Village
The Kashmir Trekking Company is based in Naranag Village, this is the home town of founder Aslam Mota. It also marks the end of the road and where trails into the great wilderness begin. It is a picturesque, tourist village of Ganderbal district, Jammu and Kashmir, India. It is located around 8 km from Town and around 3 hours drive from Srinagar. It is noted for its scenic meadows, lakes and mountains, it is a base camp for trekking to the Mount Haramukh and Gangabal Lake.
We will commence and end our treks in Naranag Village
The village has a population of around 300 people. One thing that becomes evident, after spending time in India, is that the people in this village, while being poor, are exremely proud and capable. I was never heckled by any swindlers or beggars, which is common place in any of the other Indian cities as well as the capital of Kashmir, Srinagar. The people in Naranag Village are all really fit and hardworking, they rely on nobody for survival but themselves and the community.
The Kashmir is mainly Muslim, despite some of the oldest Hindu shrines in existence being situated in the Village. The biggest Hindu pilgrimage on earth is also to the Kashmir, to a destination amongst the green mountains called ‘Sonnemarg’.
The community development goal of the KTC is to employ more people in the village as guides for the treks, allowing more people to afford basics, which we take for granted, such as education and better housing. Trekkers are welcome to spend as much time as they wish to in the village, there is a small local school that is in great need of some TLC and perhaps even some voluntary teaching of music and English.
