KPK To Gilgit-Baltistan

Safety Precautions in Chilas for Vehicle Life

and In Kohistan for Your Own Life!

Lulusar Lake

After my first experience of camping, the cold night stay in Naran ended. We refreshed ourselves in the morning with a mug of tea. Shut our camp and packed the things back to the trunk. It appeared a headache if you have to organise this on early morning. We continued our journey from Naran towards Babusar top. On the way we enjoyed the Lulusar Lake view from Road. The Lulusar Lake is more similar to a calm river type lake moving beside the road. Its aqua colour does appeal the eyes of every tourist travelling from Naran towards Babusar Top.

Weather gets colder and colder as you move towards Babusar top. When we reached Babusar top it was the place for Mother Nature lovers only. As its not much to do there and quality of food is below average, the thing you do there is take a strong wind walk with a majestic view of mountain ranges connecting at this point. It’s the shortest approach towards Hunza side from Chilas, but only opens for limited months. It is said that there are very rare places where you can travel to the height of 4,173 meter in your car. We friends were lucky because usually the way from Babusar top is blocked because of heavy snowfalls. We didn’t stay there for long and continued our journey.

Zigzag Chilas Road

The Road to Chilas is one of the most dangerous paved roads. You have to keep a temperament to keep the vehicle slow in a snake type zigzag slope. Some cars brakes do get hot there, so have to keep it slow and avoid heavy-duty breakdowns. The tough braking wears the brake pads faster. It can similarly overheat and harm the rotors each by generating glazing. In adding to this, around each part of the vehicle will be suffering additional stress. As the burden of the car moves forward your car shocks and coils compress placing more weight on the suspension, ball bushings, joints, wheel bearings, etc. This transference of burden will place the tires in additional friction, triggering them to wear sooner. Your car alignment slants can transform as well under these situation which lead to affect the tires.

Stone Homes In-between Chalas and Kohistan

In 2011 and 2012 the security was wicked in Kohistan. The Kohistan police use to stop busses to travel at night. Sometimes at that place they use to stop and transfer traffic in form of conveys to protect the traveller's. When we entered Kohistan it was day time and the security was not rigid, only our Identity cards were checked. So I do recommend travelling from Kohistan at day period to evade any misfortune or difficulty from security. Try not to stop your car if some random people came across you especially near Harban Nala place as there are many incidents recorded of men executed for just having a dissimilar set of religious opinions. Though I was prepared for this all because of news circulating in media but fortunately this all appeared fake to me. However the situation of living style in that place is rigid, still I didn’t found anything to be petrified of. All appreciations to Pak Army that the security situation is controlled there now as compare to the period between 2010 and 2013.

PART 3: First Nightly Stopover Beside The Fairy Land ‘NARAN’

Jheel Saif Ul Malook

It’s always tough to bring beauty into words, still expressing my best. After having lovely breakfast in Kunhar river we packed our luggage back into the trunk. Almost after 8 hours from Islamabad we were in Naran Bazar. Without wasting time we took stove and things to make tea from car and rent a jeep for Jheel Saif Ul Malook. After some quarrel the jeep was hired for Rs.2500. One of most treacherous roads I have experienced was from Naran Bazar to Jheel Saif ul Malook. There are two main well known hazardous jeep tracks in the way to china boarder from Islamabad where true skills of 4*4 jeeps can be experienced. One is Raikot to Fairy Medows and the other is to Jheel Saif Ul Malook from Naran Bazar. Traitorous great altitude, uneven narrow mountain roads and local driving techniques will makes you sit pretty attentive. On left hand the mountains and the other side the straight steep slopes will make the blood pump hard. The drivers know where to keep the speed and where to stop to give way to the approaching jeeps from another side. It’s a true talent gain from their experience. 

After 45 minutes of bumpy road when we reached an altitude of 3,224 meters and 10,578 feet above sea level and saw the blue sparkler clear and freezing water in a bowl shape lake, fenced by massive glaciers it took away our all travelling wooziness and it appeared all worthy. The spellbinding view of clouds touching the mountains and cold breeze along fog crossing us is magical experience. We had to hike around 5 minutes down from jeep stop to lake where we can find small stalls of food items. 
I do recommend you to experience egg Pakoras and a cup of tea with it. We sat there for hour and enjoyed the mesmerising view. we came across a person who told us the very famous story of that place. As the story was love triangle between prince of Egypt Saif-ul-Malook, the gorgeous fairy known as Badi-ul-Jamaal and the Safaid Diyo (white giant). There is a lake around hour tracking from jheel Saiful Malook known as Ansu jheel which is said to be created out by the tears of white giant in loss of fairy. Rent of horse was Rs.500 per horse and the guide was hired for Rs.500. We planned to camp in Jheel Saif Ul Malook but due to security we were not allowed to camp around. We came back to Naran Bazar and visited local shops there. 

The Next Morning at Kunhar River

After some time we camped near Kunhar river and cooked food by our self. Played cards at night and enjoyed the lovely dinner with friends. We tie a shopper of mangoes and dip it in Cold Kunhar River and in no time the mangoes were chilled and tasted delicious. We slept in camp with the peaceful sound of river.