Traveling from shogran to siri paye in own car (Fortuner 4x4 petrol)

[gfkhan]

[salman_w]

I find it very annoying that locals will not let the roads get built and purposely not let you drive/ giving you wrong /inaccurate suggestions/directions. I love going to north and its belongs to all the pakistanis. Even with families they will try to discourage you to drive yourself on hills or misguide. As a result one loses confidence or gets scared for the lives and safety of their families. I felt Hunza to be best in this regard. Friendly people and educated in actual sense of the word.

[gfkhan]

for that adventure you have to be trained driver, no matter how difficult it is but i always try to drive by myself, and for same reason i bought my car, my car was the only one which reached on top other wise all others fortuner sigma guys returned back but i reached there on my petrol fortuner, and i think 250nm torque more than enough for our mountain and offroading.
regarding self driving you have to make your heart big as sometimes your car hit from bottom or rims got scratches, which happened in my case as local driver was not giving me way and i tried to come out from mud, there were lot of stones which scratched my tyre rims

[gfkhan]

but the real joy is in self driving, if you love self driving you must do it, beleive me you would find yourself better driver than locals

[salman_w]

Thanks for the motivation sir. I have a Hilux and I also got it for this purpose. I understand about keeping ones hard big. I have driven my car on off road tracks and that's the most fun i've ever had on the mountains. These new cars are highly capable and quite advanced as compared to those million times repaired 70s cruisers with no diff locks etc. Also glad to hear that fortuner petrol can do the offroad stuff well. Was always curious.

[gfkhan]

i bought petrol variant as diesel one was not available at that time, except pick up i did not find any other problem in it hence kept it since then, and pick up is not required in such areas
you hv high power machine, believe me it will not disappoint you at all , only thing you have to know how and where to use 4x4 mode, or yeh bhi eik drive ki maar hy, so good luck for your future drive, but must keep chains for your tires, as sometime we need it as it provides us extra safety
after taking my car to siri paye i told to my wife that i will never hire jeep in future any where in Pakistan, as i know rhis car can go anywhere

[zee5han]

I remember when I visited shogran on my MG HS in march in kiwai where the shogran road starts all the locals and jeep drivers were saying your can't go up there on your own car roads are v bad , but I went to shogran on my MG and it was a really good feeling , as the only other private car up there was a Pajero and rest all were coming on local jeeps.

Back in start of march the road had alot of melted snow and sludge up till shogran.

here are some pics of my MG outside Pine park resort

[capsat]

they will try to discourage you to drive yourself on hills or misguide

urban drivers or adventuring off road in river beds desert drivers "can not manage mountain culverts" no matter if they are riding a unimog. there has to be local driver engaged who can drive your SUV over those tracks. after 3 tours with a local driver driving my vehicle i managed to explore those areas on my own in 4th trip since then there is no looking back.

[salman_w]

For a certain (expert) track this method could work but like you said once you get a hang of it, you don't want to to rent a jeep anymore.

[salman_w]

o
On the way to babusar top went off road and sat near a river. No one was there and only offroading was the way to get here. As Zeeshan said it's an amazing feeling to drive to new places and explore.

[gfkhan]

this was not the case with me , even when i had honda city 2010 model i was driving it on all such roads (in fully loaded condition) though i was from karachi, i went on it to babusar top, thandiani, upper neelum valley and many places like that ,i still remember when jeep drivers used to tell me to hire jeep as they said your car can not reach to upper neelum valley or shogran, but it was like a piece of cake for me, with honda city i had only one doubt in mind whether car would reach on top or not, but after getting fortuner i dont listen to any local jeep drivers, as i know it can go anywhere plus i have tested it on steep roads.
regarding hiring local driver for your suv, i wont recommend as they know nothing about new suv's functions

[gfkhan]

you only have to take care of car's side in new suv, regarding track you need to know right function at right time,thats all, atleast it works for me

[salman_w]

Exactly, growing up My family always went on trips up north. My father always drove our own car. Once we blew two silencers on the way due to clearance issues but no harm came to car or us except the silencers. It was a khyber, notorious for being low.
The point is, adventure is to be done by ones own self not by a jeep driver. Naturally when i grew up i had to drive myself too. After just a few trips i am very confident now. My father did it in a car but having and SUV adds extra confidence. Not over confidence i must add.

[farooq05]

its amazing.. and horse riding was really an adventure..

[gfkhan]

yeah, thanks

[usmanqadeer.education]

You did an excellent job.
I visited Shogran on May 1st and planned to visit Sharan in our own Revo. A lot of people in Kiwai were also against taking my revo to Shogran when i asked about the road conditions fron them.

We were demotivated by drivers and locals who said it was a wide vehicle that would cause problems in narrow turns on the way to Sharan.

After changing our minds, we replaced Sharan valley with Siran valley and went to Mundi, which was a great decision.
On the 8th of May, we went to Kumrat in the same vehicle. As Jeep drivers roamed around us in Thal village, they pushed us not to take our own 4X4, claiming it would be unable to clear stones and boulders in streams. I was driving my own vehicle with a coaster for our office trip, so we decided to rent NCP Prados. During our journey to Kumrat, we didn't encounter anything impossible to do with our own vehicle.

Due to this, I no longer trust local drivers, especially those working for commercial businesses like hotel owners or transport companies.

Traveling to the north for more than 10 years has given me a good understanding of driving in hilly areas.
For my next trip, I will use my own vehicle to the fullest extent possible.

[gfkhan]

thank you very much Usman for your kind word and sharing your experience with us, regarding local drivers I also don't trust them but I always listen them calmly and softly refused and there are two reasons for doing this, one I have also seen people who even couldn't drive their car on a very easy mountain road, sometime they block the road and finally hand over their car to the local driver to clear it for them and secondly our tourism industry is in very bad shape, locals dont have any support from govt and what ever they are doing or telling us it is for their living, in return tourists atleast get some facilities there, so considering all these i dont get offended, however this is also a fact that our new SUVs are far better than their old jeeps in performance
one more thing which I noticed during my past years travelling experience that the northern area is becoming dirty very quickly so I want to see most of the Pakistan's Northern area in its beautiful shape as God knows how it will look after 10 to 15 years
I also noted down your recommendation for Siran valley and in future inshallah I will also try to go there, what normally I do during surfing on my mobile when I see any good recommendation or good photograph of any place,i instantly take a snapshot of it and save it in my phone's travelling folder which especially made for this purpose, so your recommendation's snapshot also taken and saved it there

[gfkhan]

one more thing which I normally do before starting such road trips I try to watch such roads (complete road) video on YouTube and then decide whether I can drive my car there or not , Such videos are very helpful, and for same reason I also started making videos of such roads in fast mode so people can watch it in less time, I put it on YouTube so people can get the idea about the road recent condition and it make their decision easier to drive own car on such road

[gfkhan]

dangerous road"word is very confusing, maybe the road which is dangerous for one guy is not dangerous for other, so you are the best judge by yourself and you are the one who can decide better whether you can drive or not and that is only possible after seeing the road, and easiest way to see it before reaching there is YouTube

[usmanqadeer.education]

The idea of being polite to local drivers is something I completely agree with, and we should certainly consider their viewpoints. As for the destinations I've visited so far, we are able to take our 4X4 anywhere in Pakistan, excluding Ratti Gali track. There is a lot of difficulty in driving to Ratti gali lake since we need more ground clearance and a slight damage can cause a lot of hassle.

For the Siran valley, please get in touch with me if you need any details. Since the valley is not overcrowded with tourists, its road conditions, food, local community, and everything is really good, I would recommend anyone to go there.

This weekend I plan to go to Taobat or Kalam, Mahodand Lake. Upon returning, I will share my experience.