One day Excursion Turned Out to be a Great Experience [Episode-III]

This post is the sequel to...
"One day Excursion Turned Out to be a Great Experience [Episode-I]"
and
"One day Excursion Turned Out to be a Great Experience [Episode-II]"

It was Ramadan and we were fasting that day as well. So we thought of moving ahead and reaching “Kel” before the Maghrib Prayer. But our estimates about time went wrong. We had hired a jeep and now we were scared as we were completely new to this area and we had trusted a completely stranger as our driver. He could have taken us wherever he wanted to. We had heard stories of missing people in the mountains. The prevailing atmosphere added to such feelings. The route was totally deserted. We couldn’t see even a single human being all the way to Kel. The sun had already refused to shine anymore and the mountains; which were beautiful in the day time, were now looming ferociously on our right and left like dark huge monsters. The trees were even worst, looking like ghosts but the smaller ones with many arms. The river was again far from us, deep down in to the valley, as the road to Kel is constructed high on the mountains. Thanks to my imaginative mind - I even thought of chances of the jeep falling in to the abyss where the river was flowing. It seemed immensely dark and deep, just like the one in the ocean, which has no ending, no bottom. It was a sea of darkness. The sound effects were provided by the distant rushing river and occasional flapping of wings of some bird which falls from the perch where it’s resting. The daylight breathtaking scenes had turned in to horrible scenes in the dark. Amid all this, our jeep was moving ahead in the darkness with its headlights on and the sound of its revving engine piercing in to the silence.

Our endless journey at last ended in to the town of Kel. People were still out in the streets, so it was easy for us to find a hotel. You can find a few hotels here as it is relatively a bigger town. The room was all made up of wood. The walls, the floor, and the ceiling all were of Pine wood. Even the toilet was wooden. There was a sensuous aromatic smell of Pine all inside the hotel and inside the rooms. The town is essentially an oval shaped valley inside the bigger valley of Neelum. The sky among the surrounding mountains in the night looks like a giant orb which is illuminated further by millions of shinning silvery bulbs and almost seems like something artificially created. The night was getting colder and colder and we were chilling even under our heavy quilts in the room.

As we had to start the return journey early next day so we got up early in the morning so that we can have a good look around the town of Kel. After having a heavy breakfast we went out to see around. Everything was covered in white frost. It was around 8 o’ clock and the chilly wind of the night was still blowing. We were wearing ample clothes to get protected against it but it was just piercing inside so brutally. The heat of the sun rays was yet not so enough to make it warmer or even to make it tolerable. People of the town were coming out now sitting idly alongside the streets – talking and smoking or savoring oranges. Contrary to the people of Punjab plains, they didn’t have much to do during this time of the year. They had already sown and harvested maize (the only crop) and now they have no worries for the upcoming winters. May be that’s why their faces reflected contention despite the cruel early winter winds. We saw very few of them working – they too were doing nothing but spreading the maize to get dried. Yes few of them were collecting wood. It seems like they are very much dependent upon the wood. Farming is not much of a generative kind of profession because of very little area of land and that too is not suitable for cultivating grains. The wood from various perennial trees like Pine is all they have, all the year, and they are quite generous in using this natural resource. They use it to build their houses, their day-to-day use tools, their strangely looking granaries, bridges, water storage tanks and the most important use is to get energy in the form of heat to cook food and warm themselves.

Yet we had only seen one of the genders in the market places – men. We got a chance to see women when we marched to relatively suburbs of the town near the bank of the river. They were sensual and wildly beautiful with their fair complexion, sharp facial features and deep dark eyes. I couldn’t help imagining them cat-walking down the aisle on any of the international fashion show. They were no less than any of the supermodels I had ever seen. Alas! All of the women we saw were married and had many kids who were getting ready to go to school. As I was teasing around the kids who were getting shy to see strangers, my friend X gathered around me a few kids and took a memorable photograph which till this day I treasure as the best photograph of our trip.

Kel is relatively a large town comprising some 7000 of populace. The dialect of Kashmiri language which is spoken here is more or less like Pothohari, a dialect of Punjabi. The town has a hospital, a high school (intermediate college) each for boys and girls and a small market where you can easily buy ordinary day-to-day stuff along with the local handicrafts. The most beautiful stuff is the embroidered women clothes and men’s shawls and caps. The town has electricity and a non-digital telephone exchange by the courtesy of Pakistan Army. In fact most of the facilities available are by the advent of Army. Their presence is obvious. The place provides them a relatively better safe house than any other place in Neelum Valley. Then the route to Kargil also initiates from here via Hulmat and Nekroon although it can only be covered on mules.

The worst part of our excursion had to start now – turning back. We never wanted to go back as there were more to see, had we had any chance to move ahead. It is a very interesting feature of traveling in mountains that one never gets bored. The people, the culture, the landscape and even the natural life continues to diversify itself with change in elevation. It is something that one can never find traveling in plains. Kel is considered as the last town of the Neelum Valley, however in my opinion there is even more ahead but only for those who can dare to venture. If you want to travel even beyond Kel, for your information, there is no road or even any pavement ahead. You will have to go trekking on endless mountains, meadows, and passes which can be quite daring. To my own wonder, I later on came to know that human race has built houses even in those mountains. I can only fancy what it would be like living there. We started out this journey out of nowhere. We had planned for a one day excursion and we ended up spending five days lost in mountains. We didn’t have clothes other than those we were wearing. We didn’t have our shaving kits. We didn’t even carry the chargers for our cell phones. We didn’t even bring any camera with us (later on we had to borrow one from Athmuqam on payment). But still it turned out to be a life long remembrance. I have a firm belief that whenever we plan for something, something else always comes up and we re-prioritize our stuff in which such excursions are always in the end. Even this year we planned to go to Neelum Valley again, not for Kel but beyond – to the unseen land. Something had come up and now I am here just ruminating over the past. It makes my vagabond heart race faster and my mind deluding myself of lying in the small cabin made of Pine wood, but sadly I am lying in my bedroom in the heart of one of the bustling cities of Pakistan. But I promise my heart that I will take it once again to the land of the majestic mountains, the jutting out Pines, the singing fountains, and the beautiful people.

And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills
Where blossom many an incense-bearing tree;
And here were forests ancient as the hills,
Enfolding sunny spots of greenery

---Coleridge