8 Hours of Most Difficult Hike to Haramosh Valley EP.13 | North Pakistan Motorcycle Tour
To be honest, I find the jeep track to be more difficult. It's so bumpy and .... It has the tent and the sleeping bag. Our track starts from here. The track is long and it's really hot here. This is a small village with a really beautiful location.
It's located right along the edge. I guess we took it a little too lightly. Look at Yasir.
He's super exhausted. Exactly. Assalam Alekum. Good Morning. Namaste. Sat Sri Akal to everyone. From Sasi on Jaglot Skardu Road. We got here yesterday. There was only one reason to stay here.
And that's because we want to go visit Kutwal Lake in Haramosh valley. Most of the people who stay here, do so because of either of the two reasons. They either want to travel to Khaltaro valley. Or to visit Haramosh valley. However, there can be another third option.
Whenever there's landslides on Jaglot Skardu road, this is the only hotel here before Dambudas. And Dambudas is the place with frequent landslides. So this is where people stay. And that's the jeep on which we'll be traveling. We are not alone but accompanied by another group.
Here's Yasir. Are you ready Yasir? Yes I am. Yasir wasn't feeling well but now he has transferred his sickness to me. And so I have an upset stomach today. Ali has... I have flu. We'll fight the flu. We have been told that it's a rather lengthy track and can take up to 7 hours to complete.
It's 9:30 am and hopefully we are gonna leave shortly. If we leave at 10, we'll have a one hour jeep ride till 11 am. And after that the track will start. Hopefully we'll get to our destination by 5 or 5:30 pm.
Here we have daylight till around 7:30 pm. Here are some restaurants where we can have a light breakfast. We have already placed all our luggage in the jeep.
We'll be leaving shortly. Due to an upset stomach, I am gonna have this husk with water. I'm gonna refrain from eating paratha and egg. Ali is having the usual breakfast though. Yasir is not having it as well.
Both of us are gonna have tea. We have got some juices too. Some biscuits to take along with us.
Some nimko as well. I think we'll be busy with our snacks throughout our track. This is gonna be our jeep. We are all set to leave. This group is from Karachi.
About 6 people from IBA Karachi. This is Hamid Mir and we are going to this trip with him. We met him last night.
Just a second. We'll have a guide/porter with us for the track. We are sharing the jeep with this group. That's their tour guide. What's your name sir? Zaheer. And all of you are from IBA? Yes. Okay.
We have already recited the prayer for the journey. Yep. We are not on our motorcycle today. So we have recited the prayer in our hearts. These caps are turning out to be pretty useful. We used this same track to go to Khaltaro yesterday. The tracks will eventually divide into two different tracks and at some point it will go to Dasu.
The area down there; that's where we started. Are these the peaks from Kutwal? Yes. What's the name? Haramosh peak. That's Haramosh. Behind that is the Laila peak.
The track to that peak originates from here as well as Skardu. Look how adventurous looking bridge is that. To be honest, this jeep track looks quite difficult. It's rather bumpy. I mean you can't seem to enjoy this. Unlike this, when you are on a motorcycle, you get to enjoy such tracks.
Apparently we are close to Dasu and the starting point of our track. Look at this... How unique is this rock... Watch out for those tomatoes. This is Dasu village.
Here you can see trees of pomegranate, apple, cherries and more. Leave the apples alone. These are ripe apples. Have to wash them before eating. Throughout this valley, you'll see many small villages. If you take a look down there, you'll see some villages there as well.
We don't really know much about them. But the roads that take you to these villages are similar to these jeep tracks. And we just passed by a waterfall. Mind your head.
Finally we are here. What's the name of this village, sir? Barchi. We were told that this jeep goes as far as Dasu but it only goes to Barchi. And it took around 2 hours and 20 minutes to get here.
You need to know this information. Two tracks originate from here. One of them goes along the back over there. What's the name of that area? Skoro And what about this one? Guray.
So these two tracks go to Kutwal. We'll go from Guray and return via Skoro. We are told that the track from here will take 6 hours. It's quite possible that it may take more than 6 hours. Because they told us that the jeep track also takes up to 1.5 hours.
Anyways, lets off load our luggage and start our track. And we'll keep you posted as we go. Since we were two groups in the jeep, they are now separating our stuff from theirs. Let me show you the stuff that we have brought with ourselves.
These two are our bags... And there are two more. We are carrying tent, sleeping bags and some warm clothes.
We are not carrying too much luggage. We have left the rest of our luggage behind. This marks the start of our track. Take a look.
We are gonna make our way through these heavy rocks. These two guys are with us. What's your name? Asad Ali and Shah Dil.
Leading us is Altaf. These three fellows are gonna be with us for this track. Not only is this track rather long, but it's really hot here.
They are telling us that the other tracks run along the glacier. That is a much better area. But anyways... Saying something and actually doing it are two completely different things. We are gonna continue on this track. These are delicious.
These fruits will keep on giving us some energy as we walk. Because the track is really tough. After walking for about... 2 hours or so... we have reached Mushko. And... we are drained.
Back there we had apricots. These locals were telling us that eating apricots like that can upset the stomach. So, I have an upset stomach.. and so does Ali. Never felt so miserable at any track before this one. It's really hot back there.
Actually this is the point where the track would start previously. However, heavy rains this year has resulted in landslides and resulting in a broken road. That has added an extra 2.5 hours to our track. Let's see how much time it's gonna take now. It's quite tough though. However, this whole section is totally green.
And so there's shade here as well. Back there, it was just rocks and stones. Let's see. Hopefully the next part of our journey turns out to be more pleasant. After hiking for almost 4 hours, we have reached Gouro. Many people stay here for the night and then go to Kutwal lake the following day.
But we'll keep going. There's a small village here at a wonderful location. It's located right by the edge. You can see Haramosh in front whereas down there is the glacier.
There is a small hotel here. It's located up there. Altaf is telling us that it's up there. There's a beautiful waterfall behind us.
I can see some agricultural fields here which are probably managed by the locals for their personal use. The track till this point was rather tough. It was really hot too. However, it's much more pleasant now.
And we are being told that we have another couple of hours to go. We can expect to reach by 8 pm. I think we'll have the sunset on the way. But we want to reach today, no matter how late we get. Do people only live here in summer? Or in winter as well? Throughout the year? No. Only in summer.
This place must have heavy snowfall in winter? Indeed. Assalam Alekum Wa Alekum Salam Take a look at Haramosh. The area of Kutwal starts from here. Still a long way to go. But anyways, we can finally see some people in this village. They are collecting wood to be taken to the city or to Dasu.
Here they speak Shina which is the language of Gilgit. As we reached this meadow... Ali is already here. Look at the beautiful light falling on these peaks. These are evening hours. And we are standing in this beautiful plain.
We can also do camping here but there are no facilities here. Let's see what our guide has to say. What do you think about this place, Ali? It's good. I finally feel less tired now. Especially since this forest section has started.
It was really hot during the day and that made even walking much more difficult. As we reached the top of the village and started our hike down... it has become much cooler.
We are passing through a forest. Secondly, the sun is now hidden behind the clouds. Altaf, shall we camp here? Or shall we keep going? It's up to you.
How far is it from here? It's gonna take almost an hour. Okay. We have finally reached a small village in Kutwal. There are many small villages here. This is the first of these villages.
It has a lush meadow with snow covered peaks on both sides. It's a beautiful location without a doubt. I can see almost 10 to 15 houses here. The construction style is the same as we saw in the villages before this one. It's quite possible that the locals only come here during summer. As we move forward from here...
We'll share more details about Kutwal after asking from our guide. We are finally here at 8:50 pm. We took this track a little too lightly. Look at Yasir. He's completely exhausted.
I think we took the jeep at 10:30 am. We wanted to start at 8 am but the jeep guy got late. And we started the track around 1 pm. You can do the math yourself. It took almost 7 hours and 50 minutes. We did take some breaks along the way.
No doubt the track is beautiful. But the first section that took 3.5 hours... that used to be a jeep track. Due to landslide, the jeep can't get there. The sunlight and heat in that section did most of the damage to us. Here are Aqib and Yasin who are cooking food for us. Let's see what they make for us.
We'll show you as well. But before anything else, we need a little rest. Look at him.. He's Sher Dil.
Shah Dil. He's Shah Dil and sitting over here is Asad Ali. These two are with us. Beside these two guys, we also have Altaf.
They looked rather exhausted as well. They told us that they will get here in 3 hours. But the heat affected them as well. Tea is being made as well.
It was a difficult track today. Isn't it? Do you want the tea with or without sugar? With sugar. Without sugar. Only one cup without sugar. All the rest with sugar. Our food has been served.
I don't think we need to tell you. Like every other day, we have chicken karahi. Just look at poor Yasir. Right now, I'd have anything to eat. Ali still seems to be in high spirits. We are gonna have our dinner now.
It's good that our cook has prepared the food in no time. It's a nice place to sit. Apparently Altaf is still very energetic.
He almost dragged Yasir till here. He kept on telling us that we are almost there. Just another couple of kilometers. I bet he was secretly laughing at us.
We were almost 6 km away when he started saying that we are almost there. In fact our drone was also showing us the distance. You should start eating. Bismillah... In the name of Allah... I'm really hungry. We didn't even do our breakfast.
Shall I bring some more curry for you? Kidney beans. Lentils. No. It's okay. The food was great.
I may be saying so because we were really hungry. We were able to get here despite our upset stomachs. After having finished our dinner, we are in rest mode now. This is the room where we'll be spending our night.
It's a hotel We can't show you from the outside at this point in time. It was already dark when we got here. The rent of this room, the amount we paid to the jeep guy, the guide and the porters...
That we'll share with you in the next vlog. Because we'll have a solid figure with us after we have paid all of them. That's all for the day.
Hopefully you must have enjoyed this vlog. Remember us in your prayers. Don't forget to Like, Subscribe and Share. I'm sure this vlog will really help you if you are planning to visit Haramosh. Allah Hafiz
2023-09-03 05:34
