Reflections from the Founder's Trek
Wednesday 28 May 2025
At the end of March, a group of intrepid Durrell supporters took on the Founder's Trek to celebrate Gerald Durrell's centenary year. The group trekked from Gerald Durrell's birthplace in West Bengal to Assam, the home of the Pygmy Hog Conservation Project. Durrell CEO Becky Brewer took on the trek alongside the Durrell supporters and she tells us more about her experience.
Last month, I travelled to India to join the dedicated individuals who took on Durrell's Founder's Trek and to meet with colleagues and programme partners. In celebration of Gerald Durrell's centenary, we hiked and camped through the foothills of the Himalayas to raise money for our Pygmy Hog Conservation Programme (PHCP), fundraising an incredible £54,000.
The trip didn't get off to the best start with the unexpected Heathrow closure due to a nearby fire on the day we were due to fly. Luckily, Tribal Treks, our trek hosts, managed to get us onto new flights from Birmingham that day. Two days and a lot of travel later, we landed at Bagdogra Airport in West Bengal before driving to the northeast state of Sikkim. Bordering Nepal, Tibet, Bhutan, and West Bengal, Sikkim is India's first completely organic state and is plastic-free. It's known for its biodiversity and being host to India's highest peak (and third highest mountain in the world), Kangchendzonga, at 8,598m.
We spent our first night in the small hill station town of Pelling and woke up in the morning to a beautiful sight of Himalayan peaks, including Kangchendzonga. After a visit to Pemayangtse monastery and learning about Buddhism, we headed off to another town called Yuksom and started our trek.
Along with the 13 trekkers raising money for Durrell, we were accompanied by ponies, dzo (like a yak), and a wonderful team of porters, chefs, and three guides, who were all amazing. We all got on fantastically, and there was always lots of laughter, a total break from the busy life of technology.
A very special moment was the night before we were due to get up at 4am for a sunrise summit on Dzongri Top. Our guides had brought prayer flags to string up and leave at the top of the mountain. We each took one of the flags and took a moment to remember loved ones past and present and write down the names of those we wanted to remain in our prayers. I am not sure there was a single dry eye in the tent – we'll blame the altitude!
After the trek, we continued our journey to Manas National Park, where the PHCP releases pygmy hogs bred and raised at our breeding centre into the wild. A park rich with wildlife, we were lucky enough to see over 400 elephants, rhinos (including a baby), buffalo, storks, eagles, bee-eaters, kingfishers, parakeets, egrets, monitor lizards, swamp deer, hog deer, capped langur, and giant squirrels, to name a few! Importantly, we also saw Bengal florican, a critically endangered bustard species that the Durrell team in India are working to protect.
We then spent the next day with Parag Deka, Project Director of the Pygmy Hog Conservation Programme, and his hugely passionate and dedicated team. It was incredibly insightful to tour the pygmy hog breeding centre in Guwahati and catch up with my colleagues in person about the latest PHCP updates.
After a final meal with our Founders Trek supporters and guides, I bid farewell to them as they left to return home. I remained in Guwahati with Parag and met our PHCP partners, Aranyak, as well as the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests and Chief Wildlife Warden. I also visited Guwahati Zoo, where I met with veterinary interns and we who transferred two pygmy hogs to the zoo. Given their tall grassland habitat and shy nature, it's almost impossible to see pygmy hogs in the wild. By having the species at the zoo, the public will have the opportunity to learn more about them and, hopefully, be inspired and proud of what the PHCP has achieved locally to bring the species back from the brink.
As always, it's fantastic to have the opportunity to see our field programmes in action and meet more of the Durrell team. It's such a successful conservation project, and the Founders Trek was a great fundraising initiative, helping raise vital funds to support the PHCP.
I want to say a huge thank you to Parag, Dhritiman, and the rest of the Durrell team in India for looking after us so well; thank you to Zoe and Julia and the rest of our Fundraising team for organising such a successful trek; thank you to Julia, Sarah, George and Sam for being such fantastic ambassadors for Durrell; and thank you to the incredible supporters who joined us on the trek and raised an incredible amount of money towards saving pygmy hogs from extinction.