Tag: Karakoram

 

If this post’s two photos were “the only available evidence”, you could assume – reasonably – that they were taken from vantage points far distant from each other.

In fact, the image below was taken less than sixty seconds after the one above, with the very same lens.

Above, I was looking across a Karakoram valley’s floor to the mountains on the far side

For the image below I had turned my head 180 degrees, shuffled my feet accordingly,  then looked straight up the nearby, steep, stark, but seemingly more modest slope… our proximity to the relevant ridge (atop which the boulder perched) would have enabled it to “hide” any higher ground behind it.

As you can see, an “accident” was waiting to happen…

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A few minutes later, the pictured gentleman walked out of the mosque’s courtyard and into the village’s main road/through street.

Clearly, he was someone for whom other villagers “looked out”.

I saw a shopkeeper welcome him,  and make him a cup of tea; no money changed hands.

All photos in this series are “candid”; I dislike photos of people who are “mugging” for the camera/ “smiling”, on demand. (and I detest “selfies”)

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The astonishing/vertiginous/stark/dramatic local landscapes are not the only reason that most visitors to northernmost Pakistan fall in love with Gilgit-Baltistan.

The unspoilt local humans are special, too.

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Haldi village is a “modest” one, in a “remote” valley in northern Pakistan.

Surely one of the world’s most spectaculary-sited settlements, Haldi sits above the Shyok’s vast riverbed…and immediately below the Haldi Cones.

The Karakoram has many considerably higher mountains, but it is not hard to understand why more than a few people regard the Haldi Cones as the most spectacular  – at least among Karakoram peaks which a visitor can see, “up close”, without having to embark on a demanding, high-altitude trek.

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Just before 5.30 pm on 15 May 2024 we reached Khaplu, where we would stay two nights in an unforgettable hotel.

Superbly “restored” (and not overly-restored) this century, “the original” was built in the 19th century, as the local royal palace and fort.

Food was excellent, our “rustic” rooms were both lovely and comfortable, electricity supply was a tad erratic, hospitality was warm, and there was a beautiful garden, immediately in front of our room.

The grandeur of the surrounding landscape was almost beyond belief.

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This post’s photo was taken 90 minutes after the previous chapter’s, as we continued along the road from Skardu to Khaplu.

Doubtless, most members of the current global human population have never heard of either town, but trust me: the road between them is one of “our” planet’s most spectacularly-scenic.

At 4.30 pm on15 May 2024, I simply pointed the camera out of the 4WD’s (briefly-opened) window.

A focal length of 30mm considerably “flattened” the typically-astonishing Karakoram landscape’s vertical aspect.

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This post’s photo was taken less than one minute after the previous post’s.

For the “#19” image I was looking west-ish, back over my shoulder, and up.

For this post’s photo I looked ahead – east-ish, downhill, and over to the other (non-Indus) side of the road.

Most of Gilgit-Baltistan’s substantial settlements – and agricultural land – are in relatively low places, near rivers that run along the “floors” of deep Karakoram valleys.

Generally, these are places where very little rain falls; often, the average annual total is below 100 mm.

The actual total is hugely variable, from one year to another.

Arable/potentially-arable land is very scarce.

All local agriculture is irrigation-dependent, and requires a prodigious amount of maintenance, almost all which is done manually.

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Just before 3pm on 15 May 2024, circa 90 minutes after we left Shangrila Resort, we were roughly halfway through our drive from Skardu to Khaplu.

We stopped for a few minutes, to stretch our legs and “take in” the landscape; in this part of the world it is only very occasionally possible – let alone relatively safe – for a vehicle to stop and park.

By “normal”/global standards, the landscape around/above/below us was “epic”, prodigiously vertiginous, and strikingly stark.

By Karakoram standards, however, it was merely “typical”; my photographic vantage point was not a signposted “lookout”, nor a celebrated “beauty spot”.

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Fixed-wing aircraft have never been able to land at the spectacularly-sited Shangrila Resort.

Nonetheless, one such passenger plane is there, and has for many years been one of the resort’s signature features.

Circa 30 minutes driving distance from Skardu, the resort has a heart-shaped lake, faux-Chinese buildings, and landscaped gardens – all of which are dwarfed by the surrounding Karakoram peaks.

Its most incongruous “attraction” is the resort’s cafe: a 1947-vintage Douglas DC-3.

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