Avalanche ride
25/06/2012 14:06
Content:
- Kaghan Valley
- Night Place - Decoration-Place
- Avalanche ride
- Retreat
Kaghan Valley
Once the road was blocked into the Kaghan Valley through Kashmir, we have taken a detour via Abottabad to the Karakoram Highway. Abottabad is the city where the US supposedly found Osama bin Laden. A city like many in Pakistan, nothing special.
Soon, however, we leave the Karakorum Highway or KKH just to get to the Kaghan Valley. Here we want to cross the 4'200m Babasur-Pass, which leads directly into the heart of the mountains in the Northern Areas.
At the entrance to the valley, in the plains, we see many terraces with fields of wheat. Slowly, the good road leads higher, past inviting garden restaurants some of which are built directly into small rivers. In the summer, certainly a refreshing affair but now I keep my feet away from the icy water.
Night Place - Decoration Place
The small field below the road is a good place to sleep we agree. In the house next to it I find children playing. I ask about the father who has not yet returned from work. Gingerly I try to speak with one of the women giggling from their hiding place in the kitchen.
After a few minutes, a pretty young lady is smiling coyly at me from the kitchen door. In English and sign language, I try to explain to her that we would like to stay on her field. The woman immediately understands and agrees after a "war" meeting in the kitchen and we are driving on to the field.
Mark plowed the field straight away, as he promptly sinks into the wet field. We cook something and mount our new Pakistani decorative elements on the cars. The creativity is endless. Look for yourself :)
Avalanche ride
Suddenly and unexpectedly, I find myself in an avalanche. Right and left of me piled snow stretches vertical into the air as I continued to follow the road. Good four meters rises the snow from the road which was dug out by a excavator or that like.
The further we go the higher the walls. The road narrows and winds its way through the snow of a following avalanche. The walls are now up to 10 meters high and the melt water crosses the road in a small river. All over boulders and tree branches which are slowly melting of the avalanche and rolled onto the road. Impressive to move in such a mass of snow. WOW.
And then comes the stop. Shortly before Naran, after we have crossed over 8 avalanches, we are faced with a massive snow blockade. The excavator works its way through the snow, but is still far from the end. Now here is definitely an end to our Babasur-Pass plan. Not even 2600m we were able to climb. Granted, we were very optimistic about crossing this summer-pass in the first days of spring.
Retreat
On the way back we camped at a beautiful spot right on the river with views of the snowy mountains. The dirt road which leds down, was quite bad to drive up again due to rain, but with four-wheel drive and the small gears we clear this muddy hurdle.
Back in Abottabad, we are looking for a suitable sleeping accommodation and find it on the grounds of a beautiful church, which even has a bell tower. (A little note to our Swiss minaret initiative)
The priest is very kind and entertained us at his house and even lets us enjoy a hot shower. We have quite a well-developed body odor since we started in Islamabad. ;)