What a Cold Night at Base Camp Taught Me

After completing my PhD, I realised I needed a real break, something that would detach me from all academic pressure and reattach me to myself and the world. That’s when I decided I’d spend three months in Nepal, a country that has always intrigued me with its natural beauty and spiritual serenity. While there, I did the Annapurna Trail, which took me five days. The scenery was breathtaking: snow-capped Himalayan peaks, nameless villages, and infrequently hiked trails, hence the feeling of isolation. But more than the scenery, it was really the friends along the way who made the journey for me.

Perhaps my most memorable meeting was with the Chief Minister of Gandaki Province. It was an unlikely encounter, but a moving one. He told me about the region’s continuing investments in hydropower development and how they were working to bring clean energy to even the remotest reaches of the country. That conversation helped me appreciate the concerted work taking place in an area that’s too often ignored by the outside world.

While trekking, I met a young and passionate youth activist who built a mini-hydropower system near Machapuchare mountain. His modest project was generating 10kW of energy enough to run his family’s mountain lodge. To be inspired by such passion and creativity at a young age in such a remote region was moving. But nothing brought home the reality of energy challenges like the time I finally made it to Annapurna Base Camp. What I had known before was that there was no electricity, and I arrived at night, and there were just a few light bulbs with dim light coming out of them, powered by a small solar panel. It was cold and dark, and at that moment, I thought so many communities worldwide still struggle to access reliable energy. Our advances in technology have not diminished the seriousness of energy inequality.

This journey became so much more than a postPhD adventure. It became a profoundly personal journey through sustainability, resilience and human potential. I came back not just with memories I would not soon forget but also the resolve to do what I can to bridge the energy gap and catalyse solutions that put power in communities hands. My time in Nepal taught me that even the most far-flung places have mighty stories lurking in their shadows, and that it is often in those still pockets of the world that the most deafening inspiration waits.