A memorable trip to Neelum valley (July 2010)

[fahimrauf]

Asslam O Alaikum Guys,

PW is an awesome forum to share your memorable trips and to inquire about the things that help you plan your trips. I came to know the power of this great forum when I started using it more frequently.

I was planning to go to a trip to Skardu/Deosai/Fairy Meadows this July and I got a lot of information from this forum to plan my tour. Thanks PW and its users

I have just posted some queries about my planned trip on this forum:

https://www.pakwheels.com/forums/road-trips-vacations/165694-skardu-deosai-rama-lake-fairy-meadows-naltar-trip

Then I thought that I should also share my past tours with you guys like you all do :), so let me start from my amazing last year's trip to Neelum valley in July.

The route was like this:

Lahore > Muzafarabad > Sharda > Kel > Taobut

and then all the way back to Lahore. Local transport and hired jeeps were used throughout.

I will start sharing the pics soon. Hang on

Updated: Pics can also be seen here http://www.flickr.com/photos/31741988@N07/

[fahimrauf]

Here are few teaser pics

River Neelum in Sharda

Puppy in Sharda

Sharda Fort

Kashmiri Houses in Sardari Village

River Neelum near Dowarian

A scene of beautiful Janawai Village

Sands of Kashmir

Pink Rose

Panoramic view of Sharda Town from Sharda Fort

Govt. boys high school, Sharda

way to taobut from kel

kashmiri house in janawai village

near sardari

beautiful village of sardari

a house in sardari

evening in taobut

beautiful scene of taobut

way back to kel from taobut

bank alfalah written on sand

having chat in kundal shahi

we waited on the road while going back to muzafarabad from kundal shahi for long 4-5 hrs due to this..

[luckybilal]

Hurry up brother, post pictures.

[aesiege]

Mashallah !!

Beautiful pics Please post more and in detail as well

[muhammedahmed]

Great Pictures...... Stunning...
Please Post more pics.
By the way which camera was this?

[accord7362]

Fahim great pics thanks for sharing

[farooq05]

really nice pictures.. great job.. i m also planning a trip to Neelum Valley around mid June with family.. can you please provide some updates about accomodation available for family in this region.. i have never been to Kashmir before.. thnx

[syedbhai]

fahim thnx for sharing ur memorable trip snap . we are waiting for more .

[fahimrauf]

really nice pictures.. great job.. i m also planning a trip to Neelum Valley around mid June with family.. can you please provide some updates about accomodation available for family in this region.. i have never been to Kashmir before.. thnx

Thanks for liking the pics. Neelum valley is worth visiting with family BUT there is a very important question here;

Are you travelling on your car? which car?

This is very important because road conditions are very bad over there due to construction and it got even worst after the recent floods. I will highly recommend 4x4 here. Though you can somehow manage cars like Xli but you can't go beyond Kel without 4x4.

Reasonable accommodation is available till Kel, not after that. There is only one hotel in Taobut but you can't stay there with family.

[farooq05]

Thanks for liking the pics. Neelum valley is worth visiting with family BUT there is a very important question here;

Are you travelling on your car? which car?

This is very important because road conditions are very bad over there due to construction and it got even worst after the recent floods. I will highly recommend 4x4 here. Though you can somehow manage cars like Xli but you can't go beyond Kel without 4x4.

Reasonable accommodation is available till Kel, not after that. There is only one hotel in Taobut but you can't stay there with family.

thnx for update.. i will be either using public transport or will hire car/jeep where necessary.. what is the distance between Kel and Taobut & other places.. can we stay in Kel and visit other places during day time and then come back again to Kel for night stay? i m planning for total 5 to 6 days starting from Pindi?

[fahimrauf]

So guys, here we go.

It was all started when I explored the Neelum Valley on the web last year and suddenly the temptation reached at the highest level... you know, the keera

So I contacted my friends who were planning to do lake dodipatsar trek but I convinced them for the neelum valley.

We left from Lahore to Muzafarbad local transport from Lari Adda on the night of 30th June and reached Muzafarabad on the morning of July 1st.

It was somewhere around 10.00 AM. We had our breakfast in Muzafarabad and jumped into JUMBO bus and our destination was Sharda. Experience of traveling in Jumbo bus on that pathetic road was just awful. When we reached Athmuqam somewhere in the noon, almost each part of our body was like jammed specially our legs

From here we decided to shift on the roof and so we did and it was indeed the start of a real adventure. And this is the time when I first pulled my camera out of my bag

Wait for the pics of the this first day in the next post

[zahid135]

Masha'Allah
Beautifull

[nomi700]

nice pics. waiting for more

[sajidahmed]

Fahim, I am also visiting Neelum 2nd week of June, do you recomend to travel on my own Toyota corolla GLi from muzaffarabad to Sharda or Kel?
with family and Kids of course with one night stop over at Dowarian.
Kindly suggest

[NASFOREVER]

fahim rauf bhai can u give me ur mobile number.... want to talk in detail..

[fahimrauf]

So guys, here are the pics of day 01.

But before moving on to the pics of the first day I would like to add some information . We decided to travel in jumbo bus because that is the sole transport available that moves between Muzafarabad and Kel. Hiace only moves between Muzafarabad and Athmuqam.

We reached sharda at 5 or 6pm in the evening, so it took 7-8 hours from muzafarabad to sharda.

so here are the pics of our journey from Athmuqam to Sharda.

This is telling the story of our condition at Athmuqam when we stepped out of the jumbo bus and shifted on the roof.

Bilal Zafar Shaheed in Operation Raah-e-Raast

Local school boys joined us on the roof, they were going to play cricket match

Here we are, in sharda

Hand ball was being played there in sharda when we reached there.

End of day 01

[fahimrauf]

fahim rauf bhai can u give me ur mobile number.... want to talk in detail..

I have sent you a PM.

[sajidahmed]

Indeed very nice pictures,
Where you stayed in Sharda, hotel name and number?
and condition of that hotel is that good enough to stay with family?

[fahimrauf]

thnx for update.. i will be either using public transport or will hire car/jeep where necessary.. what is the distance between Kel and Taobut & other places.. can we stay in Kel and visit other places during day time and then come back again to Kel for night stay? i m planning for total 5 to 6 days starting from Pindi?

Taobut is about 49 kilometers ahead of Kel. You can see the stunning beauty of Janawai, Sardari and Halmat villages in this area. I highly recommend to visit this area.

Yes, you can stay in Kel with family as there are reasonable accommodation facilities and bazar is available in Kel. Health facilities are also available here.

Yes, stay in Kel and hire a jeep to leave early next morning for Taobut and you can come back to Kel after visiting the area up till Taobut.

6 days from Pindi are enough to visit all these places.

[fahimrauf]

Indeed very nice pictures,
Where you stayed in Sharda, hotel name and number?
and condition of that hotel is that good enough to stay with family?

In sharda we stayed as guest. I can't give you the number..sorry

You can stay in AJK govt. rest house in Sharda, that is pretty reasonable I guess, and they should be booked from the tourism office in Muzaffarabad in advance. Other hotels are just so so..but you can stay with family..no issues.

But in Kel we stayed in Sadaat hotel. Don't have the number. You will be able to see that hotel in my upcoming pics of Kel. I will point that out.