Across the Do Teer Pass

[Janj]

Nomi, you know ke aaj kal rally mailee kaa maahol hai, aisee alif laila kee daastanein kon suntaa hai, kisey sunaaein

Waisey bhee Jeep pe gayey, Jeep pe aayey.... zaidaa baat kee to aik do mazeed joke hee gharney hain qaum ne ...To iss photo pe arz hai ke:

"Na ho Toyota ka tehka, na ho Mitsu ka rolla
aasmaan bhee choo aayey, kya kar le ga Baltoro bechaara"

Jeep pe gayey, Jeep pe aayey. Kya baat kar de SK wah wah irshad irshad.

[VCheng]

VCheng & Basharat,

Thanks for the interest despite letting this thread hang! Have updated with an intro. Actually, Everytime I try to say something about this, I feel lost for energy to relive and share the details.

I am thankful to God Almighty that we made it back intact following an adventurous but otherwise uneventful journey. Bear with me ...

Please take your time, but do finish up the details (as soon as possible!). This thread is awesome for its adventure and photography.

[raohamid]

SK, come on man. Lovely opening pic. How safe was this route?

MMC

[SuhaibKiani]

I have plotted the most adventurous part of the trip, from Gulzada Khan's house in Kalam to our landing in Tal in Dir Kohistan. Key point is that while you can see this track on Google Earth, there is no road marked on GE (even when using the Pak Northern Areas plugin) or on any other SatNav thingy we came across. The Badwai/Badwal Pass placemark appears to be an error as there is no pass named that, which the locals could confirm.

[SuhaibKiani]

We left Kalam at 1pm (after heading down to the road block and coming back) and headed up the Valley to Utrot. I had visited Utrot once when I was about 14 years old and had few recollections of the place. The road to Utror had many signs of havoc caused by the surging river flows from the recent floods, entire villages had been washed away leaving nothing but stones and gravel....

A Jeep caravan from Utror and Dir reaching Kalam....

Track to Utror:

Flood Destruction near Utror!

[SuhaibKiani]

At Utror we ordered a bunch of kababs to be packed up and we turned left and took the road up the hill towards the so called "Do-Teer" Pass. Now, I am not sure if what this pass is called but I the only reference I have got is from Gulzada Khan who refereed to it as Do-Teer. Otherwise there is no reference on Google Earth (even with Northern Pakistan placemark pug-in) and most locals refere to it as the pass between Utror and Tal in Kohistan-e-Dir.

Diesel Dudes at Utror - by Salahuddin Khawaja

[SuhaibKiani]

We had to move a few logs to clear the road. While some of us were looking up to make sure no other logs were falling on us, my emergency lights and buzzers were going off in my head "Ambush"....Salahuddin was the calmest of us, I guess being from New York he had obviously been in much worse situations Fears were unfounded, and all was well all along the way!

Ice on the road:

At the First Pass...which opened up into a sort of corridor through the mountains, though we continued to climb up to the top.

[desertdevil]

@ Sk..... Dher Ala....was the road block a bahana to explore this beautiful valley or was it for real...

We must have another sitting at Planet x for this adventure....kya khayal hai

[SuhaibKiani]

From Tal to Dir City, we were on a road (supposedly) at least part of the time. We reached Tal just after sunset and headed towards our family friend Miskeen Khan's Dera near Dir City (same place where we had lunch during Summer Camp Day 1). Now, I have visited Tal before (in 1989 or something with my family) when we were escorted there by Miskeen Khan and his father (a close friend of my Grandfather) and Tal is essentially the start of the tribal area known as the "Dir Kohistan" and the "Kumrat Valley". Leaving history and tales of Dir Kohistan to a later date (there are some threads on PW), its supposedly a place where you do not go without a local. We were cordially treated by the people at the Tal checkpost and by everyone else whom we stopped to check directions from before racing off into a cloud of dust on a Jeep that must have seemed to have come out of a fashion show ( organised by 4x4 Engaged! ). So essentially we felt pretty safe despite travelling on the road at night and reaching our destination at around 11pm to be greeted by a lavish dinner as expected with the Dir hospitality. Though we had consumed our fair share of kebabs on the way at a road side resturaunt pitstop, v8 like mad with Salah and Siddique leading the charge! The next morning we drove down to Timergarha and out through Malakand to reach back to Islamabad by midday!

[SuhaibKiani]

@ Sk..... Dher Ala....was the road block a bahana to explore this beautiful valley or was it for real...

We must have another sitting at Planet x for this adventure....kya khayal hai

Thank You Sir! The road block was pretty real, I had to get back for my son's birthday celebration on Saturday and we got news on Thursday eve that there was a Bedford truck that got stuck at one of the tight spots and caused a mini landslide or something, blocking the road!

We joked around with each other after hearing that road block may take anywhere between 1-3 days to get fixed. My crack was that if I don't get back by Saturday morning: CV haath mein aur if I don't get back by afternoon to borya bistra kamar pe Lo and behold on Friday morning we got to the second checkpost south of Kalam and there were about 25 jeeps and pickups parked up. The road block was another 30 mins down and we figured even if the road opens anytime soon the traffic jam would take hours to resolve.

Hence, it was a very difficult decision to turn around and head out the long way. We managed to persuade Gulzada to let us go, which he did quite reluctantly and accompanied us to the First Pass on a rented 4x4. He gave us references of locals in Tal and we had called Miskeen Khan in Dir to expect us at night (or God forbid to come looking by the morning :)).

I think we need to do a full 2010 recap at Planet X to cover all the madness unleashed by IJC (and 4x4 Engaged too!!) this year! May Allah continue to keep our adventurous spirits high in 2011 and beyond!

[86rocker]

Awesome ... !

[SuhaibKiani]

SK, come on man. Lovely opening pic. How safe was this route?

MMC

Thank You sir! Despite my original apprehensions the route turned out to be pretty safe and similar to earlier treks we had done in Dir/Chitral. The Dir Kohistan area appears to have been modernised a little, but it remains a very backward region and people are known to not like outsiders a whole lot. Nevertheless, they are also known to be very very hospitable and look after their guests well.

[SuhaibKiani]

@VCheng: Many thanks for the comments and interest!

@Janj: I will post more pics of the Jeep. You cannot really take a pic of it without 4x4 Engaged! emerging from some corner or the other. Once again many thanks for the wonderful stickers

[nomi1234]

very nice coverage SK. this truly feels like an adventure trip wtih lots of uncertainties and high degree of risk.
we're glad you made it back in one piece.

[SalmanZ.]

I loving it! very nice!

[VCheng]

Great narrative with details and photos! TFS.

[aamir567]

Nice pictures
Will definetly try to explore this side of the world

[jeepaholic]

Kiani Sahib my way of describing it= "Way Mein Chori Chori"

[MITSU_MAN]

@SK

Never knew that this pass existed at all......seems like a full ingredient off-roader's dream.....great going, amigo!

[Porsche_Maker]

Nice un-expected expedition