Letters from the Road | ISHKAR in Hunza 2022

I recently returned from leading ISHKAR's latest trip to Northern Pakistan co-hosted by Matthieu Paley and our Hunza-based guide Noor-ul Amin.

The trip was full of spontaneous, surprising moments, only made possible by our guiding team's personal connections, and of course - our travellers' willingness to go wherever the moment may take us.

Here are a few of the unplanned adventures that distracted us while out on the road, and made the trip one to remember long beyond the return home.

Clare
Head of Travel

 

 

Head up the Karakoram Highway, past the last town before the world's highest border post between Pakistan and China, and turn left. After a few hours of bumping down a dirt and gravel track with the Pamir Mountains to one side and the Chapursan River to the other, you'll find Yishkuk.

This is where we spent three days of exploration, walking the road towards the Wakhan Corridor and the pilgrim-pulling shrine of Baba Ghundi, and dodging out the way of polo-playing horses beneath the mountains. It's the stories of roads like this, and the communities which travel and trade alongside them, which Matthieu has told for publications like National Geographic - and then us, as we travelled alongside him.

During our time in Yishkuk, we had not just the mountains for company, but also a band of musicians who pulled into camp to play their music for us through the night while we danced beneath the stars. While packing up camp early the next morning, a smuggled recording from the night before was put on play, turning the grassland into the world's most spectacular dance floor, surrounded by glaciers, yaks, mountains and of course, each other.

NATURE'S BOUNTY

Hunza Valley

 

 

Our journey through the Hunza Valley was led not just by sight, but also by what our noses could sniff out on the road in front of us.

Village explorations were best initiated by a ripe cherry tree, or branches bursting with mulberries, prompting us to pull over, get out on foot and explore deeper into the villages from there.

Whether it was our guide Amin harvesting the best cherries from his backyard in Ali Abad, or mountain guides like Faiz teaching us to shake white mulberries from the trees in Passu Village, our fruit-based explorations usually ended with new friends, full bellies and plenty of stockpiles for the road.

It wasn't just the fruit that kept our bellies full, but impromptu stops for road-side chapchurro (traditional pies), endless cups of chai, and deliciously flaky paratha washed down with salt and pepper spiced lime juice.

 

 

 

What better way to wake up for the day than with a dip in a crystal clear lake at high altitude, fed by fresh water from a glacier framing the view of the mountains in front of you?

Even in the height of summer, fresh snowfall can shake down the peaks of Northern Pakistan, as it did while we walked to our swim spot over 3000 metres above sea level in the Chapursan Valley. Although it was bright and sunny, we watched an isolated cloud dump fresh snow on a distant peak, while we navigated a footbridge across a glacial river where yaks waded by the banks.

With a bag weighed down by freshly-brewed coffee and biscuits, we picked our way across the rocks to a blue lagoon buried in the valley. We'd woken not much earlier, our intent for the day being breakfast and a journey on foot to a distant shrine. We unzipped our tents to find glorious sunshine followed by an off-hand suggestion we should turn to cold water swimming to wash the sleep from our limbs.

Half an hour later, sunning ourselves by the water with a hot drink in hand while we dried in the early morning light, we were ready to pick up our bags and continue onwards with our trek for the day.