July 2011 Trip to Fairy Meadows, Astore, Rama, Chilum, Deosai,Skardu,Gilgit

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A view from our hotel in Burawai..... It was a very basic hotel with very limited facilities if any.....

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Enroute to Jalkhad.... This is probably the best road to drive in the whole Kaghan valley.... Excellent......
The roads were still damp due to overnight rain but the weather was clear....

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Piyala lake between Jalkhad and Behsal... From it;s shape it looks like that it might have been formed by a falling meteor....

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This bridge leads to Noori Top and and then to Surgan and Sharda in Neelum valley. The jeep wala's told that this year it is blocked due to some glacier falling on the road which is some 2 hours hike before the top.

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Between Jalkhad and Behsal.... The road is under construction....
But a high clearance car can easily go to Behsal. I saw many Corollas and even Mehran, Cultus, Alto etc. parked at Behsal.....
Behsal is also the starting point of track to Dudhipatsar Lake...

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Behsal.......

An Alto is parked at Behsal....

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Lake Lulusar..... Our first of many lakes that we visited during this trip...

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More of Lake Lulusar..... The morning scenery of Lake Lulusar is really out of this world.... It was so calming.... I enjoyed the same sensation when I spent a night at the Lake Saiful Muluk a few years ago and the morning view was just exceptional.....

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Gitidas.....
Gitidas village as told by the jeep driver on my last visit......

This bridge crosses River Kunhar and goes to Batugah Top and and then descends to KKH near Chilas. Another of my dream routes to cover someday specially after reading the trip report by Team Unimog....

https://www.pakwheels.com/forums/4x4-clubs-off-roaders-suv/143564-team-unimog-punga-2010-elevation-14200ft-via-babusar-sheosar-burzil-minimerg-butogah

What an ideal location for camping.....Very Soothing and calming but dangerous too as the inhabitants are mostly Kohistani..

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Babusar Top..... It is so much beautiful.... Specially early in the season (Of course after it is opened)...I was there the last weekend as well and I could clearly see the difference in the snow on the mountains. In just one week so much snow had melted.... In early June there must have been much more snow and it must have looked very beautiful indeed....

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This was the farthest north that I have ever been ever..... All the areas coming next were new to me and I was very much excited to explore them....

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Coming Down from Babusar Top to Chilas.... It is continuous descend all the way.... We descend from 13700ft. to 3000ft. i.e a total descend of roughly 10,000 feet. the road is under construction and only in the last hour or so near Chilas we get some patches of metaled road.

A Nala/spring is continuously flowing alongside the track. It's water was crystal clear and very refreshing....

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No wonder why the adjacent mountains were looking barren....It's very sad to see trees being cut and no new trees are planted....

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Near Chilas.... A bridge that has no connection on either side..... and no work was in progress so I guess it's sole purpose was to let the water flow under a bridge......

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Our first view of River Indus and the KKH. When we saw this spot we thought we have reached Chilas from Babusar top in 2 and a half hours WOW!!!..... But the real frustration was that due to land sliding one has to take a very long route to reach this bridge visible... It took us almost 1 hour to reach this bridge.... Which we could have covered in 5 min. by foot.... (It was just 200 meters).

I have added a Google Earth image for the details.... The Red cross is where we could see the bridge and the Blue line is the shortest route but we had to take the yellow line which took us 1 hour (In fact 2 hours as we also stopped for lunch at Chilas)

The bridge Visible.

Finally reached the bridge after 2 hours....

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From Chilas to Raikot bridge it is almost 55-60KM drive. The road is just OK but with big Khaddas on it. So one has to take special care while driving. After what we had travelled and what was to follow it seemed quite nice a road. We reached Raikot bridge at about 4PM and instantly booked a jeep. The fare was fixed at Rs. 5000 which I think is too high. It shouldn't be more then Rs. 3000. There are almost no faculties available at the Raikot bridge like Toilets etc. There was only one shop which was closed when we reached there and also on our way back. The Shangrila Hotel and Restaurant was non-functional. We left our Prado and driver there and got onto the jeep after preparing our day bags for hiking and also saying our Zuhr prayers.
We eventually got into our jeeps at 4:30PM and left Raikot bridge. We had just traveled for 15 min. and the jeep stopped. The (Idiot) driver told that there is less fuel in the vehicle and he will drop us here and will go down and refill the tank and come back. It took about 30 min. for him to come back.
At the start the track is very wide and not so dangerous but once we went away from the KKH side the track got narrower and it was alongside a ridge which was 2000-3000ft. high and it was a real scary ride. Finally after 50min. of driving we reached the place where due to landsliding the track was washed away and we had to leave our jeep there. There is just one jeep on the other side of the land sliding area and if one is lucky then it may be parked on your side. When we reached there the jeep was not there but a family was waiting for it and their guide had gone to fetch the jeep. We also waited and after 30 min. the jeep arrived. We got into it and reached the las jeepable point in roughly 25-30 min.
We reached the Jal (or Tatoo) village at about 6:40 PM and started our hike straight away. It took us 2 hours and 20 min. to reach the top. We reached at the fairy Meadows at about 9PM in the night.
I got cramped on both of my legs very near to the cottages(May be because of getting cold but still managed to reach at a very slow speed.)
I think during daytime this track can't be done in less then 3 hours as the sun will be out and due to intense heat it will be almost impossible to do the track in less then 3 hours.
For those who are physically not very fit or fr ladies/children etc. there were Horses/ponnies available and rate was Rs. 1500 for one side or Rs. 2000 for both ways.

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The non-functional Shangrila resort, also you can see the guarded parking.
So there is no issue of parking vehicles at this point. I think they charge Rs. 200 per day for the parking.

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Raikot bridge......

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Our rented jeep....

Started our Journey....

Wood cut from Fairy Meadows....

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Absolutely barren landscape.....