Long march to prosperity

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This was published 15 years ago

Long march to prosperity

Unspoilt ... Ghandruk village and its stunning surrounds.

Unspoilt ... Ghandruk village and its stunning surrounds.Credit: Richard I'Anson/Nepal

Mountains. That's what lures trekkers to Nepal. Specifically the Himalayas, the greatest mountain range on Earth, where impossibly high peaks are impossible to resist, even when you're there.

First thing every morning on our 10-day trek, I rushed to the windows of our lodge to gaze at the snow-capped mountains outside, some of them more than eight kilometres high.

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At breakfast my fellow trekkers and I would sit outside to take in the mountain views as we ate our porridge.

Sometimes the mountains would be with us all day, towering immovably above us or peeping between mahogany and maple trees, but we'd still drop everything at sunset to catch them changing colour.

Most nights I even braved the evening chill for one last glimpse before bed of the nearest peaks glowing in the moonlight.

It's impossible to trek in Nepal without being affected by the people who inhabit the mountains, even the national parks. Their presence colours the scenery, especially in regions such as the Annapurnas, where we were. "In the Everest region, every house is a lodge," says our guide Nima Lama. "But here, you see actual houses where people live. On this trek, you are touching people's lives."

For four days, we followed a series of never-ending stone stairways to heavenly views, crossed swing bridges over raging rivers of whitewater and walked under strings of tattered prayer flags. Around every corner was a village made of stone, the day's washing spread out on slate roofs, earthen courtyards covered in millet drying in the warm sun.

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Children sang for us, or ran past carrying heavy baskets of firewood. One little girl about two years old pressed her tiny hands together in front of her face, looked up at us and said, "Mstay". We did the same, to her and to everyone we met, exchanging the greeting that hangs in the clear air all over Nepal: "Namaste".

There were plenty of reminders that we were affecting the local population, too. Mule trains jangled by, carrying gas bottles, cartons of eggs and assorted other supplies to trekking lodges. We stopped for lunch and cups of tea at restaurants called Don't Pass Me By, Hungry Eye and Tasty Tongue, and bought yak-wool blankets, turquoise jewellery, knitted beanies and woven scarves from souvenir stalls.

Trekking, of course, is not a new game in Nepal. The first Western trekkers arrived in the mid-1960s and followed centuries-old trading routes lined with "tea houses" that once accommodated walking traders on their way to trade grain for salt brought down from the Tibetan plateau. Whole villages of trekking lodges have since emerged.

By the late 1980s, lodge-based trekking surpassed camping treks in popularity, mainly because of its sheer convenience. Unfortunately this convenience came at a cost: most lodges, then and now, have wood-burning stoves and open fires and as trekking traffic grew, Nepal's native forests suffered.

Camping made a comeback and for the past 20 years has been widely regarded as the more environmentally responsible option, because it involves using fuel stoves carried by porters instead of fires.

Unfortunately, sometimes little of the income earned from camping treks flows back to the villages the trekkers pass through.

Now a new concept is promising to make trekking in Nepal both socially and environmentally sustainable: a series of community-built lodges provides trekkers with accommodation and meals, and all proceeds go back to the communities instead of a single lodge-owner or trekking company.

The idea came to Peregrine Adventures Himalayan destination manager Mick Chapman - who pioneered many of the trekking routes in the Annapurnas 30 years ago - when he visited one of the village schools his camping treks were supplying with books and other necessities.

"Nangi boarding school had basically grown too big, too quickly," he explains. "When I went there one summer six years ago, I saw that the children were living in very basic conditions. I thought, 'We swan around in the Himalayas having a great time and here are these kids ...'

"I was embarrassed. That's when we decided to give something back to the entire area."

In consultation with local communities, Chapman, along with Nangi village elder Mahabir Pun and Nima Lama, came up with the first community lodge trek which, says Chapman, had to be "a bloody good trek" as well as helping the locals. Four lodges, each just a day's walk from each other, were built last year and when the fifth and final one is finished this month, the Annapurna-Dhaulagiri community lodge trek will be open for business, the first of its kind in Nepal.

It's no coincidence this is now happening in the Annapurnas, one of the two main trekking areas in Nepal (the other is the Everest region). The legendary Annapurna Circuit is being progressively turned into a road to service villages along its length and many trekking companies are scouting around for new trekking routes and experiences.

As Chapman puts it: "It's the end of an era. You certainly can't call the Annapurna Circuit one of the world's 10 best walks anymore."

On day five, we left the main trekking trail to follow a more natural track through dense forest. When we emerged above the treeline at 3350 metres we took off our packs and scrambled to the top of a nearby hill, bringing the mountains into focus again.

Under cloudless blue skies, the Annapurna range stretched left and right as far as we could see. Best of all, we had this sawtooth skyline completely to ourselves - which seems incredible in a region that has been a trekking Mecca for more than 30 years. We didn't see any other trekkers until we rejoined the main trail five days later.

That afternoon, we hiked past herds of grazing yaks with bells around their thick, shaggy necks and traversed steep, grassy slopes until we reached our first community lodge, at Baiyuli. It was unlike any of the other lodges we'd seen in Nepal.

For one thing, it's the only structure around for kilometres and built on an existing clearing (a former buffalo pasture) to avoid encroaching on the surrounding rhododendron forest. As a result, almost every room has uninterrupted views of the 8167-metre Dhaulagiri.

When trekkers start visiting the lodges this year, the communities running them will begin installing eco-friendly features such as solar hot water and electricity, gas or kerosene, even yak dung stoves for cooking and heating (instead of wood). Some will have composting toilets, others will have solar-powered Wi-Fi internet facilities; one lodge has plans to harness a nearby spring for hydro-electricity.

Baiyuli also has a vegetable and herb garden, rhododendron juice for sale (made in a nearby village) and hand-made bamboo baskets for rubbish bins (to avoid plastic).

As Peregrine's responsible travel manager Becky Last says: "It's interesting that after initial resistance to lodge-based trekking many years ago, they've now come full circle with these community lodges - which are not only providing a self-sufficient means of income for local communities and comfort for trekkers but they're addressing environmental issues as well. So it's win, win, win."

An easy half-day traverse across grassy hills the following day brought us to our next community lodge and the high point of the trek, literally and scenically: Khopra Ridge, at 3660 metres. That afternoon, each of us wandered off to lose ourselves in the landscape.

I sat down on a grassy ridge and fell under the spell of the massive mountains and near-vertical valleys all around us - including Annapurna I (8091 metres), the first 8000-metre peak ever climbed - by French mountaineer Maurice Herzog in 1950; and the Kali Ghandaki, said to be the deepest gorge in the world (it's six kilometres from skyline to river bed).

Spending time in the presence of big mountains can be supremely humbling.

But even when you feel dwarfed by such greatness, it's good to know small acts can have big consequences.

Just as putting one foot in front of the other can take you along one of the most spectacular trekking trails in Nepal, a simple trek can have a positive impact on the lives of people living either side of that trail and help preserve Nepal's unique natural environment at the same time.

The writer was a guest of Peregrine Adventures and flew courtesy of Thai Airways.

TRIP NOTES

Thai Airways (www.thaiairways.com.au) flies to Kathmandu via Bangkok from $1210. Yeti Airlines flies from Kathmandu to Pokhara for 2300 Nepalese rupees (about $42) one-way, plus tax.

October-May. Fine weather and warm days are most likely in October/November. The rhododendrons bloom in March/April.

Peregrine Adventure's 16-day Annapurna-Dhaulagiri trip includes an 11-day community lodge trek and costs $2590 ex Kathmandu, plus a domestic flight to Pokhara ($250). The cost includes sightseeing in Kathmandu and Pokhara, twin-share accommodation, entrance fees, most meals, transport, a Peregrine tour leader, Nepali guides, sherpas and porters, and equipment (sleeping bag, sleeping sheet, duvet jacket and kit bag).

peregrineadventures.com or phone 1300 854 445. Donations to the community lodge project can be made by emailing responsibletravel@peregrineadventures.com.

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