Travels

Goran Gatti Jan 2008

Click here to see the complete picture gallery of the Goran Gatti trip. 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!

February 16, 2008, by Khalid Omar | Comments

A day's trek to a village near Besham, Kohistan

When Hamid Omar of 4×4 Offroaders Club, Karachi recently completed the rebuilding of the 1948 Ford F1 Pickup, 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, followed by Mahera and Khalid Omar in the Toyota Prado.

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November 18, 2007, by F.D.Toor | Comments

Hingol flood Summer 2007 ...the aftermath

June 24th, 2007 saw the birth of an insignificant low pressure in the Arabian sea that took a turn for the worse as it developed into a cyclone 03B christened YEMYEN, moving towards the coastal areas of Pakistan. Drawing moisture from the sea it attracted clouds from neighboring regions and soon covered the entire province of Baluchistan with rains unprecedented in living memory. Rain catchment areas in Surab, Naal and Jhao districts overflowed while Arra and Mashkae rivers delivered their share of the deluge into the one source that would take it to the sea: The mighty Hingol.

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July 20, 2007, by Taimur & Tanya Mirza | Comments

Hingol National Park

Leaving the warmth of my sleeping bag reluctantly, I stepped out of the tent to be greeted by a sight that prompted me to get my camera in a vain attempt to capture nature at its best. The pine needle like long leaves of "Gaz", a native plant that grows along rivers and nallahs in Balochistan, sparkled like a jewel-studded Christmas tree. Dew drops formed at the tips of millions of Gaz leaves glowed in the golden sunlight shying the most expensive and articulately cut diamonds.

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June 10, 2007, by Taimur Mirza | Comments

A story from Hingol, Feb 2007

As a child in 11th Grade, we were told by our English Teacher, Mrs. Hughes, to write a book on a topic that interested us the most. While others chose to write about vacations in faraway lands, my inspiration came from a black & white photograph of my father standing in front of his Jeep with late Dr. Rizvi with a hunted Ibex spread out in front of them. This photograph was taken in the 1960's at a place called Hingol.

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May 21, 2007, by Salim Khan | Comments

Gawadar Dash

A mad dash to Gawadar from Lahore and back:

The story you are about to read, is a story of self-proclaimed adventure, misery, apathy, a mix of un-daunting and daunting courage and insaneness in the literal and/or emotional sense of the words. The story revolves around three people namely myself, Adeel aka ABC and Sufyan aka corky. Together these characters attempted to drive from Lahore to Gawadar and back in 4 days.

Writeup by Umer Shah. I leave you to comment on it's madness!

May 10, 2007, by Khalid Omar | Comments

Dureji Jan 2007

Salim Khan's writeup of the Dureji Expedition in January 2007.

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March 23, 2007, by Salim Khan | Comments

Dureji Expedition - 17th to 19th November 2006

The expedition reached its climax with only two minor casualties - Salim Khan's CJ-7 lost its alternator and Pappu's '42 Model Ford GPW broke its silencer. Other than that, it was a fabulous journey that brought many strangers a little bit closer, shedding the layers and layers of costumes that they adorn as an essential part of city life. Will wonders never cease! Under our arrogant, uninteresting, aggressive and paranoid exteriors are lovely individuals longing to come out and befriend everyone and everybody, provided they get the right kind of environment.

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November 27, 2006, by Salim Khan | Comments

Gorakh Hill Station

Ever wanted to have an environment, atmosphere and weather like Murree in Sindh? You would think that I have surely gone nuts to say that such a place really exists, but the truth is, it actually does. If you can reach Gorakh Hill you will agree with what I have written above.

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August 28, 2006, by Umair Ahmed Shaikh | Comments

Along the Hingol River

This was my second trip along the Hingol river in two months, this time with Doc Mansur who had missed the earlier trip due to prior commitments. Azhar Khan was keen to come along for a yet another attempt at hooking a "Mahasher" from "Poldat" a place he had not been able to reach in 4 years and several offroading trips in the area.

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March 8, 2006, by Taimur Mirza | Comments

Taftan Plantak 2005

The following is a diary entry I'd written for Alex, Maz and Martin for their journal as they drove through Pakistan. Updated for posting here.

Back in March Alex had contacted us - he was trying to get some information on Pakistan, and had stumbled across our website, offroadpakistan.com, where he left a post on our forums: "Hi. I was hoping that I could use the collective knowledge on this forum to offer our team any advice/suggestions/routes/must see & do's for a visit through Pakistan?"

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December 10, 2005, by Khalid Omar, Taimur Mirza and Imad Ali | Comments

Sailing from Karachi to Chuta Churna and beyond

This is the second edition of my adventurous sailing. After the last trip we had become a little more adventurous and less fearful, which is not exactly very good! We had been planning to look for a couple of day's holidays so that we could move onwards to the coastal areas where we had not been before. The good part is that now that we have reached the beginning of March, the water has started becoming warmer so capsizing is not a real problem. However, at the same time, the danger of wind picking up has increased - a phenomenon quite prevalent in this part of the world being in the monsoon belt.

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September 27, 2005, by Humayun Qureshi | Comments

The 1945 Mekran Earthquake

In 1945 when there was an earthquake off the Mekran coast which resulted in thousands of deaths from the subsequent tidal waves, or tsusami as they would now be called. There were reports from aircraft flying in from the west of volcanic eruptions in Las Bela province, Baluchistan. I didn't believe the volcanic eruption story as the geology wasn't right so I and friend Peter Wolf took leave and went on a private expedition to see what had happened.

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March 9, 2005, by Peter Martin-Kaye | Comments

Karachi to Quetta

Wherin the author writes about a road trip from Karachi to Quetta, and then on to Ziarat to see the snow, and lastly the famed Bolan Pass. Covered a grand total of 2000 kilometers and seven film rolls in 4 days.

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March 11, 2004, by Khalid Omar | Comments

JEEP TRIP '95: The Great Idea

It all began when the Omar family was in Islamabad for the Winter Vacations. They stayed with Azam Jaffar, the mastermind who made up the Great Idea. It was a dark and dreamy night, with the rain and high winds buffeting the sides of the building. With no electricity there was nothing to do. It was then that Azam Jaffar came up with the Great Idea. He and Hamid Omar sweated for hours over a map under the suffocating heat of a candle (DarkSucker). Throughout the night they sat there hunched over the map. Then in the morning, as soon as the electricity came back, Azam Jaffar jumped and shouted, "Eureka, we have perfected the Great Idea."

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January 16, 2004, by Abid Omar | Comments

Kharan Trip 1999

In search of the extraordinary tombs.

Reproduced below is a part from the narrative of Journey made by Col. Henry Pottinger in 1807 and written in a book called Travels through Baluchistan and Sind published in 1810. He was the first European to travel through Baluchistan on Camel back and recorded his journey. To find the extraordinary tombs described below, search has been attempted in the past as far back in 1905 for the location of the unusual tombs but in vain. I along with friends also attempted looking for these tombs in 1999.

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August 4, 2003, by Taimur Mirza | Comments

Gawadur 2001: Concerning a journey through coastal Baluchistan

KARACHI: I have just got back from a 7-day, 3,000-kilometre trip through the coastal and southern region of Balochistan. There were 24 of us, in seven jeeps - all tried and tested members of a Karachi-based off-roaders club, people who scorn paved roads and are happiest when trundling along uncharted dirt tracks, preferably in low gear. Our journey took us from Karachi to Aghor Camp on the Hingol River, from there through the wonderfully named Buzi Pass to Ormara, then via Pasni to Gwadar, from there to Turbat, the headquarter of Makran division, and on via Hoshab to Panjgur, Awaran, Jhal Jhao, Bela and back to Karachi.

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June 22, 2003, by Kaleem Omar | Comments

Kanrach: a place where time has stood still

Kanrach, a sparsely populated region in southeastern Balochistan, about 120 kilometres north of Karachi, is a land of great beauty but also of great poverty. Situated in Las Bela district and named after the village of Kanrach, the region is bordered on the east by the rugged Chapar Range (rising to a height of 1,500 metres) and on the west by the Mor Range (rising to a height of 1,400 metres).

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June 22, 2003, by | Comments

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