What is Trekking?
Trekking- in simple terms may just come up to you as an act of going on a long laborious venture, characteristically on foot. Trekking in general also has different meaning to everyone. For an example if you ask a Nepalese porter, he will say it’s his way of earning wages to live his life with less fun and joy and on the other side if you ask a foreign explorer and traveler then trekking for them is much more fun and adventurous cause they do it for the thrilling rush of achieving something greater like climbing up huge mountains or crossing a hazardous pass.
In Nepal Trekking is precisely conceived as a major part of nation’s economy as trekkers and travelers come upon Nepal to exploit its trekking facilities. But it was not like this all the time as trekking really wasn’t permitted and sanctioned in the earlier days of Nepal. Nepal was unknown to trekking until the late 60’s, it had never let a foreigners come upon it to explore and discover its amazing terrains. Generally the history of trekking here in Nepal began when Colonel Jimmy Roberts first introduced a group of foreign ladies to the exotic land of Nepal and making it a place for them to trek upon. So in 1965 Jimmy opened the first Trekking Company of Nepal, naming it Mountain Travels. Consequently mass of tourists and explorers rushed to Nepal to explore the unknown and unbeaten paths of it.
If you consider trekking as a major part of your passionate life then you should know that trekking and hiking are two different side of the coin. One should not get confused with Hiking and Trekking in Nepal. Those two are totally and entirely absurd to each other. A hiker and a trekker knows that what they are doing mind seem similar to another person looking from far way but in truth they both are following different adventurous activity. The most important differentiation between these two activities is that “Hiking” is largely a spare time activity which is done by walking on well-made trails and man-made roads. Conversely, “Trekking” is more meticulous, and a more demanding activity which tests one’s physical capability & potential. So yeah hiking and trekking is totally a different thing to do.
The virtue of trekking has evolved since the day it began. The past and present trekking conditions have drastically improved and are still being improvised upon. New trekking routes are being explored by the travel enthusiasts, making Nepal more diverse for upcoming trekkers who dream of trekking here. Just trying to keep account for every trekked path is painstakingly time consuming but still Nepal has been keeping records of every trekker who dueled on its land of unknown glamour. One does it to keep bringing food for his family for the day and one does it so to fulfill their dreams of traversing through the moraines and lush forests of Nepal. Thus trekking has become a major part of Nepal presently that if something were to happen to it then it’s bound to cause Nepal’s economy to cripple down.
In a sense we all Nepalese have been touched by the beneficiary influence of trekking. One may not know it but major part of our social and political development was possible due to the adverse growth of inflow of foreign money which came in due to the direct of tourism majorly because of trekking. So I hope it won’t be called bragging if I said “Trekking is for Nepal and Nepal is for trekking.”
