by Omar Mukhtar Khan
In October last year, I was in the beautiful Aarang Kel at the far end of Neelum Valley surrounded by some of the most beautiful mountains and a landscape turned gold at the beginning of the Autumn. Admittedly we do not have the vision to promote the fall in our beautiful North like the legendary fall in New York or Vermont but hopefully we shall get there at some point in our future.
I am a big fan of taking different routes while going to a place and returning. In the past, I have taken Dir- Lowari top - Chitral- Shandur- Gilgit- KKH route and last year I took Dir- Kumrat- Badawai top – Kalam route. This time we intended to go to Neelum valley up till Kel and then return via jeep trek from Shardah (6500 feet) to Noori Naar top (13000 feet) to Jhalkhad (10500 feet) in Naran valley. However, we were told that the route is closed post monsoon and so our spirits were somewhat dampened while returning back from Aarang Kel to Muzaffarabad.
We started back from Kel around 9 am in the morning and reached Shardah around 1030 am. We were in no hurry and were enjoying the cool breeze, turquoise green waters of Neelum river, dense pines and occasional water falls along the way.
Just before Shardah, we stopped at the intersection where a road branched upwards towards Noori Naar top. We asked the soldier deputed at the Army check post close by, if the route is open. The soldier gave a non-committal response which further made our decision easy to move on. Unfortunately, Google had also failed us with any substantive information on the route so with a sigh, we crossed the bridge over the crystal clear water stream coming down from Noori Naar top and headed towards Shardah town.
There was a commotion in the jeep and we were confused whether to do this life time journey over the Noori Naar top or not. Yakub was supporting the adventure, Asad was non-committal and I was partly against however within hundred meters of driving away from the bridge, we stopped and agreed to go a few miles on the trek and see if we find someone coming from the Naran end of the route to guide us on the trek conditions.
In a minute, we were on the route to Noori Naar top. The first few miles were deceptive as this was the best road we had travelled in few days, smooth black carpeted road. We saw a local jeep coming from the other side and waved it to stop. On asking, the driver and passengers cheerfully gave us thumbs up sign to cross over Noori top into Naran valley. We were now emboldened both with the lovely road and evidence from the other jeep though we realized in a bit that it was not clear that the other jeep was actually coming from Naran or some close by mountain village and the jeep driver just gave us his blessings. It was a continuous upward drive on the metaled road for about twenty minutes and we passed through many villages on the route.
One alarming sign was zero presence of any tourist jeeps on the route however we attributed it to the end of season as it was already beginning October. The signs of human habitations were slowly dwindling and the metaled road gave way to shingle trek and the time has come to start using four by four gears. It was still bearable and we were now thirty minutes away from Shardah and as per Google estimates, we could reach Jhalkhad in about two hours so the Jirga favored in decision to continue the journey.
The trek was continuously winding upwards and as I took a turn, I saw myself blocked by some road construction trucks. The workers looked at us in disdain and signaled us to stop as they get the truck to a side. I parked at a side while the truck reversed and I could see it slipping over gravel, my heart skipped a beat but luckily the truck driver seemed experienced. We moved on for few minutes in a thick pine jungle only to find ourselves again blocked by a bigger truck, this time the timber mafia was loading wood logs in the truck in the middle of the trek and obviously our untimely appearance did not win us favors. After a few minutes of ignoring us, the driver finally moved his truck to the mountain side of the trek signaling me to cross from the cliff side. Yakub as usual jumped down in the garb of showing the way while I stopped Asad from getting down with the promise of living and dying together. Reciting prayers, we crossed the blockade successfully and were again on our trek to the Noori top.
The trek as yet was through the woods and surrounded by pine covered green mountains with a nallah flowing from Noori top, deep in the gorge below. Soon we could see small glaciers at far ends and below in the gorge, at times completely covering the nallah so that the whole base of the gorge was covered with glaciers. Somewhere after one hour of our journey, we crossed the tree line and entered a grassy landscape similar to Shandur or Babusar top or for that matter Badawai top. Mountains covered with red and blue flowers and grass were all around us and gave a lovely hue to the landscape. I do wish that I am a better photographer to capture those lovely scenes but then probably God’s camera that is our eyes surpass any digital cameras and I am an ideologically ‘no filters’ person so you have to trust me that the photos totally do not do justice to the actual landscape.
On the way, we saw a marmot like animal running around however were not able to take a good picture before it ran away. We slowly were moving towards Noori top and there were absolutely no signs of any human settlement around. The real challenge on such routes is crossing the mountain streams as the water keeps on changing the rock arrangements and there are not many vehicles crossing every day to induce some compaction. A wrong rock impact under the engine and the jeep may be disabled. In the wilderness, we saw a man cooking something using a solar panel by his side. The man invited us for tea, on asking he pointed far in the mountains and on a closer look, we could see a whole flock of sheep descending from some far mountain pasture. The man was the advance party and was preparing meal for the Gujjar shepherds who were descending for summers on their way to the plains.
On the way, I stopped to take a picture. As I focused, I could see a beautiful zigzag pattern on a mountain ahead. This seemed beautiful natural design until we realized that this is actually the trek we shall be taking in few minutes. We could not believe our eyes but as we got closer, our suspicion became true. It was one of the steepest gradients of treks I had ever been to but I must acknowledge, Frontier Works Organisation (FWO) had done a good job on keeping the trek decently wide all along except of course at points where it is not possible or the trek has narrowed over years. I cannot remember correctly but we took some twenty turns up and up climbing the mountain but with every turn, the views of the surrounding mountains became even more breathtaking. In about three hours since the start of journey from Shardah, with few stops here and there, we were finally at the Noori Naar top. It was chilly at the top with strong winds, to our east was Neelum valley while to our west was Naran valley. Somewhere around us was Noori Naar lake but definitely a few hours hiking and we did not have time or plans for that matter. After some snacks and photo sessions at the top, it was time to descend towards Naran valley.
The descent was no descent and actually we kept of ascending and descending through the way. I would confess that the landscape was much more beautiful on the Kashmir side of Noori top with dense pines and golden hue bushes in the beginning of the trek later converted to maroon flowers covered mountains. Towards Naran side of Noori top, we slowly descended along a wide gorge with Jhalkhad stream flowing at the bottom and miles and miles of pasture lands and we could see occasional shepherd huts but most were vacant as the shepherds had already moved on to plains with onset of winters. The trek was somewhat difficult to navigate, quite narrow at places and make us pray that no vehicle comes from opposite direction. After travelling on the jeep trek for about two hours, passing through small mountain streams and enjoying a mesmerizing landscape, we finally could see the Naran – Babusar road to our relief.
This was a lonely jeep trek and we did not find any human habitation in the middle four hours of our journey except for a few vacant shepherd dens. We did not actually cross a single vehicle during most of the trek except for a couple of local bikers who I am not sure were heading where. It took us about five hours to traverse the trek from Shardah in Kashmir to Jhalkhad in Naran valley and the trek is only high clearance SUV worthy so absolutely no cars please. I would suggest going in a group of at least two vehicles as there is zero support system available on the way and God forbid, you can be in trouble if you have a vehicle breakdown during the journey.
We stopped at the FWO monument, built in memory for those who constructed this amazing route at the turn of the century as an alternate route to Neelum valley. There is reportedly another such trek currently not used which connects Taobut at the far end of our part of Neelum valley with Astore in Gilgit Baltistan province. It would be wonderful if Government can develop and maintain both of these treks as well as treks like Kumrat Kalam routes. Such development shall bring a lot of social and economic benefits for the local population, something the people of these areas have as much right to as any other citizen of Pakistan.