Tour to Naran, Babusar,Astore, Rama meadows, Minimerg,domail,rainbow lake, Tarashing, Deosai,Sheosar,Bara pani, Gilgit, Passu cones, Hunza eagles nest, Khunjrab border…4sep-11 sep/2017
Day 1……..4 septmbr
, Departure from Lahore 12.30 am .
it was 2nd day of eid ul adha . before departure we four friends had packed every thing which we would use during our tour . We had enough snacks, tin packed food, soft drinks, juices,coal for bonefire, sleeping bags and tents. First aid kit is a must for a long tour.
Reached Kalhar kahar 2.40 am ( 15 minutes stay)..
3.50 am ..reached Islamabad toll plaza.. As it was dark and plus there was minimum traffic due to eid holidays, we had ample opportunity to drive fast but we followed the speed limit and on a cruise at 125 km/hr we kept on driving. We had 2014 honda civic oriel prosmetic 1.8.
4.10 am…burhan interchange ,turned left to Hassan abdal……. The weather welcomed us with thunderstorm and rain .
5.05…havelian Pak ordinance factory
5.35 abotabad (fajar prayer stay ..15 minutes)
6.55 am fueling on way to naran…
9.25 Naran …( stay for breakfast at moon restraint till 10.50 am )… the whole way from Abotabad till naran the only thing u would be able to read is “ moon restaurant “…
Departed for lulusar at 10.50 ….
Reached lulusar 12.30 12.40 gittidas…. We had plan to reach astore in one go so we stayed at lulusar for 5 minutes and 5 minutes at gittidas. Both places were pleasant to watch …
Reached babusar top at 1.05pm… weather from lulusar had changed and while we reached babusar it started snow, snow was like hails so drive down could be problematic so we didn’t spend much time at babusar other than having a good view at everything within eye sight and descended down to chillas.
Reached chilas at 1.45 pm …. It was hot , mountains are repelling , road is not good but driveale with care. The first spot where we had to turn on car ac . don’t forget to refuel here from PSO. Few days before departing while talking to some friends who advised us to stay at shangrila at raikot bridge chilas but when we reached here the hot weather didn’t encourage us to stay so we carried on.
Reached jaglot 3.15 pm… this was our main “chowk” , from here skardu is in one direction, astore is the other direction and the third one is towards gilgit hunza.
Reached Astore at 6.15 pm..( rama gateway night stay)…. Road from jaglot to astore is in very bad shape. It’s a single lane and gradually ascending , the dry mountains are on an arms length and if another comes from front both have to narrow their wide driving . bumps keep on increasing the more u move up. Any car with max 4 people can go up . on reaching Astore checkpost by evening it was, we saw a notice board displayed by DC astore about the rate list of the hotels so instead of asking people about hotels we went straight to the hotels we wished to stay at. Rama Gateway we choose. 1500 we paid for it, it had a noral washroom, 4 beds , television, charging points. A medium size room it was . we asked the hotel owner to open our tin packed food and get us some rotis which he happily followed. The owner was doing mba and was on leaves so we had a long gup shup about different topics as a literate person has much to talk about many things.
Day 2 ……5 september
Woke up early at 7 , dressed up, had breakfast by 9 and went to hunt for jeeps so that we can to rama. Very high rates we were observing . Hotel owner said that if u can drive carefully ur can go up to rama easily, we had driven so far carefully so we took up our car . some of the patches were bad and very bumpy, some sharp cuts were broken on a sudden ascend but we managed carefully without touching our car bumper or cylincer to any stone or “khada”…
Departed at 11.15 am for rama meadows..
Reached rama meadows at 12.40… ( road condition is not that good,, cars which are low profile would touch the ground on bumps.. 4 wheeler not essential..) …65% way is little bumpy , 25 % is perfect , 10 percent is not good atall especially on sharp cuts )…
Installed camp …stayed for 4 hours …. Views are majestic, nangaparbat is in front of you when step down into the meadow of forest rest house and rama ptdc. ) If u have a long tour with much in itinerary than don’t stay at rama meadows . Though ptdc rama and forest hotel is a good place to stay. Charges were very high at ptdc . public washrooms in rama are very very poor , don’t try to enter in any otherwise u would spoil ur trip. Area is lush green, Nanga parbat is in front of u snowcovered . Rama lake we didn’t go because the pre-reseach about places concluded an average review about this lake so we didn’t go . we camped, made tea on coal fire we lighted with the help of the dry roots of the trees . Littered a lot but on leaving we gathered every empty packet of busicuit etc and took along us and dropped it in aproper dustbin.
Departed from rama meadows at 4 pm… returned back at 6.30 pm and stayed over night at Rama Midway ( clean and a fine hotel to stay, in season charges 4000 but offseason 2000 )..
The owner of Rama Midway is the Polo Champion and bank manager . we discussed our plan with hims. He owned a prado too , 2003 model which was available for rent . From Lahore I was in contact with a landcruiser 92 model driver in astore who had given me 22000 quotation for 3 days if I go to minimerg,deosai,bara pani, tarahsing . The owner of Rama Midway draw a map on paper and said that instead of 3 days you can do all these places in 2 days . His price quotation was 28000 . we finalized the price at 23000 ( little expensive but car was immaculate , comfortable and we owned it for 2 days ).
Day 3………6September
Jeep Track…we had prado 2002 model… it was a very comfortable car, neat and clean …. For 2 days we rented it as we were on Honda civic rebirth 14 model and it was stupidness to take car on offroads which could spoil the car suspensions….. 23000 we paid for 3 days for the prado…
Departed for minimerg at 8.30 am…. We packed our stuff in car and parked it in the hotel and took along the required stuff for the next 2 days and filled the prado with it. Driver was a young man of 24 , he loved to listen bollywood songs so do we . Sabir was the name of the driver , he told a lot about the places we crossed . Army units are seen randomly at many points while moving up.
9.20 am reached Gorikote
9.45 ….pakora…
9.50 …khuma das
10.00….gudai
10.45…chilam choki…army check post… ( from chilam one road going left takes u to deosai national part and the right straight road goes to minimerg,kamri ,domail…
11..departed from CHilam after some pictures with the military and confirming our identity . (for minimerg prior permission from gilgit FCNA is required)… ( only 4*4 is allowed to go here )..
11.45…reached burzil top… similar to babusar top in terms of height but road is not like babusar top..babusar top road has sharp curves …..Burzil lake u will come across too… the 20 kilometres before Burzil top and 10 kilometres after Burzil top is with breath taking views… Burzil lake or Allah wali lake u will love to watch, wildlife like Marmots, wild horses , yaks are common along roadside but the genuine wild is not around though some say snow leapord is seen around burzil top.
12.15 …another army check post ( Nasir camp)…
12.32 pm (minimerg)…. ( checkpost…left is Battalion head quarter and army rest houses…right is kamri that takes u to kargil , straight is domail where rain bow lake is preset..
Reached Domail Rainbow Lake at 1.10 pm… ( as it was 6 september defence day, few rocket launchers and light armour was fired ( slami basically )… Rainbow Lake is awesome… small lake but surrounded by majestic mountains…. Worth going place ….
Left Rainbow lake at 3pm …
Reached minimerg at 3.30 pm….. we had not in our plan to stay overnight at minimerg so after having tea and snacks served at 80 Brigade headquarter we left fore sheosar lake….
4.15 ..pm..reached Burzil top…. It was 1 degree Celsius at Burzil top by the time we reached , we had heaters on but as we stepped out it was literally cold but Welcomed by checkpost army men… presented us with Tea and desi Heaters at the only small canteen right on top of burzil top….
4.30 departed, reached checkpost at 4.55 pm..
Reached chilam chowki at 5.40 pm…
Entered deosai national Park at 5.45 pm….
Reached sheosar lake at 6.35 pm…. It was 15 celcius at that time.. lake was awesome….
*There is no hotel so if any one has to stay here, camp is the only option.. camps available there for stay with molty foam and blankets etc…. washroom is a major problem ……
Day 4 …………..7 September , stay at sheosar
Temperature fell to 1 by 4 am (7 september) ….
It was at height, climate was freezing, oxygen level drops, head ache begins for many ,..it was a tough night, don’t eat much on heights if snow is around … Had yalk meat barbeque …. Temperature started falling gradually and it was 7celsius at 10 pm , sheosar lake is at a high altitude and the temperature by 3 am fell to -2 and it started snow. Oxygen was already low than this snowfall decreased the oxygen intake too. There was a rumor by the tent owner that a brown bear couple of days back had torn his kitchen tent and stole his sack of flour , there was no electricity , the pitch dar, rumor of bear, ice cold summed up to be a frightening night for me and for few others from another group next to our tent . “ lack of oxygen was the main problem, sir chakrana and vomiting in result disturbs your stay in night but some how we managed ….
6 am left for bara pani … car became heaven, turned the heater and the frozen blood veins began to melt and warm the body .
Reached chota pani at 7.30
Reached Bara pani at 8.00 am
Don’t try to take ur sedan or normal car towards bara pani…. U would break ur car …road is not at all driveable for normal cars…. 4*4 is the only ride u need to take till bara pani ( skardu border)…
Through out it was snowing…the area changes its color to white…every particle was in snow…
Left bara pani at 8.40 am …
Reached sheosar lake at 10.10 am …. ( sheosar lake is at 13500 ft )…
10.40 reached at deosai national park exit from where we entered….
Reached back to chillum chowki at 10.15 am…
11.40 am , reached at nowans , from here road goes to Tarashing valley from where one can go to rupal valley on foot and finally to herlig coffer basecamp of Nanga parbat…
12.30 pm reached Tarashing ….. go to the top of the tarashing from there u will be in the arms of Nanga parbat …. There is a camping site on top and a canteen where food is available… the man there will tell u many things about the expeditions towards nanga oarbat , he himself went to recover a body at the third last base camp which was lying there due to an avalanche … u will find a book “ nanga parbat by Mustansar Hussain tarar” in the canteen too…
2.30 departed from Tarashing….
Reached back to rama mid way hotel where our car was parked at 4 pm ….
Departed for Gilgit from astore at 4.15 pm… ( way back from astore to KKH at night is very frightening, u r driving very close to the mountains at 10-15 km/hr speed…road is not good but car can go easily if driven with care ..)
7.15 pm , reached Karakoram Highway ….
Reached Gilgit city at 8.15 ….Had dinner, stayed overnight at a hotel which had clean room and ample of space to adjust 8-10 people , 4-5 mattresses, washroom was clean …. Paid 1000 only…)
Day 5 ……8 sep
Departed from gilgit at 9.40 am…
Petrol at Rahimabad at 10.00 am …
10.05 am Nagar,
10.15 am Sikandrabad
10.30 Gulmet
10.35 Rakaposhi view point…. 3 mountain ranges meet at this point…there is a place where u can come over and c the 3 ranges meeting…. Rakaposhi mountain is in ur sight ..
10.40 Nasirbad…
11.00 murtazabad…
11.20…Karimabad…
11.30 Attabad Tunnels start ( 11.7 km tunnel in total , 2 tunnels are 4-5 kilometre in length , the other 2 are shorter.., there is pitch black in tunnels, oxygen is not an issue,, big fans are attached to the roof of tunnels which keep temperature inside normal…) crossed the tunnels in 6 minutes …
11.40 reached the attabad lake boating are…. Jetskeeing, individual boat is available on rent … full large boat which carries 15-20 people on rent is available which costs 3000 ….a good long tour of the lake is given on this boat… jet skeeing one person at a time with the lifeguard 1.30 minutes 200, 3 minutes 400…
Departed attabad lake at 12 pm….
Reached borat lake point at 12.30 pm…
Reached Passu cones at 12.40 pm.. ( excellent view…. Road from raikot bridge chilas till khunjrab china border is awesome, any car can go smoothly..)
Reached Batura Glaciers at 12.48 pm….
Reached Sust Border at 1.15 pm….
1.50 reached Khunjrab entry Check post…. Per person is charged at 100 rupees…no fees for the car….
3.05 pm Reached Khunjrab Pass ,china border…. Stayed at the border for one hour… met Chinese who too came to see what we Pakistanis have come to see… they were 4-5 in number but we Pakistanis were 200 in number 
.
4.05 pm , departed from khunjrab….
7.10 pm reached Hunza … went up to Eagles nest… many vvips had come so rooms were not available ….. Had dinner at FairyLand next to Eagles nest…. ( drive carefully till eagles nest Hunza , road is quite steep and narrow….)….
9.30 pm departed from Hunza….
11.30 Reached Gilgit … stayed over night at Ice cap hotelon Highway ..had a splendid view when woke up in morning…. Clean rooms, clean washroom, intenet access, outstanding Lawn to sit and enjoy aeroplane landing on gilgit airport …….. room rent paid 1000…offseason…
Day 6………..9 september..
10.00 am departed from gliglit ice cap hotel….
10.30 reached skardu more…
10.35…Jaglot ..
11.01 am..raikot bridge..
Broken road begins, 4km bad patch …
12.15 chillas pso pump for fuel…weather at chillas is very very hot in summers and ending summers…
Reached babusar top at 1.30 …. We drove fast but don’t drive fast …. Stayed at Babusar, enjoyed the sunshine with cool breeze….and spending view from top…
2.20 pm departed from babusar…
3.30 reached batakundi…
4.15 reached Naran…..
Had rafting in river kunhaar in Naraan… in offseason 4 people have to pay 1000 or the price brgained …
Stayed over night at Naran … paid 1500 for a double bed deluxe room ….it was cleanest of the all we had stayed at …..offseason from 18 august till winters….
Day 7………….10September….
Departed for Lahore from Naran at 10 am … ( rain started, thunder storms,)
Reached abotbad at 2.15 am … ( 100 ka chalan kia jis violatin ka actual may 500 ka chalan banta tha) , kpk traffic police man was very accommodating and paid due respect to us by considering us their guests )….
Reached Islamabad at 5.20 pm… ( raining cats and dogs )
5.50 pm Tehzeeb pizza
Left islambad at 6.30 … ( rain)
11.00 pm Lahore ( it was raining here too )……
Total Expense 85000…. 4sep/10sep 2017…
18000 Petrol
24000 jeep rent
12000 room rents
10000 food tin packed
10000 snacks n bottles and breakfasts and hotel food
Jet skeing , rafting, miscellaneous 6000 …
Tolls n tickets 2500..
2500 cigrts…
4 persons. Car Honda civic rebirth 14 model…
