World traveller Ludmilla Tuting has two centres in her life: Berlin and Kathmandu. She gropes for an English word to describe this state, gives up and says: "These are my lebensmittelpunkte." How Kathmandu came to be one of the two middle points of Ludmilla's life was a simple encounter on a lonely road near Bhairawa in 1972. She had just crossed over from India and her bus had a flat tyre.

"We had to wait an hour besides the yellow mustard fields and below a deep blue sky while they fixed the wheel, and I talked to some women who were carrying water in brass pots on their heads," Ludmilla recalls. "I can't remember what they said, but it seemed to me so friendly, so peaceful and so unaggressive. I was smitten by this land."

She was 27 then, and the young environmentalist and writer was travelling the world to learn about the planet and its peoples. After the chaos and the overcrowded cities of India, Nepal was a haven. Thamel had only two hotels and some small restaurants. The road to the airport in Baneswor was still rice terraces, the air was clean and the mountains were clear.

"For all of us when we crossed from India, Nepal was such a big difference," she observes. "Unfortunately, with the insurgency, pollution and corruption the difference is getting less and less." Ludmilla, a supporter of the German Green Party, started spending half the year in Kathmandu and half the year in Germany. She went on to write more than 12 books about Nepal, including Bikas Binas, which looked at eco-tourism and the links between sustainable development and the environment in 1984-long before it was fashionable to do so.

Her biggest inspiration was the founder of the Indian Chipko Movement, Sundarlal Bahuguna, whom she met in 1982 during his Trans-Himalayan march. "Whatever I am now, my commitment to humanity, ecology or human rights and the need for humility, everything I learnt from the people in the Himalayan region, mainly Nepal," says Ludmilla.

As a freelance writer, Ludmilla today advises travellers on real conditions in a world plagued with terrorism and violence through the Tourism Watch website (www.tourism-watch.de). She tries to give a more nuanced picture of Nepal than alarmist and discouraging information provided by foreign embassies. "People need to be informed about the places they are travelling to and have a realistic assessment of the dangers," she says. "In Nepal, for example, it is important to make a distinction between maobadis and khaobadis, and like everywhere else you have to be careful. The news you get in Europe or on the Internet sound more frightening than it actually is."

Ludmilla is just back from a study tour of Dolakha and she is happy to see, despite Maoist activity and 'donation' drives, there are quite a few trekkers on the Rolwaling trail. And it is up there in the mountains of Nepal that she suddenly realises how happy she is: "I envy myself everyday for the life I have."