09 August,2016 10:42 AM IST | | Kasmin Fernandes
Says British explorer Levison Wood whose television series, Walking The Himalayas, on Discovery Channel explores his nine-month trek across the entire region
Levison Wood
Extreme challenge
In his new adventure across the Himalayas, the explorer took an extreme challenge - to walk the length of the world's highest mountain range from Afghanistan in the west to Bhutan in the East. Said Wood in an interview over the phone, "The Himalayas is the region I have been familiar with for the past 15 years. I backpacked there when I was much younger, and over the course of the last 10 years, I have been to mountaineering. It's a fascinating region."
Levison Wood
New adventure series
Wood has distilled all the anecdotes from the journey into a book. Discovery Channel premiered a new series, Walking The Himalayas, on August 5 which documents his unforgettable walk. "The documentary and the book are not necessarily about mountaineering. What you will see in the series is not about the mountains. It's about the culture and some of the more unusual communities you will find - not only in the Himalayas but in the entire region from Afghanistan to Kashmir to Nepal and Bhutan," said the explorer.
Trekking 1,700 gruelling miles across the roof of the world, teaming up with local guides and meeting monks, soldiers and nomadic tribes, Wood treaded carefully through one of the most fought-over areas of the world, navigating isolated Afghan valleys and the Line of Control between Pakistani and Indian Kashmir. Along the way, he passed through some of the most remote, beautiful, and perilous regions on earth - places few outsiders ever get to see. Said he, "I wanted to challenge the stereotypes and show people a part of the Himalayas that they haven't thought of before."
He hopes to inspire people to see for themselves what they can find. "For people who haven't been to the Himalayas, the diversity in just how unusual life can be is what the series is about," he said.
Bizarre and beautiful
Traveling to the holy Ghankar Puensum was fascinating for Wood. "Bhutan is a very different country. The culture there is very traditional, homogenous. All the houses there are similar. Everyone wears the national dress. That in itself was an unusual experience. Going to Ghankar Puensum, a holy mountain in Buddhism, was special because very few tourists go to Bhutan. So there are no travellers on the road," he said. Another strange experience was playing Buzkashi, the Afghan national sport. "It's like polo but with goats," he said. One shocked for the explorer was that in Bhutan, the whole village worships phalluses. "Where I'm from, it isn't considered quite the thing," he chuckled.
Yoga for travelers
Wood swears by yoga practice to get him through his strenuous climbs. "I found it useful for getting my body accustomed to using muscles we don't normally use. I tried it for the first time about two years ago in England and quite liked it. So when I traveled to India last year, I learnt yoga in Rishikesh. It was great to meet the gurus who are real yogis."
Asked how he gets around in a country where so many languages are spoken, he said, "It's easy to be lazy when you are British because everyone in India speaks good English. Even in the more remote places where people didn't speak English, even in small communities up in the mountains where there is no electricity I felt very welcome." Wood is hoping to make a trip to Mumbai to visit a close friend who lives in the city.
