Trekking around Manaslu took us only 11 days. We ended march in the village Dharapani – located on the trail leading around the Annapurna massif – much earlier than we had initially planned. Remaining question: What to do next? We could stay in Nepal for some more time, and spend at least one week more in the mountains. We had also yet unused permits – retained after trekking around Dhaulagiri (we just had to do light, almost imperceptible modification of the dates on the TIMS cards and enrich our itinerary with the Marpha–Beshisahar episode). There were also good reasons against staying. We did not want to continue trekking around the oh-so-popular Annapurna. Our reserves of stamina were almost empty after an exhausting “run” through the Manaslu Conservation Area. And the most important – we had no money with ourselfs, because we gave last rupees to our guide in Samdo… We were able to obtain more money pretty easily (by taking a shared jeep to the nearest ATM in the Besisahar and returning to Dharapani the same day). Therefore, we rejected all the other reasons against going… And that’s how we ended up on the most popular trail in Nepal – Annapurna Circuit.

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