Bike Tour 4,000 KMS - Karachi - Naran - Astor (Gilgit Balistan) and Back to Karachi

[engineermali]

Amazing Trip ............ Beautiful Pics

[Xoofi]

And just for the info, In post #130 of this thread, the special flower plant you saw ahead of Naran is in fact potato plant.

[hsumbal1]

Sir your adventure has been amazing!!!!!
Please don't reply to people who are trying to argue with u for no reason. U chose to buy a bike from your own pocket, no one gave it to u for free.
There are people here who are going to pick up a fight and destroy this wonderful thread. Just stop replying to them and u will be all good

Couldn't agree more

[VCheng]

........

I tried taking pics of all the areas where I had trouble when I was coming up but soon realized it would be difficult since when I am parked facing down on steep hills the bike will not stand and just roll. So I decided to take what pics I could and gave up the idea of trying to capture the moments earlier.............

A tried-and-true hint: Parking using the sidestand, at an angle to the roadway with the handle turned such that it is almost at right angles, with the bike in first gear, is pretty secure.

[gorkan]

wow!, what an inspirational thread, thanks for the lovely pictures and well written and descriptive posts. Threads like this one are an asset of this forum.

[adeelhanif86]

Sir superb thread with beautiful pics & lovely narrations..

[MZubairAziz]

Awesome post...Masha Allah!

There is also a motorcycle trip on PW from 2007/08 I think...some guy ride all the way from KHI-Quetta-KPK and back from ISL-LHR-KHI !!

I am also planning a similar trip Insha Allah!! as soon as I get chance

[farooq05]

you are doing justice with your efforts by putting a great write up!! i m really enjoying every piece of info followed by pictures.. you really got a skills to narrate your time spent so perfectly that someone really cant get bored for long readings, amazing!! just wondering if you were writing any diary at every point to keep things remembered? keep posting.. thx.

[Sulaiman75]

And just for the info, In post #130 of this thread, the special flower plant you saw ahead of Naran is in fact potato plant.

Thanks for pointing that out. I figured that out on my way back when I went through Naran and asked someone what was so special about these flowers, were they popluar in these areas for perhaps medicinal use or something? He responded with a smile saying these are Potato Plants.... I was amazed as I had never imagined how a potato grew other than they are dug out of the soil.

But again, thanks for pointing that out.

Sulaiman

[Sulaiman75]

A tried-and-true hint: Parking using the sidestand, at an angle to the roadway with the handle turned such that it is almost at right angles, with the bike in first gear, is pretty secure.

Thanks for the wonderful advice which I think can solve such problems for many other bikers reading this thread.

You know, after reading your response I have trying to get my head around this and picture it but have trouble figuring out and the only picture I am getting is that we park our bike sideways as in perpendicular to the road, put it in first gear and then have the front tire turned to one side facing up the hill.

Now that I think about it I am wondering if whether even what I just wrote makes any sense. Still can't figure it out. And then again, in Karachi its difficult to try this out due to lack of any real hills unless you go looking for them and there are a few but still, I first need to figure out how to do this. It would be very much appreciated and helpful if you could try an describe it in a different way.

Thanks a bunch

Sulaiman

[Sulaiman75]

you are doing justice with your efforts by putting a great write up!! i m really enjoying every piece of info followed by pictures.. you really got a skills to narrate your time spent so perfectly that someone really cant get bored for long readings, amazing!! just wondering if you were writing any diary at every point to keep things remembered? keep posting.. thx.

Thanks for your inspirational response. As for having a diary, I actually never thought of having a diary to jot down all my daily travel routines but as I arrived in DI Khan where my relative Maj Hasan hosted my two wonderful days of stay showing their hospitality and I can't thank him and his family enough. Well he pointed out that I should have a diary.

So right in his office we cute out some papers and stapled them together to make a small portable diary which could fit my front waste pouch. We sent someone to look in the store for a tiny diary but all they could find were a wee bit too big for my pouch. In that diary I pretty much kept notes of the distances & fuel costs in order to calculate my average consumption. I also kept a log of all my other expenses. The purpose at that point was to tell those I knew just how economical the tour could be if they chose to consider doing one in the future.

However, everything I am writing here is coming to me as I look at the pics and then remember each moment. Naturally, there is much I have missed but the main points and each of the unique experiences I had are mentioned in my thread.

[hsumbal1]

Thanks for your inspirational response. As for having a diary, I actually never thought of having a diary to jot down all my daily travel routines but as I arrived in DI Khan where my relative Maj Hasan hosted my two wonderful days of stay showing their hospitality and I can't thank him and his family enough. Well he pointed out that I should have a diary.

So right in his office we cute out some papers and stapled them together to make a small portable diary which could fit my front waste pouch. We sent someone to look in the store for a tiny diary but all they could find were a wee bit too big for my pouch. In that diary I pretty much kept notes of the distances & fuel costs in order to calculate my average consumption. I also kept a log of all my other expenses. The purpose at that point was to tell those I knew just how economical the tour could be if they chose to consider doing one in the future.

However, everything I am writing here is coming to me as I look at the pics and then remember each moment. Naturally, there is much I have missed but the main points and each of the unique experiences I had are mentioned in my thread.

Indeed if you do decide to take such a dip, you can do it in an economical way...

If you don't mind we will love if you can kindly sort and share the cost of the entire trip...

Thanks, regards..

[Haji__John]

How much mileage was your bike giving on average?

[Sulaiman75]

Indeed if you do decide to take such a dip, you can do it in an economical way...

If you don't mind we will love if you can kindly sort and share the cost of the entire trip...

Thanks, regards..

Certainly I will do that, in fact I have it pretty much on the top of my head but i do have to find the sheets of paper which I made the exact notes on to give you the exact amounts. Let me look into that and will post it all later for sure.

For the moment I believe my entire trip there and back cost me around Rs 18,000 which might be off a by a bit but will have to check and get back to you.

I think it could have been done a whole lot cheaper with some more modifications.

[chill2kill]

A tried-and-true hint: Parking using the sidestand, at an angle to the roadway with the handle turned such that it is almost at right angles, with the bike in first gear, is pretty secure.

Well you can also park the bike in the opposite direction, so that bike cant be rolled i used to park the bike in this way always

[Sulaiman75]

How much mileage was your bike giving on average?

Before leaving Karachi while driving in Karachi my average driving on Shara-e-Faisal was giving me around 45 km / L. In the city I was still getting 38 km / L

During the first part of my trip where I drove mostly on flat surfaces it was approximately 42-43 km/L due to extra weight. But as I drove through steep hills and mountains it was around 38 km/L and in the much steeper mountains it may have been a even less.

But I guess you could average that out to 40 Km / L

My way to check for fuel efficiency was to keep an eye on my odometer and see that when I am doing approximately 6,000 RPM my speed should be close to 80 kms or just under. That was my best way of calculating it. I noticed at one time that I was getting only 75 kms at 6,000 RPM and realized something was wrong. I stopped first to check engine oil level from the side round hole and it was fine and then looked for a puncture shop, and after checking the rear tire pressure realized that it was below the ideal pressure and only 33 psi which we brought up to 40 or was it 45 psi and then when I got back on the highway the reading on the gages was back to normal.

On the other hand when I went at 90 kms I knew the fuel economy would drop substantially. Due to high wind pressure I was using up more fuel but that was only for a few kms when I was enjoying the ride and nothing to worry about if only for a short distance.

[chill2kill]

Sir , excellent going, and i am really impressed the way you are describing your whole expedition, you are a perfect writer who can really well explain the expeditions, the selections of words, describing each and everything step by step, it also shows your strong memory,
and well you and your bike did a splendid stuff which people hardly imagine to do, so keep up sir

[Sulaiman75]

Sir , excellent going, and i am really impressed the way you are describing your whole expedition, you are a perfect writer who can really well explain the expeditions, the selections of words, describing each and everything step by step, it also shows your strong memory,
and well you and your bike did a splendid stuff which people hardly imagine to do, so keep up sir

I thank you for your such wonderful words of praise. I should point out that I purchased the bike strictly for the purpose of a long road trip to the North. And it is because of this reason I took so much time to plan and dissect each and every bit of the trip planned and then execute the plan and improvise where needed.

Now I enjoyed the trip so much that I can recall almost every moment of the journey. I finally decided to write about it last Sunday and as I began to write I felt I was going through the trip once again remembering each and every moment. Certainly the pics help me put everything into perspective. This has helped me express the emotions and the feelings I experienced at each moment. English is not my first language but it is in a way a language I grew up with living abroad, and so it comes natural for me to speak, think and write it.

So please keep enjoying the remaining part of the trip which I feel you will find kind of interesting.

[Sulaiman75]

As I drove over this flat patch of land on my way down from the mountain on my way to village of Rama and then down to Astor I loved this landscape you see below.

At first it had a beautiful ground which was flat and fun to drive over. And ahead was a small slope full of lush green pine trees which had some pretty wonderful Camp Site like spaces. If I had the time and a tent I would certainly have loved to pitch a tent in this area under the trees.

Not only was it very picturesque but the air had a certain aroma of pine. No way to describe it. A perfect Camping Ground if you ask me.

Driving down a bit more led me to the flat ground again which had a huge field to the left which was perfect Cricket ground if you ask me. It was full of wonderful green grass and behind the field were the mountains. The little patch of unpaved road and the large ground to my left was divided by a small by a small stream that ran down. And finally I noticed the first people I had seen in a bit riding past me on a bike.

[Sulaiman75]

Here are a few pics of my entry into Rama from above. I have a ways to go down the valley which you will see in the consequent photos below.

This valley was lush green in all directions with Mountains all around and some even Snow Capped in this late season in the month of late August.

What was interesting is that there was a small stream that curved around to all the fields from above and the man walking around would open or close the water supply channel to his field by simply moving some mud and rocks from the main stream.

It seemed it was man's responsibility to control water supply while the women were responsible for seeding or pulling out whatever it was they had sowed. I did not feel it appropriate to take photos of women working in the fields because I had a long way to go down the hill and if my photography offended anyone I would have trouble getting out of this valley through the winding roads below. As a principle I don't believe its appropriate to take photos indiscriminately specially of local women unless you have permission or it is commonly accepted in that region.

I saw the women sitting in a straight line from top to bottom on a rolling hill and they worked from left to right together as one line horizontally. This way each of the women had a parallel line to work on in either digging up the veggies or to sow seeds for the next season as I could not see from this distance what they were cultivating.