Ehsan

For the past month or so i have been living in Lahore and preparing for my studies. While i was there i got a call from my friend back home asking if i wanted to go on a week long trip to Northern Areas of Pakistan. It was a very good opportunity as his uncle was in charge of the trip and he himself runs a Travel and Tour Company called Panoramic Pakistan they also arrange Trekking Tours, Safaris and Rock Climbing in Pakistan, i accepted the challenge and so the story started.

He called on 8th July while we were expected to start the tour on 11th of July from Islamabad so the time was short, On 9th July i went back home got my stuff packed and on 10th July i reached Islamabad took a nights rest and on 11th of July i was all up for it.

We gathered at his uncle’s house to get each and every detail sorted get our hiking gear and pre plan some of the important stuff although i didnt pay much attention : ) except to the map of N.Pakistan which showed our route winding through the Himalayas and Karakoram Highway.

We started our Journey from Islamabad to Taxila then Wah and from Wah we went to Abbottabad and then to Mansehra , Now mansehra is the central point you can either go to Kaghan and Naran valley from there or you can turn left and go towards Chilas and so on, We took the Chilas Route because of the local taliban and the SWAT Operation Kaghan and Naran valley are not very safe these days , so from Mansehra we went towards Chilas , we ate lunch at Rana’s Foood & Lodge in Sharkool here are pics

and then we made our way towards Chilas as we had planned to spent the first night in Chilas but we were not able to do so so we spent our first night at Khyber Lodge & Hotel in Barseen

The next day we made an early start and made our way towards Chillas but we we were not going to make a stop in Chilas but went through and had our lunch at a local truck hotel and must say it was a great one.After lunch we made our way to Raikot Bridge where we reached in few hours. At Raikot Bridge we left our Wagon and hired a Jeep which took an hour to transport us halfway to the top of the mountain from where we had to trek ourself towards Fairy Meadows.The Jeep dropped us off at a small rest area where we had some local “Kahwa” or Tea and an urgent energy boost with a Daal Lunch, chicken and any other meat is pretty hard to find in these areas.

After Lunch we started our 3 and half hour trek towards Fairy Meadows , to be honest the first half an hour of ascent was so tiring that we almost gave up but gradually we made our pace and those 3 hours went by pretty fast as we spent most of the time checking out the woods and streams and spent the other times taking photographing each and everything yes each and everything i have got a collection of over 3000 photographs from the trip.

After hours of trekking and the local guide telling us 2000 times that it was just round the corner we finally reached Fairy Meadows and it certainly was a sight to see…lush green grounds with horses grazing in the fields and water streams winding through the meadows.Forgot to mention it had some of the great views of Nanga Parbat we tried to go to Nanga Parbat base camp but due to the weather we could only reach as far as Nanga Parbat Viewpoint.

We spent two days in fairy meadows and finally got to eat chicken while we were there after two days we made our way back towards RaiKot Bridge , the same hike took took us half an hour while descending and then we took the same jeep back towards RaiKot Bridge where our own Wagon was waiting , while we were coming back one of our backpacks dropped off from the Jeep and we were pretty tense what would happen but the next jeep coming behind us picked it up and gave us back at the base. We took the bag thanked them and at once made our way to Gilgit.But i guess luck wasnt on our side as pretty much whole of the road (Karakoram Hiughway) to GILGIT was torn up and it doubled our time but we finally reached Gilgit but didnt make a stay and passed Gilgit for Hunza and the road to Hunza was much worse. It was suppose to be a 4 hour Journey to Hunza from Gilgit but it took us more than 8 hours but the good thing was that while on our way to Hunza we came across Rakaposhi Viewpoint and got to watch the amazing sunset over the Rakaposhi Mountain .

When we reached Hunza it was night already so we went straight to our Hotel “Hunza Embassy” where we had dinner and went to sleep so we could make a head start tomorrow, And we did make a head start after a quick breakfast the next day we made our way to the Baltit Fort which is a must see if you ever go to Hunza

After a great tour of the Baltit Fort we made our way to the local Bazar / Shops and did a little bit of shopping, after that we made our way to Altit fort which is on the other end.The way to Altit Fort was very beautiful but the Fort itself was being restored but it still had as much rich history as the Baltit Fort and offered some great views of the Hunza Valley.

The same afternoon we started our Journey back , had our Lunch at PTDC Motel on the way, we were supposed to stay the night at some hotel in Chilas or somewhere near but time was short and we had to reach Islamabad by the next day so we carried on but at 2 in the morning we were stopped at a police check post and they wouldn’t let us past unless we made a caravan of 20 or so cars … so we waited and waited we didn’t let them sleep and they didn’t let us pass finally after 3 or so hours they gave us permission to go through and we spent the whole next day travelling back towards Islamabad and finally reached Islamabad later that night and went straight for the Pizza Hut as it was the only thing open by then, We filled our stomachs to extreme , that was the first time in 7 days that we were properly eating something and it certainly was a trip to remember for the rest of my life.