Exploring Fairy Meadows
Day 3
A cold, cold night in the sleeping bag, tossing and turning, trying to block out the little drafts of cold air that worked its way into the sleeping bag. Even though the bags were warm enough, and there were mattresses underneath, I did not sleep proper. I heard people say about being too tired to sleep properly before, but I never experienced it myself, such is the legend of the depth of my sleep.
It was around 6 am when the world outside our tent grew brighter.... and more importantly, warmer. I was still too tired to care so I tried to get some more sleep. An hour later, the insides of our tent were practically too warm to sleep in, and we could tell the sun was out above the mountains surrounding us. Time to get up I guess.
And behold, a sight for cramped legs and tired bones, the silvery white shine of the magnificent Nanga Parbat, right from the opening in our tent. I cannot find the words to describe it. Its not of this world. Immense. Proudly standing in stark contrast to its surroundings, the sky itself looked like it was in awe. The blue-est of blues, and the whitest of whites. Put all that atop a base of green treas and grass, it makes up for all the painful hiking and bumpy buses, and then some.
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| The mountain on our first morning there....before i washed my face..... (HDR) |
All of us could manage a low
"whoa....nice" and just sat there inside the tent to watch. Take in. Before long I took my camera out, wiped off the condensation, and started off filling my memory cards before I had time to wash my face. This was too pretty, this was practically close to dreams.
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| Flash set at 1/2 power pointed at the fence. handheld. |
Like a friend pointed out after my first post, I complain a lot..... ill hold true to that here, cause I'm about to write about the water. Yes. The water. the water you use to wash up to be precise. How do i put it in decent words? I cannot. Men will understand. Its cold enough to make you think twice before you go to the bathroom. You want to wash your face? What face? Your face is frozen senseless from the first water that comes into contact with it. It feels like you're hitting your face with wooden sticks, cause your hands don't feel like they belong to you. All is well I guess, this keeps the time spent washing up and making yourself pretty to a minimum, and you just get back to enjoying watching the world again. You just do what is absolutely necessary, in terms of personal hygiene.
Breakfast wasn't a normal meal today. It was more a board meeting. Discussions, voting, ideas, opinions. The topics ranged from the tents being too cold for our brethren from Karachi, to paying a bit more to get a hut for the other two nights, and to choosing an alternate road back to civilization instead of the KKH (karakorum highway). Entering into the discussion it was safe to presume everyone was on the same page. No one had said it till now, but none of us were ready to bear the Natco bus and the 20 hours on the road again with nothing to see out of the window except sand and a dirty brown river. It was unanimous. We all wanted to take the alternate route back, the famed Babusar Pass. It wouldn't necessarily mean a shorter time on the road, but at least it wouldn't be in that bus, it wouldn't be on the KKH, and it would definitely be more of an adventure and a path worth seeing. Set all that aside, it would be a whole other thing to drive over the Babusar pass, one of the highest motor-able roads of the world, at 14000 feet. Not many people have seen it, I personally had tried to go there back in 2008 but failed because of landsliding.
Taking this route would also mean going via the town of Naran, where, especially for those who came all the way from Karachi, they could possibly get off overnight and see the famous Lake Saif ul Mulook.
But it wasn't all that easy of a decision. We all had to think of other things, but all that is for another post. For now I will get back to the day exploring the Meadows.
All showered, and ready to explore, we set off with our guide, back north, leading away from the mountain and towards the main part of Fairy meadows, and the rest of the resorts in this place. A short walk down a beautiful stream amongst the trees, it was hard to believe we passed this path the previous night in our despair. Things were beautiful again. Pretty, quiet, and clean.
About 20 minutes down that path we came to a huge open field of grass, surrounded by tall daunting mountains and the open blue sky above, and a vast flat grassland that gave this place the name of fairy Meadows. We could see the local village to some distance on our left ( west side ) and another resort, the more expensive Raikot Sarai on our right. On to the meadows now, towards the famous mirror lake, or the reflection lake where most pictures of fairy meadows are taken. Naimat told us, the flat field was also used as a polo ground, and a match was planned for the next day.
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| Panorama of the fields and polo ground |
Coming to that lake was more a disappointment than awe-inspiring moment. Not a lake, more of a pond. But standing on the north side of it, looking away from the mountain, its highly unimpressive. Go towards the other side and you get where it gets its name. And what a reflection it is.
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| Reflection lake |
A long round of pictures, both landscapes and portraits, we asked Naimat where to now? The answer was....the proper lake, behind the trees. No reflections there, just a deep green lake in the middle of the trees. On then.
This lake, the name being in question still, Haroon said it was called
Tarar lake, in honour of
Mustansar Hussain Tarar, a famous Pakistani author, travel writer, and actor. This was more of a lake now, deep in a depression, hidden from everything by tall trees, and green clear water. This was more out of a
C.S. Lewis book than reality. I walked around it, towards a high vantage point where i could take pictures. And that I did.
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| Tarar lake |
Beyond this lake, towards the north is the settlement of the people who live here. Tourist aren't allowed to go back there. But google maps shows it quite clearly, it is quite a large areas of fields and small huts.
Me and Mohammad spent quite a long time here, longer than most of our group wanted to give this place, so by the time we were going back, we were alone, with Naimat.
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| Naimat, enjoying the sun while he waited for us |
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| A stream in the polo ground that wasn't there in the morning when we came |
Walking up to the resort, Naimat showed us his house where I took one of my favourite, and the most meaningful picture of my trip. He asked us if we knew our way back from here, we did so we went off on our own.
On our way back, we asked the people in the other resort if we could see and take photographs in their lawn. They were very nice about it, so we went to other viewpoint of this place, seen in quite a lot of the pictures online. But I wouldn't say the view here beat the view of the more reasonable resort, where we were living.
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| Me and Syed, in the lawns of Raikot Sarai |
Back at the streams, I stopped to try something I wanted to for a long time. I had to gear for it, I just never found an opportunity to do this....long exposure running water shots. I set up along the way whenever i saw the place was worth a picture, and we made our way back in gaps and stutters, so that by the time we did get back to the resort, everyone was done with lunch, and they were sitting in the sun enjoying their green tea.
A quick cold lunch, and we took our cups out to sit in the warmth, but alas, the sun was away for the day and the air was cold again. It was 4 pm. Tall mountains. Sun hides behind them. Cold winds again. Only the mountainous beast had sunlight on it, illuminating the whole valley with its white shine.
Mobile phones don't work in Fairy Meadows, save for one point at the edge of a cliff overlooking a 3000 foot drop. Its aptly called, the Signal point. Inconveniently, it was right next to Tarar lake, a fact we weren't made aware of till we were back in the hotel. A promise to my mother of calling her everyday, I knew i had to go back down all that way. And ofcourse, Syed had to accompany me. What are friends for, eh?
This time around, we weren't enjoying the stream, or the fresh air, or the beautiful thick forest. We were just walking again. But I'm glad we did, apart from the obvious peace of mind that I had called my mother and let her know i was fine, the Signal point itself is a place you should see if you come here, ever. Edge of the mountain, high up in the valley, if you stand there, where you get enough coverage to make a call, or at least send out a text, if you hold out your right arm towards Nanga Parbat, your left arm points towards the now visible Karakorum Range, and the peaks of Laila, Haramosh, and the far away Rakaposhi. This place is enough to give anyone vertigo. It surely hit me, I had to practically be on all fours to make my call. On the way back this time we stopped at the Raikot sarai again, this time around to have a cup of mild, albeit expensive coffee.
Back at the resort, I took my camera out, this time for lack of anything better to do in the cold, and we made our way down to the open grass field in front of our campsite. Along the stream I set up, and spent a whole hour shooting. Enough pictures to fill my first, big memory card to its fullest. I wanted to change cards, but night had fallen by now, and the air was way too cold to do anything.
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| A long 20 second exposure of the stream at dusk |
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| Using flash to illuminate the foreground and letting the moon light up the stream in a long 30 second exposure. You can even see the stars |
My hands were cold and senseless, and I almost dropped my camera a couple of times. Signs enough to call it a day. Till tomorrow then.....
This time around we were going South..... Towards the mountain.
Walking up to the resort, Naimat showed us his house where I took one of my favourite, and the most meaningful picture of my trip. He asked us if we knew our way back from here, we did so we went off on our own.
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