Me and my brother planned to travel from Lahore to Khunjerab-Pass (~2400 Km round trip) on single motorbike (GS-150). We both got vacations from our offices from 20-Aug-2016 to 28-Aug-2016 and got preparing 2 weeks earlier. As this was our first ever motorbike trip to northern areas, we were excited, confused and frightened. Our family was against it due to security concerns but we did not want to waste such opportunity and as a result we had an awesome trip full of enjoyment.
First problem was that we didn?t know where to buy economical camping stuff in Lahore so after searching web and asking friends we found Higher Equipment Shop (www.higher.com.pk) in Shah-Jamal, Lahore. We bought one two-person tent (Rs. 7000), two sleeping bags (Rs.2300 each), a normal gear-bag (Rs.2300) and two camp-matt(Rs.600 each). This stuff was most expensive in overall trip expense.
Second problem was that we wanted to start motorbike journey from Rawalpindi instead of Lahore on 20-Aug-2016 so that we could start fresh towards Naran but problem was how to cargo motorbike. One option was train-cargo but after checking railway station, we came to know only few trains had such options and to ensure that motorbike travels with you on same train you have to pay ~Rs.1500 for cargo. As our budget was limited so to avoid headache of emptying petrol-tank, paying for tickets, luggage load-unload issue and several other reasons, we decided to start traveling from Lahore to Rawalpindi via GT-Road (280 Km) early morning on 20-Aug-2016 and stop at night wherever we would exhaust. Main issue in this was our perception of GT-road condition and its heavy traffic as we had never traveled on it before but we decided to go for it.
Third issue was how to bind luggage to motorbike as GS-150 rear carrier was very small for our need so we decided to try to buy modified and bigger carrier but after wasting whole day we went to a motorbike-denter on Lakshami-Chowk for carrier modification (double in length of existing one) for Rs.1500 and after 4 days (due to lack of interest in our work) we got it on our final day at 8 PM. My spectacular was broken on final day?s morning so I rushed to optics shop and got free at 9 PM.
Besides all other necessary stuff (also listed below) we bought new rear tyre+tube (Rs.2300) of best quality and decided to change it before leaving and use existing tyre-tube as spare for journey and it was good decision as we did not have any troubled during whole journey.
Camping + Luggage List:
- Original CNIC, motorbike registration book (although nobody checked book on whole trip)
- Warm clothes + rain coats (Ponchas)
- Tent
- sleeping bags
- head-light bulb
- battery bank (got from friend)
- google maps on mobile + hard copy of Northern area map
- Medical Kit
- Stove + cooking equipment (initially included but ignored due to lack of space on motorbike)
- Mattress
- Rope for tying luggage
- Liquid Soup + toothpaste + hair comb
- Plastic Sheet for covering luggage + tissue roll
Motorbike Spare Parts Lists:
- New rear tyre/tube
- Extra clutch cable and a Break Cable
- Extra bottle of oil (we left it, we got oil changed easily 3 times during trip from regular shops)
- Extra Ignition plug+opener
- Extra petrol (left it and found petrol pumps after every now and then along whole trip, just keep tank full whenever see petrol pump to avoid any trouble)
- Air pump (got small bicycle air-pump (Rs.250) from one of bicycle shop at Mcleod road)
- Puncture tools+Panas for tyre open (you can buy panas from hardware shop) (Rs.600)
- Chain locks
- Replaced fancy Number Plates to standard Number Plates (necessary to avoid issues with check-posts)
Trip Summary:
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Day 1(Sat 20/08/2016) Lahore to Balakot via GT road (~460 Km)
This day was most tiring day as we covered a lot of distance. It was one of those two days we traveled at night also. We had packed our luggage on the Friday night so we started our journey towards Rawalpindi via GT road at around 6:30 AM after having breakfast. GT road condition on whole route was excellent and we were able to drive at average speed of 100Km/h and reached Rawalpindi at ~12:30 PM. We rested at my friends flat for a while, ate lunch, and took bath and serviced/changed motorbike oil as it was not changed earlier. We leaved RWP at ~3:30 PM and headed towards Abbotabad via newly constructed Khanpur road. We decided to stay at Abbotabad but after reaching Abbotbad at ~6:30PM we decided to drive in night to reached Balakot (As we knew a place at Balakot where we could easily camp). We reached Balakot at ~8:30 PM. We wanted to camp at a site which was owned by a hotel but after negotiation with them, we were convinced to stay in room instead of our camp on same price we had to give them for camping. As we were tired enough, we took bath, ate dinner and then went to sleep at ~10:30 PM.
- Day 2(Sun 21/08/2016) Balakot to Chilas (~200 Km)
- Day 3(Mon 22/08/2016) Chilas to Karimabad (220 Km)
- Day 4(Tue 23/08/2016) Karimbad to Khunjerab Pass and back to Karimabad (340 Km)
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Day 5(Wed 24/08/2016) Karimabad to Astore (200 Km)
We woke up ~6 AM and left Karimabad for Astore ~7 AM. We had lunch at Gilgit ~12 PM. We then decided to visit Astore+Desosi as we had some days in hand for return to Lahore. We also did some swimming in a stream near Gilgit for rest. Road condition to Astore was terrible and small and we were driving on almost 1[SUP]st[/SUP] or 2[SUP]nd[/SUP] but the path and location from Gilgit to Astore was very beautiful. There was also landsliding but road was clear. We reached Astore ~4:30PM and decided to see Rama Lake and camp at Rama as Deosai was far away. Road from Astore to Rama was in very terrible condition and there were no signs mentioning Rama?s direction. We de-tracked 2-3 times from actual path due to lack of information. Our motorbike also gave us big headache as it refused to climb several times on slopes even carrying single person. Other guys were staring at us wondering why we are in trouble instead of having such heavy engine motorbike. We sometimes had to put water from fountains on its engine to cool it down. We reached Rama ~5:30PM after a painful journey. We were very hungry at that moment but we postponed dinner so that we could first visit Rama Lake before sunset. We wanted to setup our own camp but after negotiation with site organizers we preferred to take already setup camp with better facilities instead of unpacking and setting our camp on same expense and saved some time of setting up camp. We decided to take motorbike up to Rama Lake but that was a very bad decision. There was no proper paved road to Lake (only rocks) also there were some steep climbing. You should preferably go on foot or jeep to reach there. In middle of path, motorbike engine choked so we locked motorbike on the edge of road and covered remaining trip (almost 1 hour) to Lake on foot. Rama Lake location was good, took some photos and rested there for a while. Now sun was setting ~6:45PM so we came back to Rama ~7:30 partially on foot and motorbike. We were hungry so ordered dinner. Some other motorbiker?s group also reached Rama for camping and we passed our time with them. One of them was on CD-70cc and were shocked considering our motorbike condition. We had our dinner/tea and discussed next destination. We decided to skip going to Deosai and go back to Chilas as we had perception of again bad road till Deosai and to avoid motorbike headache although I personally wanted to explore that area very badly but perhaps that was not the right time. We went to sleep ~9:30PM.
- Day 6(Thu 25/08/2016) Astore to Pattan via KKH (270 Km)
- Day 7(Fri 26/08/2016) Pattan to Khanpur Dam (250 Km)
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Day 8(Sat 27/08/2016) Khanpur Dam to Lahore (350 Km) via GT road
We woke up next morning ~6 AM and packed luggage/camp and left for Lahore ~ 7 AM. We reached Rawalpindi ~7:45AM and decided to eat ?Tahzeeb? pizza in Saddar area. We had to wait a while to get pizza due to early morning and finished our breakfast ~9 AM. After passing Rawalpindi, heavy rain started which last for almost entire way till Lahore without stopping a second. We decided to keep running in rain as road condition was good. We encountered a mishap near Jehlum. I was driving motorbike at 100Km/hr when something fell from our motorbike. We stopped motorbike and checked motorbike for something missing but all was looking fine. We thought perhaps it was some other motorbike part or just our imagination. We again started but after a minute, a guy on 125cc gave us indication to stop. We stopped and he asked us to check if we missed something on road. To my shock my phone was missing (worth Rs.20K). He handed over my mobile whose screen and protector was broken severely due to perhaps high speed. Our whole tour pictures was in it so it was shock for us. We thanked the man and again hit the road towards Lahore. From Gujranwala we searched and bought famous ?Chiray? for cooking at home. We reached home ~6 PM.
Trip Cost:
- Fuel cost: ~Rs.6000
- Motorbike maintenance: ~Rs.2000
- Meals: ~Rs.3000
- Hoteling + camping: ~Rs.4000
- Initial Cost of camping + gear: ~Rs.15000
Findings/Facts:
Important areas to explore were Hunza, Karimabad, Astore, Rama, Besham and Manshera.
We will advise to go on CG-125cc instead of GS-150cc. Both have their advantages so both will be fine but we faced lack of 150cc engine power on steep slopes.
It is better to make some customized and comfortable seat for long journey.
If you don?t have camping gear, don?t worry. You will be fine as you will find cheap hotels (of course you have to search) within Rs.500 in off season all the way.
No need to worry about petrol. Just keep in mind to fill tank whenever necessary and you will be fine (although extra petrol-bottle precaution is good).
Overall our trip was knowledgeable, awesome and memorable :). We encourage all other people reading our post to try to do it at least one time in life and explore beauty of our northern areas.
I recovered my phone to extract pics after got the mobile screen changed (Phone was badly damaged).
I will be attaching some pics (Camera quality of mobile is not too good so you have to bear it).
If you have any questions, feel free to ask. I will be updating post time to time (please ignore any typo).
Complete Photo Album can be found on https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10207127099711217&type=1&l=9e5bdbecdb
