moving on with the same difficult path on small stop for cooling the engine i also smelled burning rubber, i was not sure that it were the tyres or clutch plates anyways i ignored the smell and moved on with the help of ALLAH and road guide by shahroz.... now comes the some next level steepness n curves, there i saw that jeeps were going one by one, i asked kalu about it n he said 'agay bhot charhai hai aur kahin ruknay ki jagah b nai hai aur road kaafi patla hai tou aik gari k janay k 3,4 mins baad dusri gari jati hai' ... this yeh aik aur naya masla tha k bilkul akele jana hai and kalu said 'ap pehle jaao' so bas ALLAH ka naam le k charhana shuru ki, it were 3 steep n sharp curves, my car's temperature started to rise after the second curve but i could not break the momentum so i kept on going did the 3rd curve and immediately stopped at a safe place after that, cooled down the car... after a minute or so the jeep also came and from this point he moved ahead while i waited for cooling down the engine.
ab khatarnaak safar jari tha aur samnay aik aur khatarnaak charhai nazar arahi thi after the curve, it was khawal pass... i kept on pushing the car in first gear and while climbing car's rpm started to drop as steepness increased, dropping from 4k ...3k...2k...1500... and 1000 rpm near to idle so i pressed the clutch and put the car on brakes ... ab woh ho chuka tha jiska sabse ziyada dar tha, adhi charhai charh k gari ne momentum tor dia pehle gear mai and this was the point jahan mai almost har maan gaya tha k gari nai jayegi ab aur agay...gari k pichlay tyre k nichay pathar laga diay bhot baray but it didnt stop so agay tyre ma b laga k roki, shadeed pareshani ka alam tha ... khair ALLAH ki karni kuch aisi hui k mere dost ne himmat de aur pani waghera pia, ayat ul kursi parh k set huay, .... gari mai se 2 banday kam karnay ka faisla kia, gunman aur shoaib ko kaha k yeh charhai pedal charhna aur phr agay se gari mai beth jana aur yeh decide hua k gari ko pichay leja k curve k qareeb se momentum de k uthaenge so it will cover this pass in single go, they agreed...
now all set ready and the most dangerous event of the trip occurred .. sardar bhai (gunman) was at the back of the car as i saw him in the side mirror and shoaib removing rocks from front wheels, pehle right walay wheel ka hataya car was stable at its place, phr jese hi left walay ka hataya gari ne rear wheel walay pathar cross kiay aur 5,6 ft nichay slip hogai maine foran se brake full hardly daba di aur shahroz ne full hand brake khench di, now all 4 wheels were locked still car slipped downwards and stopped foran side mirror mai dekha tou sardar bhai nazar nai aye, maine socha ALLAH khair karay ye kahan gaye, shahroz ne b foran pichay mur k dekha tou sardar bhai pe nazar nai pari ti, dil ki dharkan taiz hogai yeh dekh k ..... jab agay mur k dekha tou sardar bhai gari k agay wali side pe kharay thay road k bilkul side pe, yeh dekh k jaan mai jaan ayi aur unse khariyat daryaaft ki, ALLAH k karam se woh bilkul theek thay aur unhone ne bataya jese he gari slip hui woh foran side pe hogaye n jab gari ruki tou woh side pe kharay thay bonnet ki taraf... ALLAH ne baray hadsay se mehfooz rakha.... iss k baad slowly gari aur pichay ki stand still tak wahan se agay ka start lena tha... first gear mai start lia khaddon waghera ksi cheez ka khayal nai kia aur full khawal pass cover kr k gari ko stop dia aur sardar bhai aur shoaib k anay ka wait kia ...
pichay se aik single cabin hilux aye full with about 18 to 20 sindhi locals, sardar bhai knew sindhi so unhe masla bataya, they were extremely helpful, they offered shoaib aur sardar bhai to come in the hilux with them so that my car becomes further load free. people in that hilux said 'mehmaan ho ap hamaray kuch b kar k apki gari opper charhaenge hum, ap k sath chalenge ap agay agay chalna kuch masla waghera hua tou tow kar k lejange'... this was very motivating ... ALLAH ki madad ayi thi nothing else
daytime pics of khawal pass taken from google.
now i was going on the directions of my co driver as he was guiding through sygic maps aur mere pichay hilux chal raha tha so that was some meaningful support fully loaded hilux also used to stop for a few mins with me when i stopped to cool down the engine, they were very very cooperative
so now major slopes were covered and few of them were left, we kept on going and happiness was increasing as the remaining kms on the sygic maps were decreasing manzil qareeb hoti ja rahi thi
now about 2kms before destination, hilux wala stopped me, it was some govt rest house or office and the people in the hilux were employees, they parked the hilux inside and we had shop nice gup shup with them, they offered us 'drinks' by saying 'sayeen pinay pilanay ka intizam haina warna hum apko tohfa dete hain' i replied 'bari meher bani janab hum srf cigarette pinay walay log hain' .. he smiled anyways bhai ne pani pilaya, unka bhot shukar ada kia aur wahan se agay barhay hum towards the destination... now road was alright and straight no steepness or nothing.... and the lights of the gorakh hill could be seen which was great happiness, we kept on following the maps and finally reached !!!
this all difficulty was covered with the help of ALLAH, prayers of my parents, support of friends specifically shahroz who was co driver as well and local people.