Stunning Valley of Dreams But Extremely Difficult to Visit EP.14 | North Pakistan Motorcycle Tour
This is the only hotel in the Kutwal Valley. There are gushing water streams here. It is surrounded by green meadows with snow covered peaks and glaciers in the background. Altaf and Ali are busy making parathas. Left Dasu 4 hours earlier. But they were coming from the other path and lost their way.
I wanted to surprise you. Assalam Alekum. Good morning. Namaste. Sat Sri Akal. To Everyone. From Kutwal Lake, Haramosh valley. We got here last evening around 8:30 pm.
Since it was dark, we didn't know how to share the beauty of this valley with you. That's why we got up around 5:30 in the morning. And right now we are at the lake. This is a very beautiful lake with mountains as the backdrop. Actually you can't say that the lake is the most beautiful thing here. Although everyone recommends giving Kutwal lake a visit.
However, in my opinion, the actual beauty imparted to this lake is due to the magnificent peak surrounding it. It looks like a massive wall. The mountains start back there and go all the way round. Haramosh valley is on this side. I mean Haramosh Peak.
Right beside it is the Haramosh Peak 2. And behind me is the Laila Peak. It's an exceedingly beautiful area. We were rather exhausted when we reached here yesterday.
So we couldn't appreciate the beauty as we would have liked to. But as we woke up this morning and saw all these wonderful scenes... So now we realize why everyone who comes here is all praise for this area. A light breeze was blowing in the morning.
We were also able to capture reflections in the water of the lake, early in the morning. We'd like to sit here for some more and appreciate the beauty. And share some drone shots and time lapse shots with you. You'll notice one thing when you visit this area. The route that we took to get here, had many meadows alongside.
But those were not really meadows. Rather, they were forests. You'll notice thousands of fallen and burnt trees on the ground. I noticed the same thing even in this area. I think there has been a fire here not too long ago that destroyed much of this forest.
I'm not sure if it was due to natural reasons. No idea about that. But you will notice this for sure. I feel that this has seriously damaged the beauty of this valley.
This is the only hotel in Kutwal valley. We spent our night here. It's a nice place. You won't find it to be too luxurious though. Unlike many other natural sites that have many luxury hotels, this place has only one hotel. And it's run by locals.
Despite that, you can get everything needed for a comfortable stay here. The local area is really nice. They made really delicious food for us yesterday. We'll have our breakfast shortly.
Another great thing about this valley is the gushing water streams. It is surrounded by beautiful green meadows, with snow covered peaks and glaciers in the background. You can say that you'll get a perfect combination of nature here.
Other than that, the altitude of this place is about 10 thousand feet. And the temperature here doesn't drop too drastically. Be it evening or morning, Even if it's raining or it's cloudy just like now... You can comfortably enjoy the nature here while wearing a normal jacket. That's our guide Altaf.
Since we left really early, he was a bit worried as if someone has kidnapped us. Do people get kidnapped here? You never know... Let's have breakfast. This is the entrance of the hotel.
This is the kitchen. Altaf and Ali are busy making parathas. Other than that, we'll have omelet and fried eggs.
Is the tea sweet? Mine is without sugar. Our breakfast has been served. Like every other day, we have egg and paratha. As I've said before, if you start from Karachi in the south all the way to Khunjerab in the north...
Everywhere, you'll get egg and paratha in breakfast. Am I right? Yes, you are. That's how it is. Sometimes, you may get bread though. But it's quite unlikely to get bread at a remote place like this. So, it's egg, paratha and tea.
That's our breakfast, guys... Add sugar to this cup. I thought he was gonna put it in my cup. Thanks very much. Here's Altaf... Please come Altaf.
I'm gonna have breakfast with you. Sure. Most welcome. That's good. You didn't have dinner with us last night.
We are back at the lake and have pitched out tent here. When we came here in the morning, Ali suggested to bring our tent here. It would make our drone shots and pictures much more beautiful.
But I was still half asleep so I came without a tent. However, when we shot some videos, we realized that adding a tent in the scene would be awesome. So we came back with our tent and recorded some more videos. I am saying it again.
Do consider spending a night here in your camp. It's one of the best locations for camping. Because these are all green meadows. And you'll get to see these beautiful scenes all the time.
It's alright from the hotel as well. But you won't get such views from there. Look at the guys sitting here. These three guys come from a nearby village.
They are from Dasu. Sitting back is Ali and here's Yasir. We are gonna leave from here now. How long will it take for us to get back down? About 4 hours.
Let's get going. We have already packed all our stuff. We are now gonna start our return journey. We'll be taking the route that goes by the glacier. Hopefully it will be a scenic route.
We were on our way back from the lake when we met our dear friend Piru Saien from Karachi. I met him at the Khunjerab Pass last year. And now we meet here. Actually he left Dasu yesterday, 4 hours before us. But they were coming from the other route and lost their way.
Actually I wanted to surprise him. But I was alone and without a guide. And it's a forest and there's always a way in the forest... So I turned up along the wrong path. So I had to spend a night there, alone. There was an old shepherd there with his cattle, so we got some milk.
In fact you were lucky that you found someone there. Otherwise, at a location like this, in the cold of night... Since you had taken the route by the glacier, losing the way could have been much worse. I would recommend all the inexperienced people like me to hire a guide.
And it's quite likely to lose track of the way. One needs to be careful while traveling in such places. The track is not too difficult per se. But still there is a possibility of getting lost. I mean if you have company then it's not too much of a problem.
Also if you have a tent and food supply, you can spend the night anywhere. Otherwise, you need to be careful. It's good to have a guide with you unless you are experienced.
Agreed. There's no point putting your life at stake. We are gonna leave now. You have a good time here. I'm really pleased to have met you here. Safe travels.
Hardly a five minute walk from the hotel, we have come to this beautiful and spacious plain. It's a lush green field. There are many tiny water streams flowing through here. This is another very suitable location for camping. Also there are many small villages along this route.
We are gonna walk by another couple of fields like this one. Because the starting section of this track is the same as the one we did yesterday. And then it splits into two at a certain point.
We are in another small but really beautiful village now. As I said before, we are gonna encounter more plains as we go. And you are most likely to find a village by such plains. Children are playing in this spacious field. We are with these fellows from Karachi.
One of them seems to be a bit angry. They stayed in Gouro yesterday. I guess they are really enjoying themselves.
They were kind enough to give us ORS for our upset stomachs. Thanks guys. I think they still have another couple of nights here. I think if you are planning to come here...
It's best to spend at least one night in Ezcaray or Gouro... Second night here in Kutwal... So you can enjoy more if you have more days. The accommodation is also comfortable.
Have a good time guys. Thanks very much. We have just come out of the forest. The track we were on, in the village, is now separated. If you look over my left side, you'll see the glacier.
It might not look like a glacier because it's all covered with rocks. But it's in fact a glacier. And back there is the route that takes you to the forest up there. There will be a village there by the name of Ezcaray. We'll be going now. First we'll go downhill, followed by the uphill journey. We have just crossed the glacier.
We have run into this group. We met three of these guys back there in the hotel yesterday. They left about 90 minutes before us. And they were stuck by this glacier.
It's very easy to lose track of your path. They used this same track yesterday. Even then they got lost today. And I thought they must have already crossed Ezcaray by now. Aizaz there seems to be a bit down at the moment.
Probably that's why he's standing behind. The rest of them still appear to be in high spirits. So we are crossing now. What's the next section like? Here's our guide and we feel quite confident due to his presence. Let's move. Sure.
After crossing the glacier, we have reached this village called Ezcaray. Travelers normally take a break here. Our track from up there was 1.5 hours long. However, if we had used the lower track, it would have been 2.5 hours long. There wasn't even a single fresh water stream along our way.
Although there were many water streams coming from the glacier but their water was not drinkable. You have to keep this in mind. Normally we don't try snacks like these at home... But it's really handy to have items like these on such tracks. Make sure not to just throw this wrapper away. Keep it in your pocket.
You can then throw it in the dust bin wherever you see one. This will ensure that the beauty of this place remains intact. Doesn't look nice if you see wrappers like this one thrown on the path. And it doesn't give a good impression especially to foreign tourists. Don't make them think that we don't like to keep our country clean.
We are finally at the end of our track. When we were coming, we took the Gouro track that took almost 8 hours. On our way back, we took the Ezcaray track and it only took 5 hours. I think this track is the most suitable option. There's one hotel in the Gouro area but there's none here in Ezcaray.
So if you want to do a night stay, it's possible in Gouro. But in Ezcaray, you either need a tent or you can stay with some locals if they agree to it. Anyways, this Ezcaray route is really beautiful.
I just loved it. It has glaciers, forest and agricultural fields. And you have water streams making musical sounds running beside the route. It's probably the best track.
It's mainly a downhill track from this side. That puts you in a position with less stress so that you can enjoy the beauty around you. Personally I liked it a lot. Let's see how long we have to wait here before our jeep arrives.
The jeep guys have just called us though. We are finally back in Sasi. We are packing our stuff.
We now plan to go to Minapin in Nagar. I think it's a 3 hour track. We'll first have to go to Jaglot and from there we'll get on the KKH.
So we'll be passing by Gilgit and then go towards Hunza. This is going to be a stop along the way. Quite close to the Rakaposhi view point. We'll keep you posted.
For this whole track, we paid almost PKR 25000/- That included PKR 12000 for guide plus porter. The rest of that was for the room that we stayed in and the food. The jeep that we used to get there was hired by the guys who were with us. And they didn't take any money from us. However, we paid PKR 5000/- for the jeep on our return journey. I think that it's fairly decent.
I expected the expenditure for the three of us to be around PKR 30 thousand. You can check it when you come here. The most expensive bit would be the jeep as they charge PKR 14000 for two way journey. Regarding porter and guide, if you don't have much luggage with you, you can just go with a guide or a porter. You can save some money this way.
So, let's start our journey to Minapin. Thanks bro. May Allah be your guardian. Thank you very much. Bismillah... In the name of Allah...
*Prayer for the journey* May Allah make this a safe and memorable trip for us. We have finally reached Nagar. This area is called Rakaposhi view point. As you can see, this area is so full of tourists.
This is where you can have a glimpse of Rakaposhi. We are headed towards Minapin. The route starts from some point here. We have reached our hotel now. This is where we are gonna spend our night. You can see how different this hotel is from the previous one.
And somewhat unique in its own way. This is more like a tent. You might have seen something similar in Mongolia.
Or you may have seen it in the TV series Ertugrul Ghazi. This is called Roomy Yurts. This place is located inside the Osho Thang Hotel. And...
In first view, I don't remember having seen such beautiful and luxury yurts anywhere in Pakistan. I'm sure there will be.. But I'm staying at such an establishment for the first time. There's a rather comfortable looking and clean bed. Two of us will sleep on the bed, although it's big enough to accommodate the three of us. But we'll get a mattress for our third fellow.
The room also has a clean washroom. Overall, you can say that it's a luxury tent. We'll show you the surrounding areas in the morning. Because it's already 11:30 in the night. We are gonna have our dinner now. The kitchen is just beside where our dinner is being prepared.
Actually we requested them for the dinner because we were too tired to go anywhere else. Our meal has been served. This is probably the first time in this tour, that I'm gonna try some traditional food of the north. Standing beside me is Latif. Latif, is this pot made of wood or stone? It's made of stone.
These are ancient pots.. probably a hundred years old. The stone that is used to make it, enhances the taste of the food. This is mutton. Right? Yes. Let's start. I hope it's not too hot. It is. It doesn't get hot easily but once it's hot, it doesn't cool down easily.
Gets cooled easily? No, it doesn't cool down easily. Alright , but very difficult to heat it in the beginning. We are really hungry.
It's good to have something that we haven't tried before. I think I have tried it before but that was perhaps 2 or 3 years ago. The taste is great.
Many people have already made videos about it. We are gonna savor our meal. We hope that you must have enjoyed our vlog. And if you did, don't forget to Like, Subscribe and Share. Allah Hafiz
2023-09-07 09:37
