AoA PWs
We successfully completed an awesome trip to super awesome places of Northern Pakistan last week.
Following is our detail:
Day 1: Left from Islamabad on NATCO for Gilgit.
Time Details for the NATCO journey: (If anyone is interested in knowing)
6:30 pm NATCO Departure
10:45 pmManshera
1:35 am Thakot Checkpost
2:45 am Basham
6:10 am departure from Basham
10: 00 am Dasu
3:10 pm Chilaas
5:30 pm Raikot Bridge
7: 00 pm Gilgit
Day 2: Reached Gilgit after a tiring 24 hr bus journey. At the time we reached there, there was an ongoing ijtema of Tableeghi Jamat, due to which all hotels were full. We couldn't find any place after looking for more than 2 hrs. But thanks to the hospitality of people of Gilgit (and efforts of our friends from Gilgit) we got a place in a hotel to pitch our tent. Camped there for the night.
Day 3: Left Gilgit for Hunza (Karimabad ). After reaching there, we immediately went to see Baltit Fort. After that, we asked locals of any place to camp for night. They told us about the Ultar Meadows which was at the distance of 3 hours hike (according to them) from Karimabad. So we decided to do this trek and started trekking with all our luggage. After trekking for about 2 hrs, we couldn't find any way to move forward on the trek. Maybe there was a recent land slide, due to which whole place was covered with deep sand. 2 of our group members tried to cross it, but that created an almost life and death situation because of sand on the trek and the deadly water stream flowing beside us. They were rescued by 2 more group members and after that we decided to turn back. On reaching back to Karimabad, we were told by the locals that we had taken a wrong route. We were very disappointed with the first trek of our trip which went unsuccessful, so to cover up that we decided to trek to Eagle's Nest. This time, we left some of our luggage in the local school and started trekking on the road. Reached there at night, around 9 pm after an almost 3 hr trek. Camped at eagle's nest for the night.
Day 4: Left Eagle's Nest. Trekked back to Karimabad. Went to visit Attabaad Lake on Jeep. Came back to Karimabad. Camped in local hotel for the night.
Day 5: We decided to rest and explore the beauty of Hunza Valley and meet its people. Camped in the same hotel for the night.
Day 6: Left for Raikot Bridge, en route Gilgit. Took a jeep from Raikot Bridge, reached Tattoo Village. Hiked to Fairy Meadows. Camped there for the night.
Day 7: Hike to Nanga Parbat Base Camp and Back to FM. We found heavy snow fall on our way back from Base Camp down until Beyal camp. Weather got very harsh, our camp couldn't stand it. So, we rented a cottage for this night as we were very tired after the tough hike of Base Camp.
Day 8: Hiked back to tattoo, jeep took us back till Raikot Bridge. Took NATCO from here.
Day 9: Back to Islamabad.
Pictures following....