When Mick Chapman, Peregrine Himalayan Operations Manager, announced funding for two teachers’ salaries for the next five years, the crowd gathered at Swanta school went wild. Swanta is a tiny, terraced village in the Annapurna region of Nepal, several days’ walk from the nearest road. The entire village had turned out for the party: there had been dance performances and speeches, but the revelry stepped up a notch with Mick’s announcement. It meant that the villagers could now educate their kids from Kindergarten to Year 12 at the village school.
Swanta is the location for one of five new community lodges on Peregrine’s Annapurna Dhaulagiri trek, a route through the Annapurna foothills to remote Kopra Ridge – one of the best vantage points in the Himalaya. The lodges have been built by the local people, in association with Mick and Peregrine’s Himalayan operations team. Trekking groups will stay at the lodges, with the others at Baiyali, Chistibung, Kopra Ridge and Dandi Karka set to open by the end of December 2008.
From Pokhara, those trekking along the Annapurna Dhaulagiri route, drive to Lumle and ascend terraced hillsides to Upper Ghandruk. At Tadapani, the popular main trail is left behind and for the next week trekkers head into remote alpine terrain to Baili, before ascending to Kopra at 3870m, for a view the lofty peaks of Nilgiri North (7061m), Annapurna I (8091m), Fang (7647m) and Annapurna South (7237m). Dhaulagiri dominates the western skyline across the deepest gorge in the world - the Kali Ghandaki which is 6,000-metres deep. The return route descends through open alpine pastures and oak and rhododendron forest to Swanta. This off-the-beaten-track adventure then continues via Phulbari and Nangi, before trekkers return to Pokhara to unwind beside Phewa Tal Lake.
Mick Chapman pioneered the Annapurna Dhaulagiri route 30 years ago, and it is still undoubtedly one of the most scenically-spectacular treks in the Himalaya. The route diverts from the main tourist trail and hence the villages trekkers pass through haven’t really benefited from tourism revenue in the past. By staying in the lodges, trekkers will provide sustainable funding for the schools and other community projects.
