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A ride to Islamabad


Karakorum Highway

Dated: 23 January, 2012










Our stay in Gilgit has came to an end and last night we were told by RPM to get ready for today travel. So it started with me suddenly working up to a phone bell and wondering where I was and it took time for me to figure out the things. The hotel man told me to get up as it was 5 o clock. Quickly I got myself prepared and the nice man had also prepared breakfast for us.
 The conveyance came at around 6 o clock and we went to pick Our PM Mr. Amin Beg from his home somewhere in the near town. He was ready and put his luggage which included two bags of Gojal potatoes as well in the jeep and thus was the start of our journey. Coming out of gilgit I saw a signboard of telling that Islamabad is 583 KM ahead which was rather intimidating keeping in view of the treacherous road on which we were going to tread ahead. Also the weather was very much cloudy and it had not seen the face of any flight for the past couple of weeks perhaps. We drove across a beautiful scene where the three great mountain ranges namely Hindukush, Karakorum and Himalayas stand tall side by side. Between the Karakorum and Himalaya goes the road towards skardu.  At Jiglot we joined our RPM Mr. Sardar Ayub, PM M&E Mr. Saleem whom I had heard lot about of but did not meet earlier and also a couple of staff were there. We had a good tea and Parathas from the roadside hotel which was unusually empty in the early morning as those coming from downside had not reached here.
I took a photo with PM Saleem and our convoy moved down. However our driver was more dextextrous than the other and quickly outpaced him. In the way we stopped at one of the many hotsprings on the roadside. We passed through many hamlets and villages and were mostly dry and rocky. Bunji is a bigger one across the river which is as I saw a saying is home to NLI—the soldier unit of NA.
We get together again at Chilas which is the centre of Diamer district and is a town with a bazar with many hotels one of which was our stay point for tea.
When we started from Chilas we made some readjustment in the passengers and made RPM to sit with us by sending younis to sit with saleem sir. We had a sight of the site for Diamer Bhasa dam which is a mega project of Govt. of Pakistan to construct a dam at the border of diamer district of GB and Bhasha village of Kohistan. Its will cover 150 KM area penetrating deep into the diamer district and it is said that many villages including the town of Chilas will go down under it. It is a big project and its completion will definitely contribute towards the ongoing power crisis in the country. Although GB area ends at Basha village but across the river it is still the same GB area where come the rather remote valleys of Darel and Tangir. Our journey was more pacey and though the mountains. We left GB area and entered in KPK’s Kohistan region which is a forest covered district with timbers lying along the road all the way we travelled. Dasu is its centre with a bazar as like of Chitral. We stopped on the way in the undulating road in the mountains to feed water into the vehicle as it was red hot. There was snowfall going on with thick clouds covering the landscape. The valley was green and it was sparsely populated along the road.
We reached Bisham a rather bigger town and from where also a road goes to Shangla. Our prior order to make lunch was duely obliged and we had lunch and quickly left the place. We were now moving down the plains and the crops and vegetation were adding to the greenery of the area. The driver was very fast and now we were almost 2 hours ahead of the other one. All the way we enjoyed the green forests, beautiful landscape and river indus which was loyal to us all the way down until at some fateful place it changed its course and went somewhere else. the places alternated between snow and clear ground, with lush green trees and forests to barren rocks and it continued all over our travel.
We stopped at shinkiari seeing a heap of oranges by the roadside and RPM got a sack for himself. We raced down to Mansehra and then Abottabad. On a Gas station we had some Chocolates for us and coffee which I didn’t take.
We took an alternate route from Haripur and came quickly down to taxila and then reached at Golra at around 9 o clock which is 15 hours after we started a 6 am in the morning. I got off from the Islamabad Mor and quickly located a taxi to take me home. Siraj came to the heavily guarded gate and I came back to home in pindi.
The travel was memorable and to be in company with Mr. Amin Beg a very learned and intelligent person and also Sardar Ayub our witty and gracious RPM, was really a elated episode. Their occasional jokes and jibes werereally entertaining and we didn’t really feel that we have travelled all the way to twin cities from a place deep in the north.

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