Gilgit - Baltistan
Shimshal and Lupgar Valley
Impressive panorama from Gar-e-Sar
A travel account posted by a tourist on a travel blog, June 17, 2008
Shimshal is a very remote Wakhi village whose inhabitants have more common with the people from Afghanistan and Tajikistan than Pakistan. They mostly live from their cattle and due to its remoteness there are just a small number of tourists visiting that place every year. When we arrived there have only three other people been in the only open hotel this year. That’s what I call ‘off the beaten track’. I was traveling with Robert, an English guy who lives in the French Alps.
The way up there was really spectacular. The road through the massive gorge of the Shimshal River has just been completed a few years before after 16-18 years of construction time and the cost of three lives. Before that time the people had to carry everything they needed from the outside world for three to four days over a neck breaking footpath to the village. Nowadays, a three hour jeep ride will bring you there but it’s still dangerous. ‘El camino de la muerte’ seams to be a highway in comparison. We spend the second half of the ride on the roof what was a lot of fun but also endangered or lives much more. Several times you had to jump from one side to the other because of overhanging rocks that would sweep you off the roof and a few hundred meters down the gorge if you’re not careful enough and some bridges with steel cables that touched us while passing even thou we were trying to avoid them. All in all a lot of fun!
For detail account and pictures visit the orignal source: Shimshal
The beautiful panoramic view of Yazghail glacier.
Photo taken from Gar-e-Sar, Shimshal