Ghoragali to Pir-Sohawa Walk

The walk from Ghoragali to PirSohawa is though not very tough but one of the longest one that Margalla hills offers. It starts from the village of Malot near Ghoragali which has an altitude of 1490m. It takes an hour drive from Islamabad to reach this village. If you want to use public transport, take the van/bus going for Lora from Faizabad in Rawalpindi.  Direct transport right to the village is not very frequent so another option is to take the one going towards Murree through the old road (not Murree express way) and get dropped at Lora. Malot village from where the walk starts is further 2-3 kilometers from Lora.

The trail is in fact an abandoned jeep track on which jeeps used to run to and from PirSohawa. On a clear day, the trail offers some nice views of the valley that falls in Hazara region in the North and the snow capped mountains of Kashmir to the South. The trail passes through the villages of Danah, Karagga, Kimbi and Kothrian and eventually would descend to an open area with a small water pond. This place has an altitude of around 1140m. From this place, a jeep road goes north  towards Gambheer villager.  Skip the road going towards Gambheer and take the path that is going up towards west. After some ascend, you will reach at the top of the ridge with some nice points for rest. This ridge will provide some very nice views of the whole valley. From here on the trail on the whole remains very much flat with an altitude remaining between 1300 to 1400 meters. Continuing on the path will take you pass through the village Shiddan from where a left turn from a fork is not to be missed. Another hour or so from that point will take you to the Pharilla rest house.  Pharilla rest house among pine trees is a very nice and peaceful place to spend a night if one intends to. From Pharilla, PirSohawa is another couple of hours walk away. After a few kilometers, a path towards left descends down to Shadra village and Quaid e Azam university.  The main trail ends up on the road around one kilometer before main PirSohawa.

Another account of the walk by backpacker can be read here.

Total distance for this trail is around 25 kilometers and an average walking time is 7-8 hours.

Neelum Valley

Neelum valley starts from Muzaffarabad and goes along the river Neelum up to the point where Kishanganga river becomes Neelum after entering the Pakistani Kashmir. The official Neelum district starts from Chaliana. Unofficially, whole valley is divided into Lower and Upper Neelum where upper Neelum starts from Athmuqam. Neelum Valley is undoubtedly one of the most fascinating  alpine valleys in Pakistan. Because of the Indo-Pak tension at Line of control, this area has remained a virtual no-go-area for tourists for a long time. I do remember my first visit to Neelum Valley back in 2000 when you often hear artillery sounds and Zero Point (point under direct Indian Army gun range) had to be crossed in night with jeep’s lights switched off. It is just after a few years of ceasefire, people started coming to this area and now they can go all the way up to Taobutt on a metalled road. While whole of Neelum valley is attractive, the area beyond Sardari up to Taobutt and beyond is unmatched in its beauty. If you have come to Neelum all the way and go back from Sharda or Kel, you certainly have missed a lot.

Upper Neelum Valley near Halmat

Languages:

It is interesting to study the spoken languages of this area as people from different parts speak different languages. From Muzaffarabad up to Dhudial, people speak Hindko or local kashmiri language. From Dhudial to Kharigam, people speak the actual Kashmiri language spoken in the occupied Kashmir. From Sharda then to area a little beyond Kel, people again speak Hindko. People of two villages Janawai andd Phulanwai speak Chillasi language. And then in the final stretch,  people in and around Taobutt speak Shina language that is spoken in Astore and Gilgit areas.

Transport:

Buses are only available mode of public transport available for whole of Neelum valley. These buses (which are often known as Rocket buses) leave on regular intervals from main Muzaffarabad bus stop in Baila Noor Shah and go all the way to Taobutt. Hiace vans go only up to Athmaqam (as of 2009). The road from Muzaffarabad to Athmaqam is currently being repaired and widened. Once it is done completely (somewhere by 2011) it is expected to reduce the fatigue and travel time of travel. For off-road valleys like Jagran and Shounter, public jeeps are available from Kundal Shahi and Kel respectively.

Accommodation:

Azad Kashmir government rest houses are available at Kairan, Sharda and Kel and are pretty reasonable. They should be booked from the tourism office in Muzaffarabad. Budget hotels can be found at every main town along the road all the way to Taobutt. An official list (not always reliable) of accommodation options in whole of Azad Kashmir including Neelum Valley can be checked here.

Trekking Options:

For alpine trekkers, Neelum valley offers a lot. One can reach Naran via Noori Nar top from Sharda. Ratti gali lake is a beautiful lake that can be accessed from Dowarian and one can continue further to Naran. Chitta Katha lake can be reached from Domail village in Kel (1-2 days). An exciting opportunity is to cross the Shounter pass from Shounter village and reach Astore (2-3 days). From Taobutt, an excellent trekking option is to reach Astore via Kamri top or Dadgai forest (3-4 days). This area has been very rarely explored by the trekkers and is certainly promising. Syed Javaid Sherazi has written an excellent travelogue on a trip to this area with Tarrar here. Best time for trekking in these areas is in the months of July and August. There are some trekking options from Jagran as well including a trek to Baboon valley which can be explored. In lower Neelum, one can go to Makra and down to Shogran from Bhairi (2 days).  From Bhairi, an alternate is to try the Blue Mountain (Neela Pahar) or Bald Mountain (Ganja Pahar) in the area that falls under Machiara National Park.

Shounter Valley

For more information about Neelum Valley,  see Khalid Saeed’s excellent article here or a blog post by Muhammad Shahid here.

Chitta Katha Lake

Chitta Katha Lake is an amazingly beautiful lake in Upper Neelum Valley. The word Chitta Katha comes from two separate words which are chitta which means white and katha which is used for water source or stream in the local language. The trek for this lake starts from Upper Domail (referred as Utli Domail by some local people and maps) village which can be reached through a two hours jeep ride from Kel. Regular jeeps take Rs 100-120 per person for a one way ride while whole jeep can be booked in Rs 2000 – 3000 (as of 2009).

The actual trek starts from a small village with the same name i.e. Chitta Katha. If you are coming from Kel, you can get dropped at the main road a couple of kilometers short of Upper Domail village.  However, if you intend to hire guide/porters or even need a cup of refreshing tea before kicking off the trek, Upper Domail is the place. There is a small shop and a couple of restaurants where food and other items of local need are available. At least one of the two restaurant owner is planning to expand the facilities it has which will include accommodation. From Upper Domail, the gentle walk up to the Chitta Katha village takes around thirty minutes. From the village, there are two options to reach lake. One goes along the Chitta Katha Nullah and is pretty steep as well as narrow at certain points. The other one takes a bit longer round and is used by the Gujjars when their livestock has to be moved with them. To use this trek, cross the foot bridge on Nullah and follow the trail ascending up and remaining at the right side of the rocky face of mountain.  This rocky face is one of the places around Domail where ruby gemstone is found and used to be extracted from. There is a steep ascend for about a couple of hours after which the track opens up in a wide valley at the base of HariParbat peak. There are a couple of settlements here at the starting and ending points of this open valley. From the settlement at the end of this valley, the path ascends again steeply. This is a nice place to camp for the night if you do not want to return in the same day. After a tough ascend of another hour or two one comes across a flat surface from where Chitta Katha lake can be reached in half an hour. The look of the lake with turquoise colored water and snow covered mountains the background makes this lake  extremely fascinating.

Chitta Katha Lake -- Photo Credit: Fawad

If you are willing to hire a guide for the trek, ask for Luqman or Mushtaq from main Upper Domail village. I found Luqman more competent and caring. As this area doesn’t see regular trekkers, rates are not fixed compared to the Northern areas and thus would have to be negotiated.