sallam Pakwheelers:
Alhumdullilah i have completed another trip of Azad Kashmir on last weekend. most of u already know haji Hassan Akbar my old travel companion, he belongs to Khuiratta so i planed a trip to Banganga Temple and Karjai Fort with him. we started of on saturday morning early and via kahuta hollar sehnsa route reached Khuiratta at noon. (travel time is abt 4-5 hrs). decided to move ahead towards Karjai hills. First destination was Banganga Temple and waterfall. its a short walk from main road (temple is also visible from main road) to the temple... we only stayed there for a short while as it had begun to rain steadily and by the time we gt bak to our car it was snowing as well... anyhow we proceeded to the hill top fortress in rain steeply climbing the winding road to Karjai Village. the total distance is abt 17 kms from khuiratta but road is narrow and steep (some turns are like pir sohawa turns) so one must be careful. After reaching top we waited for the rain to stop before we could hike to the fort itself. (its a 15 mins walk)..... covering the Mughal era fortress and Bannah valley from top was splendid and refreshing... had some snacks and then returned to Khuiratta where we stayed in AJK tourist lodge (for booking cont Majid 03420769647) i felt lucky that we good good accommodation in a remote ton like Khuirata..another hotel there is Yadgar Hotel but this lodge is cleaner and more private.... room rent was 2k per nite.... we had dinner in khuiratta bazar which is a big and established bazar... then went to bed tired from a hectic day....
next morning planed a short visit to Sohana Village on LOC which is actually Hassan's native village.... this was a formal thing tough just meeting with family and friends and then we left for kotli where we had marked Lala waterfall for exploration. i was interested that i had never seen any pic of that waterfall which is marked in gogle map but pics there r of gulpur waterfall. after a short explore we finally reached the fall but soon found out y no1 was talking abt this fall... although its a very high waterfall its now become a sewage drain for Kotli city.. were disappointing indeed. we furthered our trip to our last destination of Gulpur waterfall. this was a truly amazing experience as i did not expect such a high flow and greenery around the falls... a short hike of 20 mins lead us to the 2 main waterfalls....the gulpur waterfalls are much better than the pics and videos i have seen of it and i am happy for that... the huge lakes of the falls also provide swimming potential in summers...its a good picnic spot with family as well..... loved it....
after gulpur we had dinner at a hotel on the main road near the falls and headed back via same route to Islamabad.....ending a revealing and refreshing journey in Kashmir.....
Participants:
1- Izhar
2- haji Hassan
3-Me Asif Saeed
per head cost 4000 PKR...
Ride : Suzuki Khyber belonging to great Mughal Emperor Babar himself:grinning:
