Luckily today the weather was much clearer, we could see blue sky again and enjoyed warm sunshine over breakfast. The hotel in Gilgit belongs to the same chain as the one we stayed in Hunza, but it's considerably bigger, which means less personal service and support, but at least a warm breakfast room.
We had booked "our" driver again, who was a very knowledgable travel advisor and had proved to be an unlimited source of information about the area. (Still I cannot remember his name)
With him we left Gilgit early morning and drove along the Ghizer River into the Hindukush mountain range. (Just as a reminder, when we followed Hunza River we reached the Karakorum mountain range) As there is no trade with the Chinese going on along this route, the highway was much less developed and we had to drive a lot slower. But that only gave us more opportunities to take pictures of more snow-covered mountain peaks and deep blue river water under bright sunshine... you just cannot get bored of that scenery!
From time to time we stopped for even more pictures:
We also passed several villages and ex-villages. Apparently this area is regularly hit by landslides burying whole settlements. "Regularly" actually means irregularly, meaning it happens again and again but in varying intervals. We could see massive rock fields and pieces of houses in between. Sometimes people were living in tents on the same spot where their house used to be, sometimes they were resettled a few meters further out of the danger zone. But fact is, the mountains here will not stop moving and landslides will continue to happen and somehow the people live with that risk.
We drove about 3 hours, passing only one police checkpost where my passport had to be registered (all for the tourist's protection) and finally reached Khalti Lake, a place which our driver recommended for picnic.
We stayed longer than planned and soon daylight was fading and we enjoyed the sunset in the mountains.
Unfortunately after dark we found out that the car was not equipped with a heater... I seriously thought it was a joke at first, but no, such thing does exist! I was freezing my a*** off and did not think I could ever be warm again...
But before we reached Gilgit we stopped at the Paradise Grill according to our driver famous for chicken tikka and there after the first bite of super-spicy hot chicken I suddenly was not so cold anymore...
We had booked "our" driver again, who was a very knowledgable travel advisor and had proved to be an unlimited source of information about the area. (Still I cannot remember his name)
With him we left Gilgit early morning and drove along the Ghizer River into the Hindukush mountain range. (Just as a reminder, when we followed Hunza River we reached the Karakorum mountain range) As there is no trade with the Chinese going on along this route, the highway was much less developed and we had to drive a lot slower. But that only gave us more opportunities to take pictures of more snow-covered mountain peaks and deep blue river water under bright sunshine... you just cannot get bored of that scenery!
From time to time we stopped for even more pictures:
We also passed several villages and ex-villages. Apparently this area is regularly hit by landslides burying whole settlements. "Regularly" actually means irregularly, meaning it happens again and again but in varying intervals. We could see massive rock fields and pieces of houses in between. Sometimes people were living in tents on the same spot where their house used to be, sometimes they were resettled a few meters further out of the danger zone. But fact is, the mountains here will not stop moving and landslides will continue to happen and somehow the people live with that risk.
We drove about 3 hours, passing only one police checkpost where my passport had to be registered (all for the tourist's protection) and finally reached Khalti Lake, a place which our driver recommended for picnic.
It was quite cold here as we were higher in the mountains now, but the sun tried hard to warm at least our backs when we were sitting on an old raft on the lakeside munching on our usual picnic food. As it was a countrywide public holiday kids were running around playing cricket and the adults were catching up on gossip. Still, the place where we sat was relatively quiet and our presence attracted only a few sheep.
However, the place was pretty much shut down for winter, so after a short walk we headed back.
But thanks to our driver we made another stop at a "tourist garden". Happy to move a little more we hopped around an area nicely set up with tables and chairs, pavilions, tree lounges and tents along a rocky ridge and when we went on to explore the surroundings we met Farhatullah (whose name I only remember because I have his business card). He was the manager of that tourist garden and had a great vision for the future of his little entreprise and of tourism in Pakistan in general. Over chai and chips we learned that the land was owned by his grandfather and he himself is a passionate polo player and he already has several ten thousand people visiting his tourist garden each season. Families can come here for picnics, enjoy the scenery, the kids can play in the nature and one can undertake short hikes to waterfalls or to the next peak. All this was made up so nicely by someone who truly loves what he does. Talking to Farhatullah myself was not possible as he didn't talk English, but from the way he spoke and the laugh lines around his eyes I could tell how excited he himself was about this project.
But before we reached Gilgit we stopped at the Paradise Grill according to our driver famous for chicken tikka and there after the first bite of super-spicy hot chicken I suddenly was not so cold anymore...
Nice post Christiane. I am also from Ghizer, nice to see your in depth tour, but there is much more to see in Ghizer, you have just gone through few places.
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