Memories of Jazbanda, Katora Lake and Kumrat Valley (Part 1)

Part 1: The Journey to Jandarai

“I shall never come to the mountains again; this is my last venture. What have I done to myself? This is crazy. I have come too far in love of mountains. I should stop it now. I hope, I have enough strength to go back from here. I have a family which does not even have a clue about my situation. This is stupidity. I should stop it.” I was lying half conscious in a camp at Katora Lake and thinking all that.

It was me who initiated the expedition to Katora Lake. I called Abdul Sattar and convinced him to visit Katora Lake, instead of Dodipatsar Lake. I told him this area is still unexplored and amazingly beautiful.

Next Saturday me, Abdul Sattar and Junaid (Sattar ‘s colleague) were going to Islamabad to one of my friend Shoaib home in Islambad. Shoaib gave us camp and sleeping bags to stay at Jazbanda and also guided us about the route. From here we took taxi for pir wadai general bus stand where a coaster was ready to leave at 11 pm. We missed our bus to Upper Dir; coaster was leaving when we reached at pir wadai grand bus stand Islamabad. Thanks fully there was last bus remaining we booked our tickets and waited for 2 hours before leaving for Upper Dir. Now we were on our way to upper dir. It was local bus (coaster) with window A.C. Means we need to open the widows for fresh air, no A.C. We gossiped a little bit and then tried to sleep but believe me no one could sleep the whole night. It was morning and we were at “Timargira”. It’s a small town before upper Dir where one can find direct busses to Lahore as few busses directly go to Lahore from upper Dir. Soon we were at upper Dir.

Upper Dir is a Pashton area and we had an impression that it’s not safe but believe me people of that region are very friendly and hospitable.

“You are our guest; tell me if you need anything.”

“You are our guest; you don’t need to pay for it.”

I have not heard these sentences anywhere else as many times as I have heard it in this region.

We had breakfast at bus stand. Our next destination was a small town “Thal“, which was almost 4 hours from Upper Dir. To go there we chose local transport. Here as local transport we had two options one was a land cruiser and other was car (local know as fielder car) we chose the second one. Usually 4 people sit on back seat and 2 on front seat of this fielder but we asked to pay for 4 people in back seat so that we 3 could comfortably sit on back seat. It was 400 Rs per person and we requested the driver to settle on 1500 Rs with us which he happily accepted. Sattar bought a Telenore (mobile carrier company) SIM as he wanted to stay connected with his wife, this I think was against his concept about going to mountains. According to him he wants to go to complete wilderness far away from civilization so that he can explore himself and nature but I guess one can escape from civilization but not from one’s wife.

Now we were on our way to “Thal”. There was election 2018 after few days and I was keen to know the opinion of the local people about different parties and Junaid was desperate to take tea. On our way to “thal” we stopped at a small town where Junaid got chance to take tea and I found this opportunity to know opinion of locals about election. To my surprise they were mostly in favor of Imran Khan.

Enjoying hospitality of locals with hot political discussions and tea (Yes he is not any Pashtoon or Taliban disguised in western outfit, he is Junaid with black sun glasses)

Thal

It was noon when we reached “Thal”. It’s a small town from where one can go towards left side along the river to “Kumrat valley” and towards right side to “Jindarai”. Jindarai is a village from where one can reach to Jazbanda after 5 hours tedious hiking. Our initial plan was to stay at “Thal” and then go to Jindarai next day but I was really concerned about weather as we only had two days clear weather window available. So we decided to leave “Thal” for “Jindarai”. We offered prayer in an old and beautiful mosque at “Thal”. This mosque is totally made of wood and one must visit this mosque from inside, one must say it’s a jewel of “Thal”. I got busy in arranging transportation for “Jindarai” while Sattar and Junaid bought lots of unstitched suits for their wives (Aisay hotay hain husbands). They paid full for the suits and left all of them with the shopkeeper and told him that they would collect it on their way back. By the way it was not a proper shop it was just a stall on the road near that beautiful mosque, I was surprised on the blind trust but then they took the shopkeeper’s cell number.

Molana sb at Thal main mosque is preaching to a group of people after Zohar prayer.

This is me with a local boy with Thal grand mosque behind us. (One can see the land cruiser which took us to Jindari on left side of the picture)

The driver who drove us from Upper Dir to Thal was initially going to take us to Jindarai but then he got other passengers as we wasted lot of time in shopping. The driver excused us and said he has talked to another driver who had land cruiser which already had passengers but three seats were available. He said, “The other driver will take you to Jindarai in 1000 Rs”, which was an attractive offer. We hopped on to Land cruiser filled with young Pashtoon students of a local university. They were excited to go to Jazbanda and were coming from Kumrat valley after 5 hours hiking. By the way it’s a road from Thal to Kumrat valley and even cars can reach the valley and there was no point of hiking for 5 hours, but I guess it’s a Pashtoon thing.

After only less than one hour drive we were at Jandarai. There was a museum, with local heritage at display, where Land cruiser dropped us. We were excited to reach Jazbanda so we decided not to visit museum and continue our journey towards Jazbanda. We hired two locals as a porter with on 1000 Rs per porter and handed over our camp, sleeping bags and two backpacks to them. To my surprise our friends from local university did not take any porter with them and during our journey to Jazbanda it was revealed to me that they were carrying uncooked rice and stove with gas cylinder and many more heavy things with them. They were planning to cook their own food at Jazbanda there was no point of cooking at Jazbanda as we had got the information from Jandarai that food even accommodation was available at Jazbanda but again I think that was a Pashtoon thing . We were even thinking to leave our camp at Jandarai but then as we got porters so we decided to bring it with us which later on proved to be a bad decision.

Jandarai museum this is where we hired porters. Sattar and Junaid are preparing for hike to Jazbanda while children are playing with water.

On our way to Jazbanda from Jandarai with Alamgir and Zafer leading the way to Sattar and Junaid.

 

Now we were hiking through Jandarai village. Small cottages with wooden fences surrounded by tall pine trees crammed mountains under blue sky with floating clouds; it was like a dream village. Sattar and Junaid were gone as they were desperate to reach Jazbanda but I was walking slowly to feel everything around me. As it is being said, “It’s not the destination it’s the journey that matters”.

Beautiful pine tree covered mountain behind Jandarai

A wooden fence around a potato field

Beautiful house on the Jazbanda track.

A local crossing a small tree logs bridge

The steep incline through the jungle after Jandarai village.

Ok; Sattar and Junaid, don’t get angry, I admit, I was walking slowly because I am a slow hiker and you guys are phenomenal hikers. Infect it was Junaid’s first attempt of hiking and he did it in style by reaching Jazbanda with Sattar one hour before me.

Our Pashtoon friends accompanied me for a long time as they were carrying heavy stuff so they were resting after regular interval to catch their breath; on the other hand I was literally taking one step in two seconds and believe me my step was as long as my foot was. I hiked very slowly but persistently. So my Pashtoon friends would hike fast and then they would stop and rest and then when I would cross them walking in slow motion they would get the feeling that how could I crossed them so they would start hiking again and would cross me again. We played this cat and mouse game for almost two hours then I gave them suggestion to hire a porter which they took seriously and they hired a donkey to carry their luggage and after they crossed me for the last time and I could never catch them afterwards, and I am sure it’s a Pashtoon thing .

Our local university friends are resting on the way to Jazbanda.

It was a jungle on a mountain with beautiful pine trees. The track was so much steep that taking one step required lot of strength. I was gradually climbing up Sattar and Junaid were long gone and my Pashtoon friend had also left me behind for good but luckily one of our porters stayed with me. He was very encouraging whenever I got tired he said, “You are doing fine keep it up.” His encouragement and beautiful nature around kept me going. I had one bottle of water with me, I was taking small sips of water as I didn’t know if we could find water on the way but my porter told me that there were many fresh and cold water springs on the way so we had no problem of water during track.

One of the fresh and cold water springs on our way to Jazbanda. One can wrapper thrown by civilized visitor to make environment more colorful.

I noticed that the steep inclined jungle was about to end I could see a beautiful meadow at the end of it. When I reached to that meadow I saw Sattar and Junaid taking tea and waving at me. I thought that we have reached to Jazbanda but this was not the case. The place was so beautiful that it could be an attractive destination on its own but we took it just like a resting point on the way to Jazbanda. You should be thinking how so far from the last village tea was available? Yes! Tea was available in that wilderness. There was a small tuck shop at that meadow and for those who love tea (Junaid) this was more than a five star hotel.

A beautiful meadow in the way to Jazbanda (One can see a small tuck shop under pine tree at right corner of this picture)

When I reached to that meadow I saw baby goats were running and cattle were grazing I felt like nature has surrounded me with all of its purity. Sattar offered tea but I was more into nature than tea so I ignored tea and started capturing beautiful surrounding. I was too lost in the magic of that place that I forgot that this is not the destination and It was getting dark. Both of my friends had already gone, they left as soon I reached to this meadow as if they were just waiting to see if I was alive. Now again I was alone with my porter friend. He told me that it is getting dark and we should move. I wanted to sit there for long but then I decided to move ahead.

Baby goats are running away from me as I was trying to capture them. They don’t even want to show their faces to me.

Cattle are grazing at the beautiful meadows while one can see snow covered mountains of Kumrat valley.

Yellow flowers at meadow with beautiful tree covered mountain behind

As I started my journey to Jazbanda the guy at the tuck shop shouted, “Don’t you want to take your tea?”

Oh! I forgot, I said.

“Please also pay the bill for three cups of tea”, He said.

At this point I remembered how generously my dear friend Sattar offered me the tea, and now I knew the reason. I finished my cup of tea which was cold like ice tea; I paid the bill and again stared my journey toward Jazbanda.

At the beautiful meadows just after taking tea (P.C. my porter friend Zafer)

“How far we have to go from this point?” I asked my porter friend.

“Don’t worry it’s not far from here only one hour from here. Can you see that jungle we just need to cross that and then we shall reach Jazbanda”, my porter friend said.

I could see the jungle, it looked like it was right there but actually it was not. Soon we were walking through jungle.

Track leading us to the jungle on the way to Jazbanda. One can see clouds on the mountains of Jazbanda

A beautiful snow covered mountain on the way to Jazbanda after crossing beautiful meadow

 

Beginning of the Jungle with lots of boulders on the way

The jungle had dense concentration of very tall pine trees and few of them were so big that if you would want to circle around them by holding each other’s hand then you would require five people to circle the trunk of those trees. I have not seen such big pine trees before. After a while I noticed that there are some people sitting far away in trees , when I reached near them I saw one local has captured a baby monkey and others were gathered to see it. It was a small baby and it was crying for its parents.

“Why have you captured it? I asked the local guy.

“I will take it to my home with me” he replied.

“Leave it; it is crying for its parents”. I shouted.

“Baby monkey parents will kill it if we leave it, it has human smell on it now, its family will not accept it anymore”, he replied.

What are you going to do with it?” I asked.

“I will bring it up”, He said.

In this fast and materialistic world it is even hard to raise one’s own children, How are you going to raise this baby monkey, I replied.

Deep inside now I knew that this local guy was baby monkey’s only chance to survive so I did not force him to leave it and left them playing with little baby monkey with deep heart. Still I sometimes hear that little baby monkey crying for its parents and I don’t understand how us, the humans can’t feel for animals?

A baby monkey captured by locals just 10 min before I reached there (He is my porter friend with black leather jacket)

“Are they some kind of dangerous animals in this jungle?” I enquired from my porter friend.

“Yes! There are tigers in this jungle”, He replied.

“Tigers? We don’t have tigers in Pakistan, do we?” I asked the question.

My porter friend understood that he could not fool me so he replied, “I guess not, but there are dog like animals which hunt on local cattle”.

First I thought he I talking about hyenas but then I thought hyenas only exist in Africa so I asked my porter friend for detailed description. He told me the local name of the animal which I did not get properly as I have never heard about it before. Then he tried to explain the description he told me that in winter they don’t come down from mountain and after snow melts they come down from mountain to hunt on local cattle. He told me that at the beginning of summer they hunt more as they did not get enough food during winter. I suddenly got the idea that this animal could be wolf and wolf it was. So now when I know that there were wolves on those mountains and it was getting dark I was a bit terrified from inside but believe me I did not show my fear to my porter friend and continued my hike slowly not because I was not afraid of the situation but because I did not have enough strength left to walk faster otherwise in my heart I wanted to run for my life.

A bed of flowers on the way to Jazbanda while crossing the jungle (There a small hut where one can find tea and cold drinks and special Pakoray even in this jungle)

Finally the jungle ended and now I could see a small hut after a steep incline.

“That is Jazbanda over there”, my porter friend said.

Now I could see the destination but I was literally dead tired and had no energy to climb the final slope. I had no other option but to continue my journey as it was almost dark.

Final incline just before Jazbanda (One can see a small hut on the edge of the incline. Actually that is where we spent our night)

At last I was at Jazbanda, it was amazing one could see snow covered peaks all around this lush green meadow. Sattar and Junaid were offering Magrib prayer when I reached to them. Camp was ready for camping I put my backpack inside the camp and left to survey the surroundings. Locals were building hotels for the tourists. We were told that there are camps available up there at Jazbanda but now I could see wooden huts as hotels at Jazbanda.