Next up: Naran-Kaghan

It was the first week of July and we were all super excited to be going to Shandur for the polo festival. We had been preparing for days. We had reserved seats on a C-130 to take us there. The flight was scheduled for Saturday. Unfortunately, the plane departed from Islamabad on Friday due to bad weather forecast on Saturday, but nobody informed us. Saturday morning came and we were all set to leave for the airport when we received the news. We got disheartened but our luggage was packed and we were yearning to travel. Therefore, we shoved our luggage into our car and decided to travel to the Naran-Kaghan region instead.

We started our journey at 11am and made our first stop at Abbottabad for lunch at Usmania restaurant, which never disappoints. After satisfying our hunger, we moved on towards Shinkiari and passed Mansehra on the way. Mansehra was almost an hour away from Abbottabad and it took us another hour or so to reach Shinkiari.

 We stayed the night in Shinkiari at an army mess. Shinkiari was a small and peaceful place, very close to nature.

We were relaxed the next morning and ready to travel again. We crossed Balakot and almost 30 minutes ahead, got caught up in a landslide. It took heavy machinery almost 2 hours to open the road for traffic. A long queue of cars had formed. It took us another 30 minutes to get out of traffic but we were finally through. As soon as we got out, we realized that we had a punctured tyre. A local told us to go back to Balakot and get it fixed because we were not going to find any shop ahead that fixed tubeless tires. So we headed back to Balakot to get it fixed. We were almost 4 hours behind schedule by then. After getting the tyre fixed, we headed towards Shogran.

The road to Shogran is very steep. Most cars cannot even make the climb to the top. Night had fallen when we got there. It had started raining as well, and we were exhausted. We went into our hotel rooms and slept. We woke up in the morning to the sound of rainfall and thunder. We were starving so we ordered breakfast. The weather had ruined our whole plan to visit Siri Paye. Siri Paye is an amazing spot with lots of hills, plains and greenery, so there was no point going there in fog and rain.

 The rain came to a halt in the afternoon so we left our rooms to explore Shogran. It was a very touristy place with lots of people everywhere. The Government rest house there is particularly famous because of its huge gardens and scenic location. We stayed the following night in Shogran as well.

The next morning we were up early to head to Naran. We came back down the steep road and joined the main road. We stopped for lunch in Kaghan at a restaurant on the river.

 The food was delicious. We got back in our car and went straight to the bazaar of Naran city.

 Luckily, we found a new hotel of which we became the very first guests. It was clean and affordable, what more could we ask? There was no internet though. Anyways we dumped our luggage in our rooms and walked out to see what the bazaar had to offer. There were all sorts of shops from clothes and souvenirs to everyday commodities. We also came across a very large chicken that weighed almost 10kgs! We had dinner from one of the restaurants, did some souvenir shopping and went back to the hotel to sleep.  

The following afternoon, we went to a local restaurant known for its trout fish. It was the first time we were having trout, which is a very delicate fish that swims against the flow of the water. It tasted sublime. Around two in the afternoon, we got on the road to head to our destination for the day: Lake Saif ul Mulook. It is a lake situated between mountains at a height of 10,500ft. The road that leads up to the lake is quite rough and the only access is through jeeps.

 We hired a jeep to take us there. It was a constant ascend and we came across two glaciers as well. Encountering glaciers in the middle of June is itself quite something.

When we reached the lake, we were left in awe by the beauty of it. It had snowcapped mountains surrounding it, and it had bright teal water itself. It was stunning.

 We went sledding on the snowy mountains, which was a lot of fun considering it was summer season. We also came across a guide who briefed us about the history of the lake and the myth that it has fairies which come out at night. We got intrigued and decided to spend the night there. Therefore, we rented a tent and camped for the night. It was a full moon night and the lake looked gorgeous in the moonlight. We did not see any fairies though.

We woke up early the next morning and came back to Naran. We changed clothes and freshened up, and headed towards this place called Jhalkad. We did not make it to Jhalkad but the Naran-Jhalkad road is one of the best drives I have ever had. The road is full of ever-changing scenery. You get to see snow-capped mountains, lush green mountains, waterfalls and even water crossings on the road. It was an amazing experience.

We were out of time and decided to return back to Islamabad the next day, even though there was a lot more to see that we wanted to but it just wasn’t possible in that trip.