The Last Kingdom Expedition

This 15-day expedition is a high-octane journey through the diverse heart of the Himalayas, transitioning from the lush, green middle hills of central Nepal to the stark, high-altitude deserts of the Tibetan plateau. The tour covers two distinct regions: the Annapurna Circuit's Marsyangdi Valley and the legendary Upper Mustang, the former Kingdom of Lo. The first phase focuses on the Annapurna ascent, escaping the Kathmandu basin for the hilltop "living museum" of Bandipur before navigating the Marsyangdi Gorge. Here, the road turns into a technical "shelf" road—unpaved trails carved directly into vertical cliffs—as you climb through Jagat and Chame into the alpine pine woods and high-altitude hub of Manang at 3,519m. After a crucial acclimatisation period, you retrace your steps back to the adventure capital of Pokhara to rest by Phewa Lake before entering the soul of the tour: the Forbidden Kingdom of Lo. This restricted region, closed to foreigners until 1992, begins with a ride through the Kali Gandaki Gorge—the deepest in the world—where you are sandwiched between the 8,000m peaks of Annapurna I and Dhaulagiri. Crossing the gateway at Kagbeni, the landscape transforms into a surreal high-altitude desert of red cliffs and ancient "Sky Caves" leading to the walled city of Lo Manthang, founded in 1380. The final leg challenges you with the legendary Jomsom winds—gale-force headwinds that funnel through the gorge every afternoon—before a gruelling final descent back to Pokhara. This "Enduro" style tour is as much a physiological test as a mechanical one, requiring you to navigate deep dust, river crossings, and loose shale across a dramatic elevation range from 800m to nearly 4,000m.