The Kalash Valleys

You are met at the airport and taken to rest. For anyone with energy left, the afternoon can take in the Lok Virsa heritage museum, which gathers the crafts and costume of Pakistan's many peoples under one roof, then Faisal Mosque and the Pir Sohawa viewpoint on the Margalla hills for the city lights at dusk. Dinner is a first taste of local cooking.

Night at Hotel, 540 m.

The motorway north shortens the road to Swat, once a princely state and long before that a centre of Buddhist learning. You stop at the White Palace of the former Wali, the Buddhist ruins scattered along the valley and the busy bazaar of Mingora. The valley is green, fast and full of orchards, and the night is spent in Swat.

Night at Swat, 975 m.

From Swat you climb through Dir and pass under the Hindu Kush in the 10.4 km Lowari Tunnel, which keeps the road to Chitral open all year. On the far side the landscape turns drier and more open. You settle at Ayun, the village at the mouth of the Kalash valleys, with its terraced fields and cool river air.

Night at Ayun, 1,050 m.

You drive into the Kalash valleys and spend the day in Rumbur, one of the three Kalash valleys, meeting families, seeing the wooden houses, and learning about the ritual year of the Kalasha. The evening is spent in Bumburet by a bonfire, with singing and dancing that visitors are welcome to join.

Night at Bumburet, 1,100 m.

You walk Bumburet in the morning, with the small museum, the Kalasha graveyard where the dead are laid in carved wooden coffins above ground, and the village centre. There is time to talk, take photographs and dance with Kalash families. In the afternoon you drive back to Chitral to sleep beside the river.

Night at Chitral, 1,100 m.

A slow day in Chitral. You visit the fort, the old seat of the Mehtars of Chitral, and the Shahi Mosque in its shadow, then walk the bazaar for woollen pakols, dried fruit and handwork. A drive up to Birmoghlasht gives a long view over the valley, and the slopes around are markhor country. Tirich Mir stands white on the northern horizon.

Night at Chitral, 1,494 m.

The road follows the Chitral river up through gorges and green village pockets, with polo fields, walnut trees and stone watchtowers along the way. Mastuj is the main settlement of the upper valley, close to the Yarkhun and the passes toward Gilgit-Baltistan. You walk through the village in the evening and meet the people who live here.

Night at Mastuj, 2,359 m.

You climb through the villages of Laspur to Shandur, where the high plateau opens around a still lake and the highest polo ground in the world. The pass is wide and green in summer, and the stop is long enough to walk to the water. From there the road drops into Ghizer, past mountain lakes and forest, to Gupis, also called Khalti.

Night at Gupis, 2,217 m.

A day down the Ghizer valley into Gilgit, the capital of Gilgit-Baltistan. In the afternoon you walk to the seventh century Buddha carved into the rock face at Kargah Nala, then through Gilgit bazaar, where a plate of mantu dumplings is the right way to end the day.

Night at Gilgit, 1,500 m.

The Karakoram Highway runs north beside the Hunza river on the old Silk Road, past the confluence of three great ranges, with Rakaposhi and the Nagar peaks across the water. By evening you reach Karimabad, the Hunza capital, with Baltit Fort above the terraces and Ultar Sar and Rakaposhi filling the sky.

Night at Karimabad, 2,500 m.

North through Aliabad and Ganish village, where the old watchtowers still stand, to Attabad Lake, a long turquoise stretch of water that you cross by boat. The road continues past Gulmit through the Pak-China Friendship Tunnels and into Khunjerab National Park country at Dhe, with marmots on the grass beside the road. You sleep in Passu.

Night at Passu, 2,700 m.

A walking day among the Wakhi people of Passu. You see the fields and the stone houses, take tea in a family home, walk out to Borith Lake and cross the swaying Hussaini suspension bridge with the Passu Cones and Batura Glacier in front of you. The rest of the day is yours, with apricots and walnuts to taste in season.

Night at Passu, 2,500 m.

The long drive south follows the Indus through Chilas and Dassu, with the rock carvings of the old caravan route at Chilas and a view of Nanga Parbat at Raikot. When the Babusar Pass (4,173 m) is open you can return by the Naran and Kaghan road instead, over the pass and down through the pine forests of the Kaghan valley. The night is in Naran or Besham.

Night at Naran or Besham, 2,409 m.

On the way into Islamabad you stop at Taxila, with its museum and the Buddhist monasteries and stupas of the ancient Gandhara civilisation. A short drive later you are back in Islamabad for a farewell dinner with the group, looking back over the road.

Night at Hotel, 540 m.

You are taken to the airport in time for your flight home, with the valleys of the north still fresh in the mind.

540 m.