Friday, April 26, 2019

Trail 5 Margalla Hills


Trail 5 Margalla Hills
Trail 5 Margalla Hills
One of the most popular and best tracks is located at F-5 Margalla Road Islamabad. This track is almost 3.8 km long, divided into three routes. First route of 1.8 km is simple and straight to hick as there is no steep path and route is clear from rocks, this route leads to the spring where hikers can fill their bottles with cold water stream.
There is steep route as well also known as “trail 5 dangerous”. So, it gives a good combination of tough and relax time. “Trail 5 dangerous” has steep slippery path and it is highly not recommended for beginners to use and as well as not to return from this track especially. 
Trail 5 Margalla Hills
My journey to trail 5 started with group of my Comsian fellows. We were 15 people, bunked the International Relation class and gather at trail 5 for getting out of monotonous routine. We started our hiking session at 0900 PST in crew form.  All mates were wearing joggers, highly motivated as they were mentally ready for 3 hours continuous hike session.
Initially route was like piece of cake, everybody passed it easily. After 1.5 hours of hick we decided to take break for 30 minutes near water spring as everybody were exhausted. So, we filled our bottles here and opened our lunch boxes for restoring the drained energy.  After the break, again hiking session begins.  Our group was divided into 2 directions, one towards normal track and other towards dangerous track. I opted towards dangerous track as it was shortcut for reaching near Pir Sohawa road. It was in short million-dollar view from the curve of the steep mountain, where one can observe the nature closely. 
Trail 5 Margalla Hills
There were monkeys spotted at track, it is highly recommended to hold stick or teaser to avoid any sort of unfortunate accident. Though chances are very less, but still accident can be happened anytime and after all it’s a wild animal. (P.S The boy climbing at tree is Sedrick J Nicholson who was our CR at that time.)
The moment we reached Pir Sohawa Road was not less than “EID” for us, after 4 hours of hick we were able to reach this place. At the point everybody was just like, now no more steps! So, we decided to hire careem/uber. Unfortunately, our 3g was not working at that point so we decided for plan B. Plan B was to find some lift! 15 people were fitted in 3 vehicles successfully and were dropped at “Monal Resturant”.
At Monal, the moment we sit for lunch each and every person consumed almost one liter of water. After 15 minutes order was placed in which we ordered chicken karahi, malai boti, chappati, lasagnia, pizza and sandwiches.  Gossip session started till the arrival of our food! The level of hunger was at its peak and my fellows were like “Kab Ayay Ga Order”. Finally, after 30 mins order was placed and yes it was amazing.

Trail 5 Margalla HillsAfter having food from Monal, we departed from Monal by hiring a single cabinet. All fellows were settled in back of Cabin. It was really an amazing trip and a day well spent with best people of that time. I didn’t remember what I ve studied in my IR Class but i do remember this day, and it is one of the golden day of my life.

Monday, April 22, 2019

Trip to Khunjarab Border (Part 1) The Rebellious Start.


Well we have Daniyal, Haris, Ijlal and me (Ahmed) were planning about this trip form few months. We were filling our parents ear about our trip and we were saving money for that trip from few months. It was Thursday, September 17, 2015 before to decide the date to go on a life experiencing trip full of adventures and see the nature of our beautiful Pakistan on our all alone. One day before leaving we gather all the necessary stuff which was going to be used on our trip and pack our bags on that night. 
Trip to Khunjarab Border (Part 1) The Rebellious Start.
The Rebellious Start. 
Next day Haris picked Dani and ijlal with all their things in the car trunk which was almost full came to my house. We decided that we will park Haris car in our garage and we will take my car instead of Haris because ground clearance matters a lot when you are going to mountain areas. Haris car had low ground clearance that’s why they choose my car. For further safety I already lifted my car by installing aluminum gaps of 3 inch on upper portion of my car shocks. 
My parents didn’t know about it and I was afraid that they may refuse me to go. Dani opened the gate of my house, and we start pushing the car to get out of garage towards the road. We didn’t started the car because my parents were sleeping and I don’t want them to know that we are going on my car. 
It was after midnight around 2 am we started our journey. Our first stop was Naran, and we want to reach there before afternoon. We have everything, so we decided to take a break near Kaghan and make our breakfast. We stopped beside the Kunhar River and bring our related stuff like stove, eggs, kettle, and bread for the breakfast. Haris was the chef he started making omelet, Ijlal, Dani and me we were washing utensils in the river, so we can have our breakfast, appears to be easy but that icy water was not so pleasant to our hands.