Sallam Pakwheelers:
here i am with another thread after a long absence from traveling due to family commitments... last time i "stepped out of my home was in mid Feb:o"....
this time it was a road trip (with some unwanted hiking aswell) to Sudhnoti district in AJK. the main aim was to cover Tilni waterfall and Baral Fort. This was my first excursion into Sudhnoti district.
OVERVIEW: Sudhnoti District is very green sometimes heavily forested areas as well. roads are 80% in good shape (some segments were motorway sort) and the best feature of them all is ....... that there was no1 there... wah wah wah.. a blessing in this era and timing.............climate is not cold .... similar to like pallandri ......
Participants: Safeer and Me
Ride: my Toyota Vitz 2006
Route: Islamabad-Azad Pattan-Pallandri-Trar Khel-Tilni Waterfall-Wani Waterfall-Trar Khel-Pallandri-Baral Fort-Pallandri- Islamabad.
Total Distance Covered : 350 Kms approx
Per Head Cost : Rs.1460
The Story:
baat tu kafi purani chal rai thee jb say safeer nay "Arshad Iqbal Wani" (u must all now him) ke Tilni waterfall and Wani Waterfall and Sahu waterfall ke pics dekhi FB par.. shared with me also... interest in going there was mutual. so Eid kay second day subha 6 bajay safeer kko pata nai kia hua kehtay hain chlaain Tilni so may nai gari nikali aur puhanch gia. piced safeer up at abt 7.30 and left on my described route. safeer was in contact with Wani sb who obliged duly and guided us to the waterfall. u can c the map.. Tilni cordinates are 33.7464818, 73.8142813 while wani waterfall is 33.741934, 73.814779.
now the best part of the road journey was the road from pallandri to Trar khel is awsum and the views are good as well with some heavy dense forests in between... only the last 5 kms are underconstruction ....
rom trar khel one has to turn towards Hajira (this is a good alternate to hajira and haveli in addition to rawalakot side) road... 6 kms in it and a bridge comes ahead of which is a turn towards rite to Biot ... just a few meters ul reach Tilni waterfall.. initially we were disapointed in the fall as there was less flow but later we learnt that most of it is being diverted to a Panchaki next to the fall and as it was shut down the flow was amazing again.... the operator of the Pani chaki is a gentle old man Name Khursheed Ahmed who guided us to our next destination and also told us that the best time to come is after heavy monsoon rains.... anyhow one must be carefull as the rock base of the waterfall is very slipery and the water is not drinakable so u must carry lots of water.... also there is no real place to stand under the fall flow etc.....
after some time at the waterfal we decided to procede to the other very less know fall which Wani sb has claimed and named after himself. also Sahu fall is rite next to it but it a small fall.... however the route of this very tuf as there is no fixed path.... shud i say there is no path... u have to cross thru thorni bushes and cross the river a few times removing ur shoes and climb over boulders and stuff.... we were severly dehydrated by this hike.... anyways when we asked Mr Khurseed abt the route he guided us to follow the Desi Anaar trees... yes tis is not a fairy tale there r really anaar trees there and u have to follow them to reach the waterfall....
wani waterfall is a double cascade ... its much more intimidating than Tilni and one can stand under it to some extent... water is not cold and rock base is not sliperey at all... we had a good bath here after an hours Treacherous hike.......
after following the same path back we reached Pallandri and hurried to Baral fort (ba-rul). its 18 kms from pallandri (when u reach pallandri take bypass and go straight ahead). the initail road is good but last few kms are like a jeep track... meri vitz bht mushkil say puhanchi.... any how we managed to reach fort after a 15 mins walk from Baral Bazar (only 4x4 type vehicles can go from bazar till fort) just b4 dusk and managed a few shots... needless to say that the condition of the fort is bad just like Ain Pan and Bhrund forts ..... after that it was all down hill to islamaabd and we reached home by 12 pm.. almost 16 hours if driving by me :-#
but "it was worth it"........
now the pics will follow in series........ thankx