13-20 Aug 2013: Astore Valley & Baltistan Trip - Introducing Riat Valley & Riat Lakes

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Road Trips / Vacations / Hiking / Trekking

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aesiege (aesiege) 2013-10-20 21:21:02 +0500 #781

Gumai village and The Killer Mountain

0777 by Mobeen Mazhar, on Flickr

aesiege (aesiege) 2013-10-20 21:22:52 +0500 #782

Approaching Shankergarh

0778 by Mobeen Mazhar, on Flickr

aesiege (aesiege) 2013-10-20 21:23:52 +0500 #783

View of Nanga Parbat after crossing Shankergarh

0779 by Mobeen Mazhar, on Flickr

aesiege (aesiege) 2013-10-20 21:25:23 +0500 #784

This village across the river is called Sakmal. The valley in the background connects to Seri Bala in Neelum Valley of AJK.

0780 by Mobeen Mazhar, on Flickr

aesiege (aesiege) 2013-10-20 21:26:30 +0500 #785

Local houses in Sakmal

0781 by Mobeen Mazhar, on Flickr

aesiege (aesiege) 2013-10-20 21:27:35 +0500 #786

Approaching Chechri .. from this village onwards, the valley gets a bit narrow again

0782 by Mobeen Mazhar, on Flickr

aesiege (aesiege) 2013-10-20 21:53:54 +0500 #787

Crossing Chechri bridge

0783 by Mobeen Mazhar, on Flickr

aesiege (aesiege) 2013-10-20 21:55:00 +0500 #788

View ahead towards Gishat ... where we were hoping to find some helping hands for our trek

0784 by Mobeen Mazhar, on Flickr

aesiege (aesiege) 2013-10-20 21:56:19 +0500 #789

This is Gishat village

The village was empty as told to us by one family waiting for jeep so we moved ahead to Riat

0785 by Mobeen Mazhar, on Flickr

aesiege (aesiege) 2013-10-20 21:57:28 +0500 #790

Road leading to Riat

0786 by Mobeen Mazhar, on Flickr

aesiege (aesiege) 2013-10-20 21:59:25 +0500 #791

Approaching Riat Village which is at the base of the mountain in the middle

The main road goes straight and a branch leads to the village bridge towards lower right

0787 by Mobeen Mazhar, on Flickr

aesiege (aesiege) 2013-10-20 22:04:16 +0500 #792

There were some young boys doing fishing at river bank and we requested one of them to ask some elder to come to us. In the meanwhile, we crossed the bridge and walked a bit near to the village but stayed at some distance. After 30 min or so, a young man came to greet us and we talked about purpose of our visit and possibility of arranging porters or mules. As we were discussing things, more people joined in and in no time more than a dozen people were there. None of them had visited the lakes and told us that only bakarwals go ahead in deep valleys.

They offered us to camp near the village and take some rest and in the meanwhile they will try to arrange something.

Our team getting ready for the trek and we left the remaining luggage in the jeeps. I gave one extra camp to the drivers incase they wanted to use it.

aesiege (aesiege) 2013-10-20 22:06:55 +0500 #793

After an hour or so, we were on our way to the camping site. We found a bakarwal as well but he told us that he will only be able to bring mules down here by tomorrow midday.

So, we decided to stay in the village and do a full day trek next morning.

On our way to camping site

0788 by Mobeen Mazhar, on Flickr

AsadGhumman (AsadGhumman) 2013-10-21 10:51:38 +0500 #794

What a wonderful place it is .... samajh nhii arhi k kis kis photo ko like krun (A)

kashif (kashif) 2013-10-21 19:07:23 +0500 #795

Mubeen, earlier there was only one killer, that was Killer Mountain, then another Killer comes this was the scenery which we saw all through KKH, tarshang, and now the way on RIAT valley. But I think you are the biggest killer who took us virtually there and all the time I was feeling that I am there boarded on your jeeps, sleeping in your camps, observing the beauty of nature with you . ........... I will have no sorrow if I could go till this place and have to come back coz this place is beautiful enough that a jeep safari can be made to visit this valley, if we don't intend to see riat lake. THUMBS UP !!!!!!!!!!!

kashif (kashif) 2013-10-21 19:10:50 +0500 #796

BTW how long is the travel on jeep till last stop and what is fare for it from Tarshang.

aghaabbas (aghaabbas) 2013-10-22 02:49:30 +0500 #797

Maza A Geya Mobeen Bhai, Allah Picture .........

ism1 (ism1) 2013-10-22 04:38:02 +0500 #798

acha bahana hy 1 bhi like na dene ka kiun mobeen bhai ??? Koi aya hy like asad bhai ki taraf se

aesiege (aesiege) 2013-10-22 04:49:03 +0500 #799

This part of Astore is intact with all its purity and a must visit place

Thx a lot janab for the appreciation

It will take around 4-5 hours to complete one side jeep travel till Muhammad Das in Kala Pani. So, you can do a full day jeep ride from Astore to Astore.

No doubt, a jeep ride itself is rewarding enough if u r not into trekking. Here are few pics of Kala Pani area which we could not visit

Pic credits: Omar Khan

These flowers are there in July only and are cut by locals later on as we didn't see them in August.

Thx a lot Agha sb

aesiege (aesiege) 2013-10-22 05:56:45 +0500 #800

yaar Imran bhai abhi woh soch rahey hien