Finally the big day arrived, now the real tour began to explore the Northern beauty of Pakistan. We woke up early and departed Islamabad at 7 in the morning, we were to travel towards Naran and see some beautiful places along the way. It had been 3 hours since we had begun our journey and we stopped near a spot where a river was flowing. Man the water was absolutely clear and cold, I mean you couldn’t keep your feet under the water for more than a couple of minutes we stopped there and took some pictures enjoying the view. I couldn’t imagine that this was just the beginning and more was to come. It was like watching a trailer for an upcoming thriller movie.
After that we came to a town known as Shogran, this was a new town built after devastation, a massive earthquake hit here back in 2006 which resulted in many casualties and houses being destroyed. People still haven’t forgotten that tragedy, as our jeep driver talked us about his horror in which his whole family died because their house just demolished on them. He was lucky to be out in the field during this earthquake, we felt grief for him and gave his consolation and good luck for his wife and daughter. There was a restaurant built on a bank where water was flowing the tables and chairs were placed on top of a thin layer of flowing water. We sat there and just enjoyed the smell of freshness and ambience away from the polluted cities. We ordered Karahi and the famous Trout fish they were offering, it was quite tasty.
After the lunch it was time for our first taste of adventure, we headed to the top of a mountain known as SiriPaye, in the native language Siri means a lake and Paye means the top. We booked a 4x4 long chassis jeep which could only travel to the top on the steep and rugged track to the top. The journey was just about an hour but it felt like an eternity all of us were just praying to survive and reach back safely. Yeah it was really scary but our driver was an expert and had an experience of 8 years driving here. He told us that even when it is snowing the track is open and they put chains on the tire for traction and grip and take tourists to the top.
The lake (Siri)
First we reached the lake **which was some distance beneath the top, then came the main attraction the Paye (Top) there were snowcapped mountains all wound the place wherever you looked. The view was simply amazing I have no words of the feeling I had at the time seeing the scenic beauty of the place. We were at a height of 10,000 feet and above, we could feel that our body wasn’t functioning like usual. Anything we did was making us feel exhausted a small hike on the top made us come out of breath all the things included it was all worth it.
By the time we came back to Shogran it was night and we booked a hotel room and decided to stay there. The next day was also a big one of course wait for more adventures on the trip.
