As mentioned at the end of my last post, I was lucky enough to be in the presence of the co-founders of the Janbaz hiking and trekking group. These guys are awesome! They planned our trip and took time out of their busy lives to drive through the mountains with us for a few days at a time.There were six of us travelling together and our drives included an interesting mash of music, including American pop, traditional Pakistani songs and everything in between (Despacito became the theme song for the trip despite the fact that none of us spoke Spanish. By the time it came for us to part, they were planning on making renditions of it in their home languages and Urdu). Many good times were had with this group of fun individuals, despite that fact that my stomach was killing me throughout most of our time together.
From Abbottabad, we drove up North to Shogran, which is located in the Kaghan valley. We started off in a car, but as we got into the more isolated (and less up-kept) areas of the mountains, we payed a jeep driver to take us up to the hotel where we were staying for the night. Probably due to the lack of food I'd been consuming the days leading up to the trip (and during), I ended up freezing and shivering uncontrollably all night. It wasn't very cold in the hotel, but it had been raining all day and the temperature decreased considerably as we drove higher into the mountains. Needless to say, I didn't get much sleep that night. Nevertheless, we got up early the next morning and after a quick breakfast, got back into the jeep and drove another 20 minutes up the mountain to where the trekking path began. Our jeep driver kept us entertained with his singing and stories (he didn't speak much English but my companions were certainly enjoying his stories). At the drop off point, we were greeted by mules and horses that you could ride up the mountain path. They also rented boots for those who wished to go on foot (us). So off we went, in our rented boots, up the snow-covered hillside. It was only lightly raining at the beginning of the hike, but we could see ominous clouds a little ways off, so my friends insisted on bringing an umbrella with us... Smart, but impractical. It's quite difficult to climb a steep, slippery slope with an umbrella, but they managed it!
If you google search Shogran Siri Paie (Siri Paie means 'head and hoof', referencing the glade we were hiking to), you'll be overwhelmed by images of lush green mountain sides and majestic mountains... In April on a rainy day, we got dead grass and fog. Hahaha. Fog cleared a little near the end of our time there, uncovering the view, but I wish we'd had better weather (and had been able to see it during the summer. April was a little too early to be up there). On our way back down the path, we were lucky enough to be pummelled by frozen rain, forcing us to take refuge under the trees for a bit until it subsided. And back into the jeep we went!
After a quick stop at the hotel to collect our things, we got dropped off back at our car and we headed into a small town for lunch. We went to a waterfall restaurants, where the tables and benches are in the water. You rest your feet on cartons that are placed in the stream. It was a very interesting experience. We were served fresh fried fish from the river. I'm not a big fish fan but these crispy morsels were to die for. This was also the first meal since Islamabad, 3 days earlier, that I actually felt hungry and managed to eat a full meal without my stomach rebelling against it. Good sign!! Mountain air is a God-send!! When we had eaten our fill, we got back into the car and drove the rest of the day up to Naran... or tried to. Right before reaching the town, the road was blocked by snow. It was getting dark at this point, so instead of climbing over the snow to get to the other side, we drove an hour back along the winding mountain road to a hotel that one of the guys frequently stayed at when he had business in the region. The hotel was under a restaurant, in a building that was overhanging a major river. We fell asleep listening to the thrum of the river below us, which was difficult! I have always felt that water carries a lot of energy with it and having such a strong flow of water just below our window made me feel too restless to sleep well.
In the morning, we drove back to the snow block and walked to the other side where there were jeeps waiting to take people into the village. We by-passed the village and drove directly to the mountain path that we planned to hike up. Apparently we were the first tourists of the season braving the snowy path! We once again borrowed boots and walking sticks and trekked off up the mountain side! This was a more treacherous path than the one from the day before and we soon found ourselves knee-deep in wet snow. The weather was once again working against us and we occasionally found ourselves shielding our faces from fresh falling snow. Just as we were getting close to our destination, the (snow covered) lake at the peak, the clouds darkened and we started to hear thunder in the distance. We were advised by our jeep driver (who had chosen to come with us instead of siting in the jeep) to turn around and get back before the storm hit. We begrudgingly agreed and thus never made it to the elusive lake.
We ate lunch in the village before climbing over the snow-block and back to the car. I slept most of the way back to Abbottabad, only occasionally being awoken up by a hearty rendition of Despacito.
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