So after a long time, i finally went up the mountains again.

this time, it wasn’t abbotabad, or murree or any of the regular places. no way, this time.. it was kashmir! azad kashmir to be precise, and it was gorgeous!

it all stared off with an innocent suggestion, a weekend off from work and two road warriors in the same city. we left islambad on the 13th of feb with one intention in mind, to drive till we could drive no more.

and we couldn’t have chosen a better day. with a light sprinkling of rain since morning, we started off on our journey at 3, heading towards pindi-kahuta road to make our way towards rawalakot, our desitination for the night. and as was expected, we managed to get lost within hours of starting our journey.

we had to follow a mehfooz shaheed road towards kahuta, and somewhere missed a turn and ended up at his mazar. mehfooz shaheed was one of the nishan-e-haider recepients and is burried near islamabad. who knew!

anyway, after asking around and a couple other wrong turns, we finally ended up at the right bridge and headed towards kahuta. now i had read that this place was beautiful. the forests were well preserved and it was a dream driving through it, but when we actually got there, it was breath taking!

it’s one area where the timber mafia hasn’t yet gotten their greedy hands on, and it gives a very good view of what the mountainside would’ve actually looked like a couple of decades ago. too bad, it’s only just a little area.

we kept following the road upto azad pattan, where we crossed the bridge over the river which leads to kashmir. so far the road was good and we were still making good time in the daylight. but as with all good things, it had to change…

just as we had crossed the bridge, there was a roadblock. a trailor was coming down the mountain with a tractor loaded on top of it and because of the mud, slipped. the driver of the rig got spooked and refused to move the truck till the rain let up. there was a long trail of cars on both sides waiting to get past and it quickly turned bad.

after around half hour of talking and cajoling the driver, the people finally got him to move the truck and we got through. by this time, it was dark and we decided to stop by a roadside hotel for tea. i dont know whether that was a good move or a bad one. the owner of the hotel asked whether we were going up to rawalakot, and when he heard we were, immediately showed great concern.

he said there are landslides on the shorter route to rawalakot, especially in the rain, and his brother was caught in two days back and barely escaped with his life. he pleaded with us not to take that route, but go by the longer one instead. the difference, he said, was only about 2 hours, but the road would be clear and with no risk of landslides.

being new to the area and not really having any idea where we were, we decided to take his advice. at the prescribed fork in the road, we took the turning for the longer route and started our ascend towards the mountain top…

two hours later, we were still climbing up the mountainside! seriously, there wasn’t even a little dip or a straight road in between. the scene now was one of total darkness, there was hardly any other car on the road, the rain was pounding hard on the windshield, and we periodically went through thick clouds which would practically reduce visibility to within a few feet of the headlights.

when we started out on the trip, we wanted adventure.. and boy did we get it!

it took us another hour to reach rawalakot by that road, and we eventually completed our journey in six hours instead of three. but it was worth every second of it!

the hotel we stayed the night was unremarkable, nothing more than a barebones excuse for a living space. the only good thing was, there were no insects, which kind of made spending the night bearable.we settled in around midnight and slept right through till the morning.

the morning, however, brought with it, it’s own surprise. as we looked out the window, a sheet of white greeted us. out of the blue, it had snowed last night and we were looking out at the aftermath. it was absolutely beautiful! after 15 years, my dream of seeing real live snow was finally realized!

what a way to start off the 14th of feb!

after a quick breakfast, we climbed in the car and headed off to banjosa lake, which we were told was a tourist attraction. another 1.5 hour drive up the mountainside (now we know why kashmir’s known as paradise on earth! the upwards climb never stops!!) brought us to the lovely lake with the shoreline all covered in snow.

originally, we had planned to stay the night there, and hike around the lake, but the snow (which was now turning to slush) put a serious dent in our plans, so we just stopped over for some tea n refreshments, taking in the beautiful countryside and just relaxed.

at noon, we thought of what to do now. the hotel manager back in rawalakot had told us of another way back to pindi which goes up further and would take us through the backside of the valley. “the only problem is you’ll encounter a little patch of broken road, otherwise it’s a good route”. after debating for a couple of minutes, we decided to go on further and see where the road took us. little did we know, the little patch was actually 40 kilometers of absence of anything remotely resembling a road.

the next six hours were spent driving through dirt patches and some very poor excuses for roads will we reached the town of palindri. in between that, we did one of the best features of a roadtrip. we kept stopping where ever our hearts desired.

this one stop was especially breath taking. right where the other valley began we were going through a turn where the view was spectacular and we thought we’d stop for a bit. on the way, we had bought some oranges and this seemed like the perfect spot to devour them.

sitting on a stone, near the very top of a mountain, eating citrus fruit and not having either a destination nor a care in the world! now that is a vacation!

the only down point was that the road and the view after that point took a downwards turn and we didn’t have anything good to look at till we reached a waterfall near palindri. because it had rained n snowed, everyplace water could flow from, it was flowing, and we were treated to scene’s of beautiful waterfalls all through the journey.

near the last waterfall, there was a stream and a roadside hotel where we stopped for tea and cakes. as the tea was being prepared, we stepped down into the pool of water the waterfall cum stream had joined at, washed ourselves up, and just enjoyed the sounds of the water rushing past! it was so peaceful right there that i didn’t want to leave.

till, ofcourse, our tea was ready.

i realized i was hungry then, after i had gobbled down nearly four pieces of cake and still wanted more. no, i told myself, but grabbed another piece anyway.

our last stop on this journey was this hanging bridge on the river we had crossed to get into kashmir. it was constructed out of wood and steel cables and just wide enough to walk on. we got there and spent nearly an hour enjoying the water rushing past and the scene of the valleys at each side of us.

i guess not everyone was happy about our just standing there, because we got some very angry looks by a couple of local women who went past, annoyed baa’s by goats that were crossing, till finally a policeman came up to us and started inquiring. that’s when we decided to take our leave and make our way back.

and so brought the end to our near 24 hours of driving through the kashmir valley. we were tempted at that point to point the car up towards muzafarabad, but then left it for another day.

now that’s how you vacation!