http://offroadpakistan.com/ en Copyright 2010 Fri, 19 Mar 2010 01:40:52 +0500 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/ http://www.rssboard.org/rss-specification I stood there amongst the trees, the wind moving through the leaves, making a whistling sound. The entire campsite was bathed in bright moonlight, so bright that you did not need a torch to cook something. Before me, the "Hingol River":http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hingol_River flowed along lazily between the mountains, a silver serpent in a landscape that is otherwise harsh. This reads like an excerpt from a fiction novel, does it not? Well one need only travel 240 kilometres from Karachi to make this fiction a reality. That is, if you have the gumption to make it out to "Hingol National Park":http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/news/media-gallery/17-off+the+beaten+track-ek-01 in Balochistan. I recently had the chance to do so with the team of adventure travellers known as "Offroad Pakistan":http://www.offroadpakistan.com/trips/along_the_hingol_river.html. I refer to them as a team and not a group of individuals because that's what they are, and that's what one needs to make it through the terrain of Balochistan, which comprises bogs, jungle, mountains, and quicksand with a few wahgus (local slang for crocodiles) standing in as an audience. On this trip, the team included inventors, photojournalists, lawyers, doctors and a few lowly scribes such as myself, all with one thing in common: "the love of nature."]]> http://offroadpakistan.com/blog/offroading_to_hingol.html http://offroadpakistan.com/blog/offroading_to_hingol.html Blog Fri, 19 Mar 2010 01:40:52 +0500 Baluchistan, purported home of the Pakistani Taliban, offers much more than a wide open road. **KARACHI, Pakistan** -- The road into Baluchistan is dual carriage, the topography is flat. There are fronds in the sand, an occasional crooked tree and the intimation of the sea. Narrow scratched paths lead inland and close to the horizon, we can make out clusters of structures -- mud rooms, thatched tents -- and the local population: tanned fishermen and women and children. Not more than two hours into the journey, we turn left at a solitary petrol pump attached to a roadside restaurant. After announcing ourselves at a checkpoint -- hum Hingol ja rahay hain -- we cruise down the Makran Coastal Highway.]]> http://offroadpakistan.com/blog/the_goddess_of_taliban_country.html http://offroadpakistan.com/blog/the_goddess_of_taliban_country.html Blog Fri, 19 Mar 2010 01:25:09 +0500 In Eposide 17 of the Laidback Show, Dr. Awab Alvi and Faisal Kapadia head towards Hingol National Park for a three day Expedition with offroaders from OffroadPakistan to conquer a natural gorge called Poldat in the Hingol National Park.]]> http://offroadpakistan.com/video/expedition_poldat_the_laidback_show.html http://offroadpakistan.com/video/expedition_poldat_the_laidback_show.html Video Wed, 03 Mar 2010 02:57:42 +0500 "The world's greatest museum of shape and form" is how Italian mountaineer/author Fosco Maraini described Concordia in his book, Karakoram. Galen Rowell called it the "Throne of the Mountain Gods". Come 2007, somehow or the other, 5 of us from Karachi ended up hiking to Concordia, and on to K2 base camp. "Click here to see the pictures of the hike along with captions":http://offroadpakistan.com/pictures/k2_base_camp_hike/, and "go here to see the travelogue of the hike":http://offroadpakistan.com/travelogues/k2_base_camp_hike/.]]> http://offroadpakistan.com/blog/concordia_the_worlds_greatest_museum_of_shape.html http://offroadpakistan.com/blog/concordia_the_worlds_greatest_museum_of_shape.html Blog hike Wed, 02 Jul 2008 01:04:56 +0500 Road trips don't require much preparation, but 4x4 trips off the beaten track are a different thing altogether. There is no help available off the highway, so the vehicle has to be in good shape and the driver must be well prepared to deal with any eventuality. Of course, the idea is to avoid breakdowns in the first place, so a number of things have to be looked at when setting out on a 4x4 trip out into the wild. http://offroadpakistan.com/tech/vehicle_preparations_before_and_after_a_trip.html http://offroadpakistan.com/tech/vehicle_preparations_before_and_after_a_trip.html Tech Wed, 02 Apr 2008 19:13:09 +0500 "!http://offroadpakistan.com/pictures/indus_river_expedition_1978/scan0084-thumb.jpg!":http://offroadpakistan.com/pictures/indus_river_expedition_1978/ Sir, in December 2008 it will be the 30th anniversary of the historic "Indus River Expedition". This Expedition of three people started from Amb- Darband, upstream of Tarbela Dam, and covered 1,600 miles in 30 days right up to the _"city of lights"_ - Karachi. http://offroadpakistan.com/blog/30_years_after_the_indus_river_expedition.html http://offroadpakistan.com/blog/30_years_after_the_indus_river_expedition.html Blog Sun, 30 Mar 2008 01:07:53 +0500 Our group has been approached by the Management of Hingol National Park to help them in organizing a free medical camp at Jhal Jhau for the villagers living along the Hingol River in the Northern Part of the Park. We are going for 4 days to Hingol, Baluchistan, March 14-17, 2008 and setting up a medical camp. Read on for the details. http://offroadpakistan.com/blog/medical_camp_at_the_hingol_national_park_marc.html http://offroadpakistan.com/blog/medical_camp_at_the_hingol_national_park_marc.html Blog Fri, 07 Mar 2008 15:06:46 +0500 Click here "to see the complete picture gallery of the Goran Gatti trip":http://offroadpakistan.com/pictures/goran_gatti_2008/. This trip involved hardcore 4wheeling, as we made our way to the highest mountain, Goran Gatti, which is deep inside Hingol - no vehicle has made it there before. We didn't make it there either, but it was a lot of fun trying!]]> http://offroadpakistan.com/travels/goran_gatti_jan_2008.html http://offroadpakistan.com/travels/goran_gatti_jan_2008.html Travels Sat, 16 Feb 2008 03:44:22 +0500 !http://offroadpakistan.com/2008/02/04/campsite_panaroma.JPG! For those of you who haven't camped out in the wilderness under the open sky, here are some helpful hints and advise. http://offroadpakistan.com/blog/information_on_being_selfsufficient_for_those.html http://offroadpakistan.com/blog/information_on_being_selfsufficient_for_those.html Blog Sun, 03 Feb 2008 23:56:52 +0500 "!http://offroadpakistan.com/pictures/besham_2007/DSC01845-thumb.jpg!":http://offroadpakistan.com/pictures/besham_2007/ When Hamid Omar of 4x4 Offroaders Club, Karachi recently completed the rebuilding of the "1948 Ford F1 Pickup":http://offroadpakistan.com/misc/the_ford_f1_story_from_california_to_karachi.html, the family decided to take it on a long test drive from Karachi all the way to Besham on the Karakorum Highway (a part of the 'Silk Route'). The trip was, in part, influenced by the invitation of one of their domestics of long standing, Shah Aalam, to visit his ancestral home situated at a mountaintop a few kilometers off Besham in Kohistan. Hamid and his wife Sabiha drove to Lahore on the "newly rebuilt Ford F1":http://offroadpakistan.com/misc/the_ford_f1_story_from_california_to_karachi.html, followed by Mahera and Khalid Omar in the Toyota Prado. http://offroadpakistan.com/travels/a_days_trek_to_a_village_near_besham_kohistan.html http://offroadpakistan.com/travels/a_days_trek_to_a_village_near_besham_kohistan.html Travels besham hike Sun, 18 Nov 2007 12:08:44 +0500 "!http://offroadpakistan.com/pictures/ford_f1/DSC00103-thumb.jpg!":http://offroadpakistan.com/pictures/ford_f1/ Soon after we got married, my wife Sabiha asked me to get a Ford F1 truck for her. I tried my best but could not find any in Pakistan. Some thirty years later, on one of her visits to America, she found one in a small town called Dry Town near Sacramento, California. She convinced the owner to sell it to her and I think she got it for $140 (exact amount she has not told me - only that it cost more to have it towed to our friend Javed Akber's house in Sacramento). Till we could figure out how to have it shipped to Karachi, for over a year the Ford truck remained parked in Javed's garage (while their own two cars remained out in the open). http://offroadpakistan.com/blog/the_ford_f1_story_from_california_to_karachi.html http://offroadpakistan.com/blog/the_ford_f1_story_from_california_to_karachi.html Blog ford restoration Sat, 29 Sep 2007 20:50:01 +0500 A journey to Thar desert in Pakistan. The trailer is "viewable here":http://offroadpakistan.com/video/chasing_storms_in_thar_desert_trailer.html.]]> http://offroadpakistan.com/video/chasing_storms_in_thar_desert.html http://offroadpakistan.com/video/chasing_storms_in_thar_desert.html Video tharparkar Sat, 29 Sep 2007 20:27:49 +0500 Hingol Flood Relief is a documentary about the devastation caused by the cyclone that hit the coastal areas of Baluchistan in the summer of 2007, and the relief efforts of a small group of individuals from Karachi for the scattered settlements in the Hingol National Park.]]> http://offroadpakistan.com/video/hingol_flood_relief.html http://offroadpakistan.com/video/hingol_flood_relief.html Video hingol Fri, 28 Sep 2007 00:38:14 +0500 A recent trip of the 4X4 Offroaders Club to Hingol National Park in Baluchistan. The complete version will air on Aaj tv in the near future. The trailer is above, and the full version is below. "Click here to read the article":http://offroadpakistan.com/trips/hingol_national_park.html about this trip.]]> http://offroadpakistan.com/video/adventures_in_hingol.html http://offroadpakistan.com/video/adventures_in_hingol.html Video Fri, 14 Sep 2007 14:20:25 +0500 "!http://offroadpakistan.com/pictures/k2_base_camp_hike/IMG_0449-thumb.jpg!":http://offroadpakistan.com/pictures/k2_base_camp_hike/ Like any long trip, we started planning this a long time ago. Some (Asad, me) had wanted to do a major hike for years, and Concordia was always at the top of the list of the many, many places to go hiking in Northern Pakistan. "The world's greatest museum of shape and form" is how Italian mountaineer/author Fosco Maraini described Concordia in his book, Karakoram. Galen Rowell called it the "Throne of the Mountain Gods". Come 2007, somehow or the other, 5 of us decided to finally go. The pre-trip preparations involved a lot of research, finding hiking and cold weather equipment, and trying to get into shape for the long hike ahead. Our plan is detailed below, and hopefully anyone else looking for information on planning this hike on their own will find it helpful. The "pictures of the hike are up over here,":http://offroadpakistan.com/pictures/k2_base_camp_hike/ and an article about the actual trip will be up soon. http://offroadpakistan.com/blog/k2_base_camp_hike_planning.html http://offroadpakistan.com/blog/k2_base_camp_hike_planning.html Blog Thu, 06 Sep 2007 12:38:11 +0500