I performed a circle in the northern areas in 5 days. I am writing this post to help others who want to visit these areas as I got no help, on this post of mine https://www.pakwheels.com/forums/t/help-needed-planning-a-trip-to-kalash-chitral-shandur/589821, even the people I know who are local to Chitral did not provide good info which made it difficult for me to manage things.
Rawalpindi > M1 > Mardan > Batkhela > Chakdara > Dir > Lowari Pass > Drosh > Ayun > Bamboret > Ayun > Chitral > Booni > Parwak > Mastuj > Laspur > Shandur Pass > Phunder > Gilgit > Chillas > Babusar Pass> Naran > Kiwai > Shogran > Abbottabad > Haripur > KKH > Hassanabdal > Rawalpindi
This is the route I took, I was in a Corolla GLI 2011 Shape, not recommended for this route unless you have installed shock spacers and your clutch plate is in tiptop condition. If you are driving a 4x4, then you can shave time off all the following estimates
Day 01 :
Route: Rawalpindi > M1 > Mardan > Batkhela > Chakdara > Dir > Lowari Pass > Drosh > Ayun > Bamboret
Elapsed Time : 14.25 Hrs
Travel Time: (Departure) 06:45 AM (Arrival) 9:00 PM
Stay: PTDC Bamboret
Details:
- During these 14 hrs I made the following stops
- 2 Times stopped on motorway for over-speeding ticket, 10 min
- Stopped to Refuel from Batkhela, 5-10 min
- Stopped at Ziarat Talash for tea beak, 20 min
- Stopped around Dogram to put a flag on cars bonut, 15 min
- Stopped near Lowari Top for call of nature and then took some photos, 5-10 min
- Stopped somewhere before Drosh for refueling, 5-10 min
- Stopped in Drosh to have a late lunch, 30 min
- Tried to take my car into Kalash, failed, it is possible but not at night, this wasted 40 mins.
- The road in entire Dir is non existent hence at lowari top as well, its all dirt & stones and if it rains then mud, so be ready for a lot of off-roading.
- After Dir road is built from a little before Drosh till a little after Booni, every place else is offroading
- Lowari Tunnel opens a 8:00 PM - 7:00 AM in the morning the from 11:00AM to 1:00PM, I arrived at the tunnel at 3:00 PM, it was closed so went over the top, it took me 2.5 Hrs to get to the other side of the tunned from the top.
- Dont expect quality fuel in Dir region, get fuel before or after it
- You can try to take your car into Kalash valleys (Bamboreet, Rumbur, Birir) but unless you have a 4x4 I highly advice against it. Park your car at the first chowki, in first village, there is a chowkidar pay him 200-300PKR . Hire a cab/jeep "khogay" which is a toyota fielder and take it up into the valley. Your hotel will easily call a "khogay" for you when you want to drive down. One side fair is 1500 PKR
- At PTDC Bamboreet there is no elecricity from 12:00AM to 8:00 AM
- There are a lot of hotels there but pre-booking is advised.
- In and after Dir you will only ennjoy telenor signals or SCO but no internet, this car of my doesnot have SATNAV so I had offline google maps on my phone.
- Do keep food in your car to snack until you find food
Day 02 :
Route: Bamboret > Ayun > Chitral > Booni > Parwak > Mastuj
Elapsed Time : 6.5 Hrs
Travel Time: (Departure) 12:00 PM (Arrival) 6:30 PM
Stay: Guest of Locals
Details:
- We asked the PTDC manager to call in a ride and a guide to take us into the Kalash village. He arranged a local guide and a car whom we paid 500 PKR & 1000 PKR respectively. The guide took us inside the village and all, we spent 1.5 Hrs in the village and went to 5 different locations
- We made a deal with the same car for 1500 PKR to take us down. It is an estimated 40-45 min drive
- On the drive from Bamboreet to Mastuj we made the following stops
- Near Chitral to take photos infront of Tirich Mir, 10 min
- Somewhere after booni for call of nature, 10 min
- Made a bridge crossing video, 5 min
- Stopped at a shop for snacks because we skipped lunch, 5 mins
- These are the location where you can stay, PTDC - Booni, Camping Site - Parwak, PTDC - Mastuj & other hotels in Mastuj
- I planned to stay in Mastuj to arrive early at Shandur the next day, however since the next day was the polo final all the hotels were booked and I didnot have advance booking because I was not sure that will I be able to reach Mastuj.
- Again after Booni the road is all non existent and Booni is not far from Chitral so most this portion of drive is off-roading.
Day 03 :
Route: Mastuj > Laspur > Shandur Pass
Elapsed Time : 2 Hrs
Travel Time: (Departure) 6:00 AM (Arrival) 8:00 AM
Details:
- Again from Mastuj till Shandur the road is non existent
- When we arrived at Shandur we stopped to take a lot of photos and enjoy the pass
- We then headed into the Polo Festival Zone and had breakfast
- We the went a little further to enjoy the place
- I had not planned to watch the polo match, the match day coincided with my visit by accident so I didn't stay for it. IA next year. We left Shandur top at 10:15 towards gilgit because the route back to pindu through Dir is not bearable.
- 30 mins after Shandur top the road is still built but its bumpy, you can drive on it instead of crawling on it. Then after 30 mins or less there is road which goes all the way to gilgit.
- There is not a single pump on the road from Shandur to Gilgit, there are a couple of shops who sell open petrol. I had 3.5 ltrs stacked in my car which was about to become useful but I bough fuel instead of using my backup.
Route: Shandur > Phunder > Gilgit
Elapsed Time : 5 Hrs
Travel Time: (Departure) 10:15 AM (Arrival) 5:00 PM
Stay: PTDC Gilgit
Details:
- Stopped to purchase fuel, 10 min
- Stopped for call of nature, 10 min
Day 04 : Gilgit > Chillas > Babusar Pass> Naran > Kiwai > Shogran
Elapsed Time : 9 Hrs
Travel Time: (Departure) 10:30 AM (Arrival) 7:30 PM
Stay: Pine View Hotel Shogran
Details:
- You should not be worried about refueling in Gilgit
- This is not a 9 hours drive we made a lot of stops, following, using almost 2.5 Hrs
- We stopped to take photos in-front of a random mountain just outside gilgit, 5 min
- We stopped at Jaglot, junction point of mountain ranges, 15 min
- We stopped to take photo infront of Nanga Parbat before the view point, 20 min
- We stopped after raikot for SCO SIM, 30 min
- We stopped before Babusar ascend because car overheated, 15 min
- We stopped at Babusar for tea, 40 min.
- We stopped at Lulusar Lake, 10 min
- We stopped near Chaghai Sappers, 5 min
- We used Naran ByPass Road
Day 05 : Shogran > Abbottabad > Hariput > KKH > Hassanabdal > Rawalpindi
Details:
- No details required here
Pics
Towards Lawari Top
PTDC Bamboret
Kalash Village
Drosh - Ayun - Chitral - Booni Road
Tirich Mir from Chitral - Booni Road
Road After Booni till Mastuj & Shandur
Condition of our car when reached Mastuj
Shandur Pass
Gilgit, Nanga Parbat, Babusar, Lulusar
