You have been lusting over your colleagues trekking pictures for a while and have finally decided to ring the changes with a new experience in life by going for a trek yourself. You have asked all of your friends and no one seems to understand your urge of going and somehow you can not explain them your feelings clearly as you yourself are going out of your comfort zone for taking a trekking trip but finally you have come to decision to go alone instead of waiting for a companion. You have zeroed down the trekking company you would go with and now you are calling yourself bravo and stupid at the same time and have various questions running in your mind like “will I be able to do it?” , “Will I be able to strike conversations with strangers?”, “What if I will end up in tricky situation?”, “Will I be safe?” , “What all things will I need?”
Being a women is tough in India and being a women who goes for trek alone with strangers is stupidity but it may result in exhilaration for the women and who said that being a women can limit your experiences in life?
A trek is rewarding in many ways for a person, be it women or men, its not biased to one kind. If you are a future women trekker then below are some of the things you should keep in mind and you will be just fine.
1) Choosing a trekking group.
Since you are a first time trekker, its important that you do your R&D and choose company or group which has a past record of some successful treks. Go to their websites and read their past trekking blogs, view pictures and see their trek itinerary. If you happen to know someone who has already went on a trek then inquire about the group they went with and the experience they had there. Try to speak with the trek leaders to know about other female trekkers going in the trek or inquire if females accompany on a regular basis or not. This will basically show if the camping arrangements are done suiting safety for females or not. There are numerous groups you can go with and most of them are well experienced in taking women trekker along.
2) Research the trekking destination
Google and Google baby. Once you zeroed down the option for a group and place to trek, all you should do is Google about the place. Is it winter trek or summer trek? Have you checked the weather forecast? Is it going to be rainy or will their be snowfall?
3) Pack accordingly
Now that you know what are the weather forecast of the place you will be going to, its time to pack the bag. There are numerous websites on the kind of items you must take for a trek depending on the weather and your trek leader will also advise you of the stuff to carry along. However the most important things would be –
- Clothes as per weather.
- Sun screen lotion,
- UV protective glasses,
- Good quality backpack with a rain cover,
- Good quality trekking shoes,
- Walking stick,
- Medicines which you will require,
- Water bottle,
- Torch with batteries,
- camera for those beautiful shots,
- Pair of Swiss knife.
Also check online on how to pack stuff for a trek. Yes there is a proper way to pack clothes and items to avoid back pain.
4) Train yourself
Yes this is the most important thing in trekking. Start preparing your body for a trek at least a month prior to the date. You won’t need extensive training but you should be able to jog with ease for at-least 20 minutes. Climbing stairs and weight training also benefits and preps your body for the coming adventure. With physical fitness its also important to focus on your diet. You need to eat food which will give you sufficient energy for training and later trekking so do not starve but eat your healthy proteins and carbs mindfully. Do not eliminate fats completely from your diet. Remember you will need them.
5) Rely on your gut feeling
Yes this one is the foolproof way of travelling alone. You must at all time just go with the gut feeling as it will never fail you.
In end, remember you are going to have fun. You will surely experience some things for the first time and it all will be just fine. Travelling alone gives you confidence in many folds and hence you must embrace this new adventure and just go with the flow.