Just came back from a round trip of NA.we were 8 ppl in two vehicles, Nissan double cabin and a prado 97 automatic.double cabin was driven all the way by me while the prado had two drivers.
The route v took was as follows,
1 - isb- naran :
Road condition is gud except few small landslides and at few places road is washed away by floods. no tricky areas.time taken by us was around 8 hrs,as v had to gather stuff for our long journey ahead.left from isb @ 4:00 and reached Naran by 12:00. tried to find a place to sleep @ naran but they were charging insanely high.even for a 8 ppl tent they were asking rs 1500/night,which one can easily find @ rs 300-400 in off season.So we had diner in naran and then moved abit further and established our 1st camping night on a helipad near naran.
2 - Naran - besal
woke up @ 8:00 AM because we had a long day of traveling ahead.have break fast and packed our camps and started to drive towards besal.reached there by 11:00 AM,had tea @ besal.road was only gud till jalkadh,after that it was all kacha road.the bridges near burawai had been washed but last year floods and road is also not in gud condition at some places.
3 - besal - lulusar
Road onwards from besal is just stones and dirt.and there are a few tricky portions which should be handled carefully.Cars can go on that road but it'll be like r*ping them.v reached lulusar in 40 mins.
4 - lulusar - babusar top
Again road is just stones and dirt.Although v found trucks and mini van using the road but i would say it's pure torture to them.as the road becomes bumper then ever.the area is not safe to travel after sun set and not recommended for camping at night,as there have been cases of robberies by kohistani's on the road.took us 3.5 hrs to reach the top.The scenes on the was are breath taking.especially the gattidas view from the top.the weather is too cold and chilled wind blows which can blow alot of things,also due to height and cold u might face head ache,and also due to thin air u'll feel out of breath after walking few steps.
There is a hotel available on the top which can provide u with food and water,however they charge more then the babusar's height..
5 - babusar top - chilas
The descend is abit steep compared to ascend but manageable.If u have an automatic gear then keep an eye on ur brakes,as v faced heat up problem in prado.The initial descend is all kacha road but v found few km's of metaled road at the base of the descend.The views around are very gud.however,v didn't found any hotels for stay on the way.however, tea hotels are available.
few km's before chilas the road is totally washed away by flood so v had to take a kacha road which seems like reaching for the sky,it was a single lane road,all stony an bumpy with mountain on left side and river on right side which is about 700-800M below the path.v had to engage 4x4 to cross this patch and it took the longest time to cover because the speed was less then 5 km/h.finally,that patch ended and v entered into Chilas and went straight to KKH and had our lunch/diner @ 7:00 PM.