Weekend away part 3 - Babusar Pass

On Sunday we set out on a little expedition to the top of the valley, some 70km away.

The first challenge was getting out of the car park.  The guys at the guest house
apparently only built it a couple of weeks ago, and are milking this little money-
spinner for all its worth by packing up all the available space.  Even though we'd
told them we'd be leaving early, they still had to go and wake some poor guy up.

There are many side valleys branching off the main one, each one would be
an adventure all by itself.

A view back down the valley, sometime after we stopped at a roadside eatery
for breakfast parathas and omelettes.

One of the better bridges.  At every river crossing there were concrete supports
waiting for a permanent structure to be (re)built, a diversion to a little temporary
structure like this one, and in some cases a little way down the river the twisted
remains of the previous one.  On most, the planks rattle and bounce as you cross,
on one the plates were misaligned meaning you had to slalom across it, but the
best was a tiny one about the width of the car, which you had to drive both on
and off at an angle.  Fun.

You know, parts of this look a lot like Scotland.  Only somewhat... magnified.

Looking up towards the pass.  After a while you get used to roads with no edges.

There are lots these settlements huddled in the base of the valley:  some of them
seemingly abandoned, others being re-inhabited by the nomadic Gujjar peoples
bringing their flocks (mainly goats, sometimes with a few horses/donkeys/mules
thrown in) back up to the summer pastures.  Some of them walk for two months
each way to/from wherever they spend summer.  The richer ones hire a truck.

Keep your thumbs out - the rocks make the steering wheel really kick.

Looking down the other side of the Babusar pass towards Chilas.  There were
a surprising number of tourists up here, in/on a surprising array of vehicles.  I
would not have liked to take a motorbike up those steep twisty gravelly rocky
roads.  It hailed.

The ground up here is festooned with all sorts of tiny little wild flowers - pink,
yellow, blue, purple, white, and even dark red, contrasting with bright orange
and green lichens on the rocks.

Cairns.  I think hills everywhere have these, but I've never come across such
geometrical ones.

Looking down from just below the Babusar Pass into the Gittidas pastures.
Click to view full size.