Skardu/Deosai/Rama Lake/Fairy Meadows/Naltar Trip

[fahimrauf]

Hey guys, does anybody has some information on Banak Pass trek?

[aesiege]

Hey guys, does anybody has some information on Banak Pass trek?

Banak pass links Skardu to Astore and is a very high altitude pass.

From the co-ordinates available from the web, i have marked the path for you:

Red Line: Road is visible on Google Earth till the town Shigarthang
Green Line: Trek till Banak Pass
Blue line: Cross-over and entrance in the valley leading to Astore.

The co-ordinates available on websites seem to be incorrect as the actual cross-over is further high in order to enter the Astore side valley so the pass must be somewhere on blue line near mountain tops.

Only following pics are available for this pass:
Courtesy : Welcome to Nature Tourism Services Mansehra.

The Banak Pass

The trek to Banak Pass linking Skardu to Astore

[fahimrauf]

Thanks aesiege.. it seems to be a long trek...

[fahimrauf]

I have reserved the PIA Islamabad-Skardu seats for July 9, 2011. The guy told me that it is totally subject to weather condition. He was very much emphasizing on that which made me worried. Anyone has some idea of what is the ratio of flight delay or cancellation at that time?

Do I seriously need to think about plan B if flight gets cancelled...let say for continuous 2 days???

[imarshad]

I have reserved the PIA Islamabad-Skardu seats for July 9, 2011. The guy told me that it is totally subject to weather condition. He was very much emphasizing on that which made me worried. Anyone has some idea of what is the ratio of flight delay or cancellation at that time?

Do I seriously need to think about plan B if flight gets cancelled...let say for continuous 2 days???

Are your seats confirmed? We booked the seats for 2nd July and we were told that the seats will be confirmed 24 hours before the flight... Currently it says "Waiting List".....

[fahimrauf]

Are your seats confirmed? We booked the seats for 2nd July and we were told that the seats will be confirmed 24 hours before the flight... Currently it says "Waiting List".....

Exactly the same is told to me that is why i m worried... how much we can rely on this Waiting List??

[NaCC]

This is what happens in mosquito world of Deosai

ok

[aesiege]

Yar yeh Machhar Ainak bhi pehntey hain ?

Grow up and please don't give personal comments on forums. I have put the pics to help others and not to get my friend insulted like this.

I hope you remove them soon

[fahimrauf]

Yar yeh Machhar Ainak bhi pehntey hain ?

This is not good man... you shouldn't be attacking personally on a public forum... I request you to remove it. Thanks

[fahimrauf]

Are your seats confirmed? We booked the seats for 2nd July and we were told that the seats will be confirmed 24 hours before the flight... Currently it says "Waiting List".....

Did you get your PNR number. I have got mine and when I checked the status online at PIA - RESERVATION DETAILS, it is showing the status as "Wait-listed". Have you also bought the tickets or just reserved the seats?

[umair2010]

I have reserved the PIA Islamabad-Skardu seats for July 9, 2011. The guy told me that it is totally subject to weather condition. He was very much emphasizing on that which made me worried. Anyone has some idea of what is the ratio of flight delay or cancellation at that time?

Do I seriously need to think about plan B if flight gets cancelled...let say for continuous 2 days???

i wud suggest u keeping a backup plan :D...we had to wait for 3 days before coming back from Skardu...reason being flight from ISB didn't come

[fahimrauf]

i wud suggest u keeping a backup plan :D...we had to wait for 3 days before coming back from Skardu...reason being flight from ISB didn't come

hmm.. i am now working on backup plan.. actually we are going to skardu and coming back from gilgit.. does this also happen usually with gilgit-islamabad flight??

[umair2010]

yup...it's usual case for flights to gilgit and skardu...they r often cancelled

[imarshad]

Did you get your PNR number. I have got mine and when I checked the status online at PIA - RESERVATION DETAILS, it is showing the status as "Wait-listed". Have you also bought the tickets or just reserved the seats?

We have bought the tickets.... Mine status also shows "Wait-listed".

hmm.. i am now working on backup plan.. actually we are going to skardu and coming back from gilgit.. does this also happen usually with gilgit-islamabad flight??

I was told that it is much more common (Cancellation of Flights) with the Gilgit flights... The reason being that the Gilgit Airport is small and Boeing's can't land there so ATR's ply on this route. They are more prone to inclement weather because of their small size so they get cancelled quite often.
I was also told by someone that there is very big 2 Numbery in the Gilgit/Skardu flights. Quite often they will cancel your reservation and give it to some of their Chaheeta's... Let's get our finger crossed that we don't meet this fate and at least our Islamabad-Skardu flights don't get cancelled.

[imarshad]

hmm.. i am now working on backup plan..

Well the backup plan could be driving straight to Natco reservations near Pir Wadhai from the Airport and ask for the first bus leaving for Skardu/Gilgit.

[fahimrauf]

Well the backup plan could be driving straight to Natco reservations near Pir Wadhai from the Airport and ask for the first bus leaving for Skardu/Gilgit.

There could be another backup plan that I am working on

Day 01 - Flight canceled. We will wait to avail it on day 02.

Day 02 - AM Flight canceled. PM Backup plan activated. Islamabad to Naran. Overnight stay in hotel.

Day 03 - Naran to Chilas on hired jeep (5-6 hrs - 105 km). Chilas to Skardu (7-8 hrs - 270 km). Will be in Skardu for dinner.

In this way we will enjoy the whole journey as we will be traveling through beautiful Naran/Kaghan valley and Babusar pass because continues KKH travel on NATCO will be quite boring and tiresome. I don't want to do this.

Please give your thoughts on this backup plan. Few questions:

1. Should we wait to avail the flight on day 02 or just activate the backup plan on day 01?

2. What should be the transport choice from Chilas to Skardu?

[travelinghell]

kaghan naran is only a strech of beautyful landscape if you were only crossing them for reaching skardu. it will take much time and let you tired a lot because natco seems to be a more comfortable sense of traveling rather then going off road for several hours on babusar pass and lack of transportation option and hassles.
you can take ptdc air conditioned buss from rawalpindi to get naran. after that you have to hire jeep for babusar pass to chillas or hire directly to skardu if possible.
Hope for the betterment , i wish you can get into the plan as planed.

[iftikharraheel]

Chilas to skardu ll take atleast 10h because of poor road condition .

[imarshad]

There could be another backup plan that I am working on

Day 01 - Flight canceled. We will wait to avail it on day 02.

Day 02 - AM Flight canceled. PM Backup plan activated. Islamabad to Naran. Overnight stay in hotel.

Day 03 - Naran to Chilas on hired jeep (5-6 hrs - 105 km). Chilas to Skardu (7-8 hrs - 270 km). Will be in Skardu for dinner.

Using this plan of going through Naran we can reverse our cycle.
i.e
Day1: Reach Naran
Day2: Reach Chillas through Babusar (Also Visit Saifulmuluk and Lulusar etc.)
Day3: Goto Fairy Meadows from Chillas.
Then from Fairy Meadows to Astore-Rama-Deosai-Skardu
and then return via Skardu-Islamabad flight.....

In this way same places will be visited but in reverse order and the travelling will also be less hectic... But let's pray that it doesn't come to this and our flights to Skardu are not cancelled/delayed....

[fahimrauf]

Using this plan of going through Naran we can reverse our cycle.
i.e
Day1: Reach Naran
Day2: Reach Chillas through Babusar (Also Visit Saifulmuluk and Lulusar etc.)
Day3: Goto Fairy Meadows from Chillas.
Then from Fairy Meadows to Astore-Rama-Deosai-Skardu
and then return via Skardu-Islamabad flight.....

In this way same places will be visited but in reverse order and the travelling will also be less hectic... But let's pray that it doesn't come to this and our flights to Skardu are not cancelled/delayed....

Yes, we can definitely do it, but there would be slight difference in my plan as our return ticket is from gilgit so we need to travel to gilgit from skardu for our return flight but this can be done anyways..

but as you said lets pray that everything works fine according to the original plan