Despite disturbing news about extreme floods in GB and especially Chitral which was our return destination enroute to Islamabad, (ultimately had to cancel it as well), visit to GB via Babu Sar was a well deserved treat for travelers like ours. Gilgit was simply our transit while visiting Hunza, an alternative for Nalter, (which we could not visit due to same floods and closure of routes) Gupis and Phander. Exit from Gilgit also got disturbed due to closure of KKH due to land slides. This affected our last visit spot, i.e., Gitidas valley for which we could not take a considerable part of the day and were able to spend just 5 hours and could witness and overawed by just one out of 4 (as per localites), we were told to expect two beautiful lakes Dharmasar and Sambaskar, there.
Our schedule was as under:
Day 1: Islamabad ~ chattar plain ~ Balakot
Day 2: Balakot ~ Babusar ~ Gilgit
Day 3: Giglit ~ Hunza ~ attabad lake ~ Hunza
Day 4: Hunza ~ Gupis
Day 5: Gupis ~ Phundar ~ Teru ~ Gupis
Day 6: Gupis ~ Yasin valley ~ Gilgit
Day 7: Gilgit ~ Gitidas valley ~ Dharmaser lake ~ Naraan
Day 8: Naraan ~ Muzaffarabad
Day 9: Muzaffarabad ~ Islamabad
Team Members:
- Myself
- My wife
- Azka, Meraam, Humbal, Wafi & Mohid (2 yr to 15 yr)
Stay Points:
- PTDC Balakot
- PTDC Gilgit
- PTDC Hunza
- PTDC Gupis
- Rupal Inn Gilgit
- PTDC Naraan
- PC Muzaffarabad
Cameras used: Nikon 3200 D, Samsung S5 & S4
Details with photographs will be shared ASAP.
Day 1:
We started our journey on 31st July, 2015 at 01:30 pm on our Toyota GLI from Islamabad. We have gone to chattar plain to my colleague to say DUA for his mother death. After that, we move towards Balakot and reached at 10:00 PM because heavy rain started before balakot. We stayed at PTDC Balakot which is a good option to stay there.
Day 2:
We park our car at PTDC Balakot started our journey at 08:00 PM on already arranged jeep which was booked for our whole journey. The road upto lalusar lake is almost completed & the remaining upto Babusar top will be completed in this year. Before Babusar top, traffic was jammed due to land slide in the previous night. We took our lunch at Moon restaurant (newly built) Besal. We reached at Babusar at 04:00 PM. The weather was cloudy there. we stayed for some time & then continued our travel. Reached Gilgit at 08:00 PM & stayed at PTDC.