To Gilgit and beyond.....

When I was leaving the UK I knew that I would be going up to the Northern Areas once back in Pakistan, which made getting on the plane at Heathrow a whole lot easier. Even so, whilst I was sitting at Heathrow I was going through all the cities it could be worse to go to than Islamabad – Baghdad, Kabul, Khartoum, and then I got stuck on the capital of Somalia (Mogadishu). But I cheered up when I got on the plane as I was upgraded! I never thought that happened in real life.

Anyway, the trip up to the Northern Areas took three days, and I went to a village called Phander between Gilgit and Chitral, where MIED has a girl’s college and runs some ECCD centres. We left Islamabad one day, spent overnight in Mansehra (don’t worry parents, was perfectly safe). We had to leave Mansehra at 5 o’clock the next morning, at which time I wasn’t at my best. It was dark and raining and I was told that there were two routes to Gilgit – either the Babasur pass or the Karakoran Highway. My two trusty companions told me we could go by the Babasur pass if I felt like taking a risk – otherwise we could go by the KKH and they would disguise me under luggage. Hmm, I think (hope) they were slightly joking. But at that time in the morning either seemed little short of a death wish and the idea that I was capable of making a decision which route was laughable. Anyway, my companions decided to go the ‘risky’ route over the Babasur pass. We hit the mountain roads a little after dawn, almost quite literally as soon there was a landslide covering the road. This didn’t daunt either of my trusty companions who jumped out of the car with unreasonable energy for that time in the morning and shifted a few big rocks.

There were a few tense minutes when the 4x4 tried to climb over the rocks that remained but that was successfully achieved and we were soon on our way again. I felt quite remarkably better after a breakfast of trout by a mountain stream, and it all seemed like an adventure again. We had breakfast at a tiny café / tent in the rain. There were two boys asleep in bed in the café / tent with a howling gale outside, which reminded me that I didn’t have things so bad really.

The rest of the morning up to the Babasur pass was a whole lot better. It was a spectacular route through the Kaghan valley and up to Naran, it was just a shame it was raining. The roads continued to be bad though, I couldn’t count the number of landslides and lakes we had to pass through. We had a lunch at Naran which is a known tourist spot, but then we really hit the unknown. On the map a proper road was marked up to Naran, after that it was just a dotted track. Given the states of the roads we had been on, I wasn’t particularly sanguine about what was to follow. But happy surprise – there was a proper road for quite a few kilometres. After that, things went steadily downhill (but going uphill!) In places there was no road and we had to pick our way around mud and boulders, and work out which general direction we should be heading. We gradually climbed to 4000 m, and passed cattle with coats on, camels, and houses made out of stone where families spend the summer with their cattle. We were practically the only vehicle on the ‘road’. We had to negotiate ‘bridges’ when I preferred to get out and walk, though that was almost as scary. Unfortunately it was really cloudy when we got to the top, and it was completely freezing. I had been v intelligent and bought a fleece with me but my two gallant protectors were shivering slightly. But we did have some of mum’s amazing chocolate brownie at the top of the pass. When we got over the top we started descending into Chilas, which is quite a conservative and tribal area. It is one of the areas in Pakistan where people openly carry guns.

The road got a whole lot better, and it took about three hours between Chilas and Gilgit, but we stopped at various places on the way to see a hot spring and some Buddhist carvings. We got to Gilgit a whole lot quicker than going up the KKH as the road was so much more direct. It was really an amazing journey – we went from being absolutely freezing through Babussar to about 40 degree heat in Chilas, through an area destroyed by the earthquake, a tourist attraction, 4000m mountains, an area so conservative and tribal that they still have gun towers in use, past ancient Buddhist carvings, past the point where the Hindu Kush, Himalayas and Karakoram mountains meet, and finally the bustling city of Gilgit. I have to say I was pretty shattered after that, so I don’t know how the driver felt.

The next instalment (trip to Phander) will soon follow….