The inspiration for this trip started a long way back, I went to Gilgit-Hunza-Skardu in May 2008 with my family, we went there by-air and explored that area on a jeep owned by Waljis-our tour operator, but on the way back from Skardu to Islamabad flight got cancelled due to weather problem, so we travelled to Gilgit to try next day flight from Gilgit to Islamabad but unfortunately no success, then the only option was by road travelling on famous KKH, finally it took us three days to reach from Skardu to Lahore, and that’s the starting point of a new story.
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As a result, I decided that next time I will come to north on my own vehicle so I made the plans every year with my brother to go there again on my civic 2002,but somehow or the other the plans were unsuccessful specially due to the severe road conditions.
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In February 2011, I met 4x4 club members, specially Janj (don’t have words for him, simply Big bro) on Mach1 event in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Lahore</st1:place></st1:city>,discussed my passion and seeked there expert opinions, and my passion of seeking my own SUV aggravated.
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At last I got my own SUV, to explore the beauty of the our beloved country by driving myself, so from May 2008 till July 2011 it’s a long journey till I finally got my hands on my first ever SUV. Thanks Allah almighty for fulfilling this beautiful dream.
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This year I participated in Swat Snow rally and after travelling with experienced offroaders of 4x4 engaged I became confident that I can take my ride to anywhere up north, so I started improving my ride gradually by replacing all new shocks for the first time, the old OEM shocks did 410,000 kms (hats of to Toyota for creating wonderful and long lasting machines) and were leaked, next step was replacing all the suspension bushes and re-arching of leaf springs,then I replaced the faulty generator, for amusement on long and hectic journey I put a new CD player with USB port and got new speakers installed at the back,did thorough checkup including balancing, alignment, all filters got changed, oils replaced, brake service etc. I use to spend half of my salary on my beloved second wife (ya we consider our old SUVs as our second wives as we keep on thinking about them most of the time, how to upgrade this and that, now she has this problem now that etc.)
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Finally after an year long planning and advise by our seniors (and by going through almost all the road trips/vacation threads related to northern areas on pakwheels), we started our journey to the beautiful north on August 23, 2013. <o:p></o:p>
Sorry guys the story got quite long.
We travelled 2700 kms in six days/seven nights from August 23 to 30, 2013 covering:
- Naran
- Babusar Top
- Chilas
- Astore/Rama
- Deosai
- Skardu/Shigar
- Khaplu
- Hunza
- And way back via KKH
No of persons: 4
Transport: Toyota Landcruiser HJ60 1989
Fuel cost: Rs. 43,000
Fuel consumption: 7.0 km/l average with 70% AC on
Total trip cost: Rs. 132,000
One of the reason how we have covered so many destinations is that we all four used to drive turn by turn, so it has made our journey more exciting and less hectic, its really a team effort.<o:p></o:p>