Bhutan

Hiking is the preferred term, in Canada and the United States, for a long, vigorous walk, usually on trails (footpaths), in the countryside, while the word walking is used for shorter, particularly urban walks. On the other hand, in the United Kingdom, and the Republic of Ireland, the word “walking” is acceptable to describe all forms of walking, whether it is a walk in the park or backpacking in the Alps. The word hiking is also often used in the UK, along with rambling (a slightly old-fashioned term), hillwalking, and fell walking (a term mostly used for hillwalking in northern England). The term bushwalking is endemic to Australia, having been adopted by the Sydney Bush Walkers club in 1927. In New Zealand a long, vigorous walk or hike is called tramping.It is a popular activity with numerous hiking organizations worldwide, and studies suggest that all forms of walking have health benefits.

In the United States, Canada, the Republic of Ireland, and United Kingdom, hiking means walking outdoors on a trail, or off trail, for recreational purposes. A day hike refers to a hike that can be completed in a single day. However, in the United Kingdom, the word walking is also used, as well as rambling, while walking in mountainous areas is called hillwalking. In Northern England, Including the Lake District and Yorkshire Dales, fellwalking describes hill or mountain walks, as fell is the common word for both features there.

A is an overland journey, usually a trip by tourists to Africa. In the past, the trip was often a big-game hunt, but today, safari often refers to trips to observe and photograph wildlife—or hiking and sightseeing, as well.

The Swahili word safari means journey, originally from the Arabic meaning a journey; the verb for “to travel” in Swahili is kusafiri. These words are used for any type of journey, e.g. by bus from Nairobi to Mombasa or by ferry from Dar es Salaam to Unguja. Safari entered the English language at the end of the 1850s thanks to Richard Francis Burton, the famous explorer.
The Regimental March of the King’s African Rifles was ‘Funga Safari’, literally ‘tie up the March’, or, in other words, pack up equipment ready to march.

In 1836 William Cornwallis Harris led an expedition purely to observe and record wildlife and landscapes by the expedition’s members. Harris established the safari style of journey, starting with a not too strenuous rising at first light, an energetic day walking, an afternoon rest then concluding with a formal dinner and telling stories in the evening over drinks and tobacco.

Paragliding is the recreational and competitive adventure sport of flying paragliders: lightweight, free-flying, foot-launched glider aircraft with no rigid primary structure. The pilot sits in a harness suspended below a fabric wing comprising a large number of interconnected baffled cells. Wing shape is maintained by the suspension lines, the pressure of air entering vents in the front of the wing, and the aerodynamic forces of the air flowing over the outside.

Despite not using an engine, paraglider flights can last many hours and cover many hundreds of kilometers, though flights of one to two hours and covering some tens of kilometers are more the norm. By skillful exploitation of sources of lift, the pilot may gain height, often climbing to altitudes of a few thousand meters.

An adventure is an exciting or unusual experience. It may also be a bold, usually risky undertaking, with an uncertain outcome.Adventures may be activities with some potential for physical danger such as traveling, exploring, skydiving, mountain climbing, scuba diving, river rafting or participating in extreme sports.

The term also broadly refers to any enterprise that is potentially fraught with physical, financial or psychological risk, such as a business venture, or other major life undertakings.

Trekking is an outdoor recreational activity of hiking or walking for more than a day. It can be a short or an extended journey, and may or may not involve camping outdoors. In Nepal, trekking is the most widespread activity for tourists, obviously due to its previlege of being home to the Himalayas.

Nepal is home to network of trails also called the Great Himalaya Trails, an extensive trail system that covers Nepal from Humla and Darchula in the west to Kanchenjunga in the east. The diversity of trekking in Nepal cannot be found in any other region of the world. In fact, the lowest point in Nepal is 59 m above sea-level in the Terai region while the highest point is Everest, 8,848 m above sea-level, the two points are, in a straight line, only 200 kilometres apart.

The majority of visitors to Nepal come in via the Tribuvan International Airport in Kathmandu. It is in Kathmandu that trekkers need to acquire their permits and other documentation, either from a trekking agent or from the appropriate offices. These documents will be checked along the trekking route. For those with little time to spend in Nepal there are half-day hikes from Kathmandu to witness breathtaking Himalayan views otherwise trek for weeks over stunning challenging mountain passes.

Up to the mid 1960s only a few trekkers had generally visited Nepal and back then as part of groups of expedition followers. Many of the big expeditions of the day encouraged trekkers to sign up in an attempt to help balance the funding.

Trekking in Nepal today is completely different to that of the 1960s. In all the main trekking areas, the National Parks and Conservation Areas lodges have been established where trekkers can find accommodation, food and meet other trekkers and locals along the way. The majority of the trails are well maintained and in many cases are sign-posted.

The lodges are well appointed and have facilities for charging batteries and the larger villages often have email facilities. The length, the difficulty and timing of the treks vary greatly and to add to that once outside of the main trekking areas transport becomes more problematic and often involves at least two journeys made on domestic scheduled flights.

The three main trekking areas and therefore the most easily accessible are the Everest, Langtang and the Annapurna regions. Annapurna and Langtang have a slight advantage in so much that they can be reached via road connections. Trekkers are of course rewarded when they venture further afield as well! Great Himalaya Trails has extensive information on other trekking regions, which are accessible by domestic flights, such as Kanchenjunga, Makalu, Dolpo, and the Far West. Several days of trekking is required to reach the higher mountain areas from the local centers of population and administration.

Nepal has six distinct and diverse vegetation zones ranging from Tropical below a 1,000 m through Sub-tropical 100m – 200m, Lower Temperate 1,700 m – 2,700 m, Upper Temperate 2,400 m – 3,000 m, Subalpine 3,000 m – 4,000 m and Alpine 4,000 m to the snowline above the snowline it is a Himalaya tundra like wilderness. Each of these zones is well populated with the appropriate flora and fauna, although sometimes the rarer examples might be hard to find.

Domestic flights generally occur early morning, and so if two domestic flights are required to reach the start of the trek, appropriate timing should be allowed. Although the popular treks in Kanchenjunga, Everest, Manaslu, Annapurna are able to provide lodge accommodation the less frequented treks in those areas and also in other areas west of Annapurna will generally require camping style trek support.

Trekkers can find a trail for any time of year. The southern areas of Nepal receive higher levels of precipitation. However, some routes along the Great Himalaya Trails lie in the rain shadow, a dry area on the leeward side of a mountains namely Mustang to the north of Annapurna and Manaslu, Dolpo to the north of Dhaulagiri and the far west of Nepal to the north of Saipal Himal. Post monsoon the weather tends to be clearer. Winter is good but colder with shorter days and spring can be affected by seasonal rain and snow storms. Summer is short and is quickly followed by the monsoons.

However, the rains are not continuous for 24 hours a day and of course the rains bring the flowers to life. It is also a perfect time to consider one of the regions in the rain shadow which typically feature a more barren Tibetan type scenery as opposed to the greenness of other areas.

It is important for tourists to know that the main income generating activity of the people from the hill regions is tourism, and they typically earn wages working as trekking porter or guide. Hiring a porter does not mean that you are weak, it means you value the Nepali culture, you are providing an extended Nepali family with an income and at the same time you are making a friend and trekking with a local person who is well versed in the local cultures, festivals, and all the other issues that can turn a good trek into an outstanding experience of a life time.

It is obviously possible to trek alone or without a Nepali guide, but would you know what to do in a major storm, zero visibility and temperatures and at possibly 5,000 m? Make sure you have all the correct permits as required, and be environmentally and culturally aware.

These are other trips.