salaam:
another dream come true trek this time the destination was kumrat valley. i have always wanted to see kumrat forest in snow and luckily this winter got the opportunity. me and salman zakir from Lahore set out from Islamabad on Friday 3 march and reached Thall at abt 12 pm. the journey was of abt 10 hours. stayed at thall mosque for the night and in the morning met our host Shaukat Sb who took us to his house and treted us with breakfast. then we arranged jeep (@ Rs 3000 for two way) to drop us till forest guest house at the start of the valley from where we had to trek a short distance to our Hut. here Mr Akbar khan was our host and we were to spend the night here. that day we had a bit of time to acclimatize and roam about in snow around our hut for photography. the next day we started our trek to Kala Chasma along the snow covered jeep track. there was abt 3-4 ft snow in the valley. the whole day of trekking in snow ensured we reached our destination and return to base camp under a clear blue sky. we had a few encounters with local dogs who were very aggressive and we had to protect ourselves from repeated attacks. also we kept our distance from a group of huge monkeys on the way. one shud expect wildlife in the region in off season and carry some sort of weapon with him. overall it was a great experience from which we returned on Monday 6 march. the road from dir to sheringal is under construction and in bad shape but from sheringal to thall metaled road exists in long patches. moreover a sedan can reach thall now with careful driving but low clearance cars r not recommended by me. baki i have a few pics to share.
total distance covered aprox 700 Kms
Per head expenditure Rs. 4600 (Islamabad to Islamabad)
Participants
Asif Saeed
Salman Zakir