As per plan of the Tour, our Tourist Panel a group of tourism enthusiast friends as already discussed briefly in the first part, gathered at a friends place in Islamabad and aligned our resources and discussed our plan as we had a limited time and lot of places to visit. Our vehicle arrived on time and we left from Islamabad at about 02:00am on the Friday night. Travelling on the M1 Motorway and then on Swat Motorway, we had a short stop on the highway and left the main highway from Chakdara Interchange and headed towards our destination passing by the Lower Dir, Timargara and finally in Upper Dir we stopped for breakfast at Patrak.
First Day:
By 12:00pm we were in the middle of Thall main bazar after approximately 10 hours of travel. It was a shinning Friday and there was Wonderful looking and mighty Mosque in the bazar on the bank of Panjkora river stream.
This mosque also got featured in one of leading English News paper of Pakistan, You can have a look here. Let me share about the mosque that it is completely built with Wood, it has mighty Pillars made with tree stems with engraving on them. In fact sitting in the mosque where ever you see it is totally wood crafted building, pillars and beams, floor and roof, doors and windows, terrace and stairs like every where you will find only wood. We offered our Friday prayer in that historic mosque named Dar Ul Islam and left Thall for Taqi top nearly around 03:00pm after launch.
Passing by the small villages and adventurous terrains on the lush green hills, we reached Taqi top at around 5:00 pm. Taqi top is not a tourist spot but a base camp of Jahaz banda Plains. Here one can roam around to opt for a horse or hike on his own up to the Jahaz Banda as jeep could not climb up further.
We decided to hike this track on our own but as we were carrying lot of luggage as well, So for luggage we decided to hire a donkey. From Taqi top to Jahaz Banda it was a mixed track with some steep and plain hikes. We offered our Asar Prayer in an under construction mosque on the way to the Jahaz Banda and had some picture around as well that are here under.
As a result of adventurous and tiring hike of about 2:30 hours we reached Jahaz banda when day was almost gone. Jahaz Banda is a very beautiful place with lush green fields surrounded with snow covered peaks and chilling weather even in the hot season of summer. Here we were left with no energy to further enjoy the night and So we decided to arrange a comfy hotel and tasty dinner to have a fantastic day ahead.
Second Day:
We all got up early in the morning before dawn for our morning prayers and got ready for the hike to the Katora lake. By 06:00 am in the morning we were all geared up and ready for a tough hike towards lake. It was quite strange for me as a resident of Open terrain that we were not greeted by the birds when passing by the trees specially in the early morning hours, but in those hills where snow disappears for only a couple of months it is not a habitat of birds.
After a light hike of about 1 hour we reached on the bank of small Katora. We were so early that the boat men and small canteen owner on the bank of the lake were getting things ready and we were their first customers. We got some snacks from that canteen and ride on the boat to get on the other side of the lake to proceed further.
The lake water was crystal clear and freezing cold. Motorized boat in no time took us across the lake and we started tough span of our hike, from there onward step hike on the stones along the stream of Katora lake started. Below is the picture of that area where nothing other than stones can be found.
After tough hike of another 1:30 hour we were finally there on the bank of Katora Lake. It is simply a gloriously crafted Natural Beauty, crystal clear water, covered with high peaks from all sides and glacier on the back ground of the lake, What a perfect combination of colors it is. There was a small Tea shop on the top of the mountain where we enjoyed cup of tea of the fresh Goat milk and after spending some time around lake and capturing those beautiful moments we finally started our journey back towards Jahaz banda.
(Continued . . .)
PS:
Thankyou for your time if you made this long then may be you would like to have a look at first part of this trip and a brief introduction of our Travel Group.
https://read.cash/@engr.utman/tourist-group-and-visit-of-northern-areas-of-pakistan-part-1-107854ab
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Its good to see places from other countries like this. I once read a novel written by Khalid Hosseni entitled The Kite Runner and in it I kind of picture out the places in Pakistan. Thank you for this my friend.