Friday 23 August 2013

Pakistan. Mastuj to Chitral and the Kalash Villages, near Aryun. 2013

Mastuj is in the Khyber Paktunkhwa Region of Pakistan         

We left Mastuj with a lone Police Escort....driving South West through the Mountains to Chitral and The Kalash People Villages near Aryun




 Police Scout Station at Mastuj where we registered ourselves and Sorento



Happy ducks



 A picturesque village.



Two rivers meet



Rain water washed this part of the road



Hindu Kush Mountain in the back ground.





Wheat field



Lorries/bigger vehicles have right of way ....



A mini landslide  enough to cause trouble to unfamiliar travellers.....don't to go tumbling down the ravine



Clearing the bigger rocks, our Police Escoet is never far....from us



Done ...good enough to pass.



                                            Driving gingerly and carefully avoiding the bigger rocks.



Buying bottled water at a road side shop. Note  Our Escort in black armed with a rifle



A wedding Jeep



The lone Police escort is on the left.



Grapes, apples, pomegranate and grapes etc...note the water pipes and the man in orange shirt drinking from one.



Chitral Check Point. Change  of escort.



A street in Chitral.







Chitral Shasi Mosque



Tea shop




Our escort is on the right...escorting us around Chitral Town.



Dinner for us and the escort too. huge helpings of briyani Rice and chiken curry




Aryun Village. temporarily cut off from the Kalash Valley  and  Bumburet Village
 We only made it to the spot where the landslide occurred.We failled to get to the Kalash Valley as there was a huge landslide blocking our way. We turned down an offer from some locals to take us to the Bumburet Village not wanting to take a risk leaving our Car unguarded.








A young boy and his donkey out to get water.



The landslide that blocked the road to the Kalash Village. note the falling dirt on the top.



To our disappointment we were told that a landslide accrued just 300 meters away. Kalash Villages is out of reach for us though we were offered to be taken there by the locals but fearing for Sorento"s safety we declined and left the place. Missed a good chance to meet these unique and beautiful people.

 Kalash,  are the indigenous people residing in the Chitral District of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. They speak the Kalasha language, from the Dardic family of the Indo-Aryan branch. The Kalash people are believed to be descendants of the Greeks, Alexander the Great's Army

Chitral is just across the border from Afghanistan’s Province of Nuristan, a stronghold of the Pakistani and Afghan Taliban for years. Their influence in the area has forced many Kalash families to either hide their non-Muslim identity or, as in most cases, forced to convert to Islam. 



The Mountain dirt road that we took to Mastuj


















































































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