Motorcycle diaries: Riding through the flood rage

Numan Khan, his friends travel to Garam Chashma, Chitral right at onset of deluge

PESHAWAR:

Every year, Numan Khan, a mechanic from Kotla Mohsin Khan in the city, visits hill stations across the province with seven of his friends. They make these road trips to tourist havens on motorbikes. 

His group of friends had agreed to visit Chitral and Kalash Valley this year and floods in the region could have thrown a spanner in the works. However, the weather conditions did not deter them from travelling to Garam Chashma in Chitral for four days.  Neither of them backed out or pressed the others to cancel the trip or reschedule their itinerary. Determined to make the most of the experience and witness the sights, sounds and flavours of Chitral, the friend set off on their journey during the Eid holidays.

“Last year we rode to Kaghan Valley,” he tells The Express Tribune. “This year, our group travelled on three Honda-125 bikes and two 70CC bikes to Chitral.” According to Numan, the journey took two days.“We left Peshawar early morning and arrived in Dir at night,” he explains. “We spent the night at a friend’s house in Dir. The following morning, we set off for Chitral and arrived in the evening.”

Let the adventure begin

When they arrived in the region, Numan noticed most of the streets and bazaars wore a deserted look due to the floods.

“Even some of the hotels were closed,” he says. “Some residents put us up in a government accommodation. Although there was no electricity, I removed the batteries from our bikes and attached it to a small bulb.”

At first, the group wanted to visit Kafiristan in Chitral’s Bumboret Valley. “After travelling for a few hours in the mountains, we realised the road had been cut off due to flash floods,” says Numan.

As luck would have it, Numan and his friends were offered a room at a village for two days for Rs6,000.

“We decided to stay in the village,” Shoaib, another member of the group, tells The Express Tribune. “They were good people. They even provided us with food. We spent two days and two nights there before heading towards Garam Chashma. Our stay in the village gave us the opportunity to explore the mountains.”

On the road

Speaking about the road trip, Shoaib says there was nothing unusual about riding a motorbike to these regions as thousands of people do it on a routine basis.  “We travelled at medium speed,” he explains. “If anyone complained of a backache, we would stop at a tea stall and rest for a while. We even brought supplies and cooked our own food.”

Shoaib adds their bikes frequently developed faults during the journey. “However, since most of us are mechanics, we were able to tackle such situation,” he says. According to Shoaib, the group wanted to go to Kashmir but ended up travelling to Chitral instead.

“At first, our families were not comfortable with us taking such trips on our bikes,” he says. “However, with time, they became accustomed to these adventures.” The entire trip cost the group Rs40,000. Every one contributed Rs5,000 and also paid for fuel costs.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 31^st, 2015.