you about it. Poles help. We bring them.
The best months for a Dhampus day hike are October and November, when the air is clearest, and March and April, when the rhododendrons bloom and the haze returns. December to February is cold at night and crisp by day, and snow on this ridge is rare. The monsoon, June to mid-September, makes the steps slippery, puts leeches in the forest and hides the peaks. A warning: we leave Pokhara at 7:30, so we reach the ridge in mid-morning, and on many days the cloud has started to build by then. The first 40 minutes after dawn give the clearest views. Everest is not visible from here, and nobody should sell it to you from this ridge. Our best time to trek in Nepal guide covers the months in full.
The whole ridge lies inside the Annapurna Conservation Area, so we buy and include the ACAP permit for every guest. It is also the doorstep of longer routes. The same Kande trail is where our Mardi Himal trek begins, and the Annapurna Base Camp trek climbs from the same foothills. If you want a longer week in the mountains from Pokhara, the Ghorepani Poon Hill trek is an 8-day step up. This Annapurna foothills hike is the one-day version of that country, and it is a fair test of how your legs feel on stone steps before you commit to a week of them.
Cover photograph: the Annapurna range from Australian Camp, by Sabina Bajracharya on Wikimedia Commons, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
