GHIZAR VALLEY

Though the first half of the road as far Gupis is currently being improved and widened, it is still only a dirt track cut a long the cliff face on the south bank of the river. Passing through the former kingdoms of Punial and Gupis, with Ishkoman and Yasin up side valleys to the north, it connects all the tiny towns which are also known as Ghizer Valley.

Punial is the first kingdom to the west of Gilgit. It encompasses 12 villages and populations of 17,000.Its inhabitants call it ‘the place where heaven and earth meet’. Its capital is Sher Qila, 35 kilometers (22miles) from Gilgit. Sher Qila means Loin’s fort, so called because it proved so difficult to conquer.

Sher Qila boasts and impressive modern girls’ high school built by Aga Khan, which stands beside the now redundant polo ground; facing the polo ground is an old carved wooden mosque.

A 150-years-old watchtower, crowned with a pair of ibex horns, stands guard at the end of the ground, a reminder of past wars. The villagers took refuge in the tower whenever attacked.

The next important village in Punial is Singal; 16kilometres (ten miles) further west, where there is a guest house and a modern Aga Khan medical centre with solar heating.

Punial is full of orchards and small terraced fields and can easily be reached in a day trip from Gilgit. There is time to walk along the water channels, to look into a local flour mill or blacksmith’s forge, to watch the local ploughing or weaving in outdoor pitlooms, and to photograph rural life.

Gakuch, 72kilometres (45miles) from Gilgit, is the turning point for the jeep road north up the lovely Ishkoman Valley, another former kingdom. The PWD rest house at Chator Khnad, 24 kilometres (15miles) from Gakuch is the starting point for the five-day trek east to Naltar, across the 4,267metre (14,000-foot) Naltar Pass. The five-day trek west to Yasin across the 4,432metre (14,540-foot) Asambar Pass is green and easy all the way. At Chator Khand the road splits, right to limit, another starting point for a trek to Naltar, and left to the village of Ishkoman, from which you can trek to Yasin across the Ishkoman Pass.

Gopis, the next kingdom west along the Gilgit River, 108 kilometre (67miles) or six hours from Gilgit, is where you turn north for the Yasin Valley, yet another former kingdom. Water is plentiful here, making this perhaps the prettiest of all the Gilgit kingdoms: villagers are stacked up the mountainside and surrounded by steeply terraced fields.

From Yasin Valley, 2 kilometres (15miles) from Gupis, you can trek east to Ishkoman or west over three passes to Mastuj. The jeep track from Yasin continues north up the Yasin Valley for 25kilometres (15miles) to Barkulti. A road forks left up the Thui Valley for 15kilometres (nine miles) to Nialti, from where it is possible to trek across the Thui Pass (4,499metres or 14,760 feet, above the sea level) to the Yarkun Valley in Chitral District.