F. SC GCU
With the name of Allah the most gracious the most merciful, we started our journey Islamabad Srinagar highway which is an incredibly well maintained motorway and has beautiful scenery, we were going towards the M1 motorway because the M1 motorway will take us to Mansehra, while moving towards Mansehra we passed three tunnels, these are an important landmark if you pass these you know you’re on the right way, after the tunnels, we joined the Hazara motorway, which has an incredible landscape we continued on hazara motorway till we reached a place named Shate, close to Hazara University, Shate is about a 4km track but there is essentially no road, it is highly recommended that you bring a heavy duty car for this trip preferably a 4×4.
After shate is another series of uneven and broken road towards N15 highway which takes us to Kaghan, and a special mention to the KDA the Kaghan development authority as they have maintained this highway well with their limited resources, the road is quite narrow and its one way so you will have to drive carefully, and the road isn’t perfect its cracked and rather bumpy, there are a lot of small tuck shops and chai dhabbas on the road the locals are very friendly, It is highly recommended that you continue this journey in the first half of the day, as is night the temperatures get cold and there are no lights, most of the people leave their
shops to go to their homes.
There is a place before Kaghan known as Shogran and further Siri Paye, Shogran is a beautiful valley with hotels and restaurants but you actually would want to see Siri Paye , to go to Siri Paye, you would require a Jeep and not just an ordinary jeep, there are many jeeps for hire in Shogran, the road, Well its barely a road is extremely bumpy with mud everywhere and its extremely narrow the driver expertly maneuvers the jeep in order to reach Siri Paye it’s a 20 minute ride, but its worth because the scenery is probably one of the most beautiful landscapes I have ever seen, the fresh air, the crystal clear ponds, the wild goats, the small cute huts, its truly a wonder of nature.
We stopped here for some refreshments, then departed on our journey to Narran, in order to reach Narran, you will have to go through the Naran-Mansehra Bypass and then you will enter a small, lively town full of mountains and colorful hotels and restaurants, we were staying at Hotel One by pearl continental it was a rather nice hotel, then we made our way to the main Narran street which looked exactly like a less busy version of Mall road Murree, there were tons of small shops, stalls of foods, jewelry, toys etc. Some of the most famous restaurants of Narran are Moon restaurant, there advertisements are literally everywhere, the next is Punjab Tikka House, we ate at Punjab tikka house because of the rush at moon, after a long day of travelling, we finally rested and called it a day.
The next morning we woke up at 7 am , we were going to Babu sar Top today, babu sar top is essentially a straight road from Narran, the main landmarks between are Lalazar, Kunhar river, which is also extremely beautiful many tourists stop and admire its beauty as well, Babu sar top is right at the brink of Gilgit Baltistan, although quite famous our trip to Babu sar top was quite underwhelming, because of the commercialization there were shops, stalls at every corner, there were zip line and bungee jumping as well, but as the famous saying goes “IT’S NOT ABOUT THE DESTINATION, IT’S ABOUT THE JOURNEY”
Throughout our journey the temperature was always cold, cool winds were blowing, at several points the water of the mountains was also falling and people were using it to wash their cars, fill their bottles, because the water was pure and cold. After about 30 minutes we left Babu Sar top, and made our way back to the hotel, it took 3 hours to return to Narran, it’s safe to say that we were exhausted, and when we reached the hotel we took a quick nap, then again went exploring Narran, enjoyed the cool evening with some hot desi tea, and snacks then explored the bazar a little bit more, it was my birthday as well so we celebrated it by cutting a cake, it was really difficult finding a bakery but eventually we did find it, we were eating out for the
past 2 days so we decided to have a light dinner inside the hotel, this night was our last night in Narran, as tomorrow we were leaving for Islamabad then home, Lahore.
Overall I would sum up this trip as one of my most enjoyable and most memorable because of the challenging conditions, unique adventures and as there were no mobile signals for most of the journey we bonded as a family, I would highly recommend visiting this part of Pakistan but with the proper arrangements that is because it could prove challenging at times.
Abdullah Waseem
F. SC GCU
