Back trek to Mithramdan : Day 8 / Icy waters near Wargoth

Trek: From Wargoth to Mithramdan base camp
Originally uploaded by Ameer Hamza

The glacier slides from the top right corner; the icy waters; the beautiful, single tree. This place surely ranks one of the most outstanding places in all of Pakistan - atleast among the places I have visited till now (Sep, 2011). And all my trekker friends agree to it. I hope you will too.

Back trek to Mithramdan : Day 8 / Landscape around Wargoth

Trek: From Wargoth to Mithramdan
Originally uploaded by Ameer Hamza

Such a dreamy landscape came into view that I was at once reminded about the British Raj paintings of landscapes from around British India. This surely must have made to the very top. The beautiful brown horse roaming around in a dreamy, green landscape cooled by the breeze. Off course you cannot sense the light breeze here but you can, as a viewer, sense the beauty of Pakistan.

Back trek to Mithramdan : Day 8 / Zain with Ibex horns, Wargoth

Zain with Ibex horns, Wargoth
Originally uploaded by Ameer Hamza

Before we left our friend and group member, Mr. Zain, found, much to his amazement, a pair of old ibex horns. They were partly damaged but were still stately. And very heavy indeed. So the problem arose about their safe passage back to Faisalabad, where Zain resides. That was solved by one of our porters. And to commemorate this most auspicious find I asked Zain to place the horns over his head and hold them till I may shoot. It was difficult for him, although he is a strong man, but he managed it in the end.

We were now happy. Pakistan remains an unexpected country and nowhere in the world are you likely to find such precious horns lying in the forest for 12 years! That can only happen in Pakistan and that's one good reason why Pakistan remains such an attractive destination for foreigners despite so many bombs going off.

Back trek to Mithramdan : Day 8 / Wargoth camp site

Wargoth camp site
Originally uploaded by Ameer Hamza

That's me on the right with Adeel in our yellow, leaking camp. The time is 7:57 AM and we were almost freezing without a proper cup of tea. And we were of course very sad that we were returning. In fact, I was the saddest. Some others looked jolly. You cannot control your destiny sometimes; you have to go with the group, with the tide. And you need to be optimistic. As a traveller that is doubly important. In fact, must I say that being optimistic and 'open' are the virtues of a good traveller.

We soon packed up and left this most wonderful place. I hope to return to this very camp site with my family and friends. INSHALLAH.

Back trek to Mithramdan : Day 7 / Crossing Chilingi glacier

Chilingi glacier, Pakistan
Originally uploaded by Ameer Hamza

After packing up, final good-byes, and the usual phone-number swapping, diary writing and last shots made of the group - which did not come out as planned - we left for good. We were sighing heavily as if we had lost something dear. In this case, we'd lost a golden chance to see some of the most fascinating landscape of the world. And most of us weren't sure whether next year we would be able to return to it or not. The fast deteriorating condition of Pak-Afghan border, incursions of Taliban and imminent pull out of US Army from Afghanistan are all the likely factors which will come into play in this area's security. For now there was none.

After crossing a settlement of Gujjars we reached this beautiful landscape and instantly fell in love with it. It is not usual in this time of the year (September) that you get such a wondrous chance to shoot glacier landscapes. But I got and I shot it with 50mm lens.

Back trek to Mithramdan : Day 7 / Volleyball at Sokhtarabad

Volleyball, Sokhtarabad camp site, Pakistan
Originally uploaded by Ameer Hamza

After looking for some shots around I requested the police wallas and Naseer to re-start their game of volleyball. This, I must remind you, is a difficult thing to do under cold weather. The coldness can really hurt you in a game like volleyball. Nevertheless, they played it again and I got my photographs. This photograph is surely one of the those I always wanted with grand and beautiful mountains in the background and the players in superb action.

Back trek to Mithramdan : Day 7 / Sokhtarabad again!

Playing ludo among Sokhtarabad mountains
Originally uploaded by Ameer Hamza

So we had returned to Sokhtarabad completely demoralized by the ineptitude, nay, dishonesty of the Trekkerz group of Pakistan. We were expecting Tanweer and Fareed (owners of this fraud group) to be honest, upright men, as they always tend to claim. But they thoroughly disappointed us. Not these men, though. These police wallas were playing a game of ludo happily under a brilliant blue sky. The sun was welcome and we soon got off our heavy clothing. Talat the cheater, as we now called him, told us that God wanted us to return. What a freak!