Preamble:
well this year trek was planned many years ago by me and was in pipeline since then.. finally gt a chance to cover this region
the plan was to cover Golain Gol in Chitral region but with the lucrative Shishi Gol parallel to it Lohigal Pass was selected.
the team comprised of
1-safeer
2-Arslan Mirza
3-Salman Zakir
4-Me Asif Saeed
another fantasy of mine was the Rogilli Gol with two lakes at its head. Rogilli Gol is a subvalley of Golain Gol branching off from
Izhgor. so the base station was Izhgor. the cost of the trip was abt Rs.16000 per head and took us abt 8 days in total
The Journery:
The journi started form the hustling and bustling Karachi Company Adda at Marvi Travels. the daily route of chitral on a desi coaster
(non AC) @ Rs 1200 per head leaves at around 8 PM. it reaches Chitral at around 11 Am next morning through Lowari Pass route.
the journey is somewhat tiring but safe. then there r locals jeeps to Izhgor, a journey that takes abt an hour and costs around 2500-3000 Rs
once at Izhgor we landed at the Paradise Trout farm and hotel which is a very interesting and butiful place but very costly.
the propriter there is Mr.Hafiz ul Asad (sub engineer PHED) and can be reached at 03449121851 or 03455939130. although the fish farm here is a place
worth visiting its rates r very high. trout was at Rs 2500/Kg.room was for 5K /night and we were not able to get any realistic rates frm him on guides and
jeep for our jorney ahead. we spend the nite there and enjoyed hospitality by the ppl working on the hydel project there.
next morning we went to Bubaka village (just b4 Izhgor) and found Mr. Rafi(jeep driver) (03455424390) who was very welcoming and told us that we shud stay at his place
and also provided us with a guide/porter named Fateh Muhammad (03465356043). for our rogilli lake trek we agreed on 4500 jeep fare and 1000 rs per day for guide. this was
very reasonable. to kick off things fateh took us to a special chasma spot where we had a thanda garma and enjoyed the cold water
the next morning we loaded up the jeep and our rations for a two day mission to explore the Rogilli lakes and valley.
Trekking in Rogilli Gol:
started our jeep journey at abt 8 am and jeep took us till Burijaal through a butiful forested region. the jeep track is not dangerous however very bumpy and unhealty for the jeep
it takes at 1.5 hrs to reach burijaal where there is plenty of population. here we were treated with lassi and some food by rafi and we sorted our luggage and straped our rucksacks.
above Burijaal the treeline vanishes abruptly and one finds himself ascending steeply over a trail of stones and boulders which has been affected in the floods and now only stone markers tell the tale of the once beaten track. after 3 hors of trekking we reached the first of
two turquise lakes called More Chatt ( chatt = roof and More means nearer). in khowari language Chatt is reffered to as lake. More Chatt is at an altitude of 12000 feet. the next lake is abt 1 hr trek away and is bigger in
size. Its called Tore Chatt (tore means farther) and is supplied by a huge and butiful waterfall. its at an altitude of 12500 feet. behind this lake are two passes the madaglash pass and Rogilli Gree.
we camped in between the two lakes and the next day returned to our jeep without any issue. our rogilli gol expedition terminated in Bubaka village the same evening.
thoughts:
the Rogilli forest is butiful.. lakes are as well... i didnt think of Fateh at first but when i realized he had completed the entire trek in bathroom slippers it occured to me
that Fateh tu Tagrah admi ha yar. the rogilli gol valley is not that cold this time of the year partly owing to less rainfalls. the ascend to the lakes is quite tuf all along.
Lohigal Pass Trek:
in light of our good experience with Rafi and Fateh we decided to take them ahead for the rest of the journey as well. so we started our bargaining process.
the decided amount was rs 8000 till last jeepable village of Chhotodok in Lohigal valley. we started at 9 am next mornind and reached Jungle at 12.30 pm through notable
towns of Birmogh, Istoor and Romain. The jeep track is a very rough one as well but not steep or dangerous by any means. Now this Jungle is a vast expanse of land with
many subvalleys coming from all sides... its big enuf for a cricket stadium i recon. its lush green pastures provide ideal summer settlements for Gujjar ppl and excllent
photographic opertunities for tourists. the path straight ahead lead to Laspur vally over Phargam Pass, however our destination was a small village called Chhotodok, comprising abt
4-5 stone huts, in the lohigal valley east of Jungle a further 1.5 hr jeep ride. the head of this village is Mr. Saeed Khan and was a friend of Fateh. here we gathered our supplies
and arranged two additional porters to carry our luggage to the base camp of the Pass. the trek started at 2 pm with the first stopover at Chottodok Lake which is a small stangnat water lake with awsum views around and
a large meadow in its background. at around 5 pm we reached the Base camp called Kuri Utz. Loactaed at the head of the Lohigal Valley Kuri Utz (red stone) is a fairly large
settelment with conservative ppl. they dint allow us to camp in the village so we camped a little ahead of the village and also hid our cameras away. the views
from our camp were awsum with high peas and glaciers all around and it was pretty windy as well. That night was the best nite of the entire trip as we enjoyed a clear sky
riddled with stars and a valley with cold breze.also the anticipation of the day ahead was great. we had already arranged for two Donkies to take our luggage over the pass. this
made our journey easier as we didnt have to carry our rucksacks. however the ascend to the pass was long and difficult none the less. we started at 8 am lossing the
luxury of clear skies and gentle breeze as soon weather took a turn for the worse. Cold harsh winds and clouds acompanied us on our ascend and when we reached the pass at abt 12pm it was pretty windy.
we had little time on the top and started our long descend into Shishi Valley. At the start of Shishi Valley lies a butiful settlement called Gochasar. our porters from Kuri Utz left us at this point and started their
journey back while we enjoyed a cup of tea after a steep rock descend. from the top here we could see proper Houeses of Madaglasht Town as well as the small streams and waterfalls
that become the Shishi River downstream. after a short break and Donkey Change we continued further down the lush green shishi valley and reached Madaglasht at 6pm. Although Shishi Gol was damaged by the 2010 floods it still remains
a pinacle of beauty. most of the photography was naturally taking place here as the guys had planed to stay a night in Madaglasht but on arival here we changed our plan to drive down to Drosh same night. this turned out
to be a good decision as the horible jeep track to drosh was 40 kms of constant torture. on a few places the jeep track vanishes into the shishi river itself.... well anyhow we reached Drosh at 9pm where our Jeep driver
Mr. Malang Jan took us to "Fine Cafe and Resturant" that was also a hotel. it had nice clean rooms at 500 Rs per night. It was a short night or i guess we were sooo tierd dont remmember much from that night.
Return Journey:
Next morning we booked same coaster coming form Chitral and started our return journey. Luckily or unluckily it was the opening day of Lowari Tunnel and we had to wait for a few hous at Mirkhani while PM inagurated the Tunnel
then it was a huge traffic jam till the tunnel but the experience of the tunnel was awsum.... the happiness on the faces of the ppl cannot be jotted down. it was an experience
in itself as i will always remember that i was here on this day...... hopefully the travel time to Chitral now reduced by 3 hours.
well thats all of the writing now comes the fun part....
