Charles Granville Bruce

“ Though all the ordinary passes are in continual use by natives, it is still possible to make one’s way backwards and forwards across the range by quite unknown ways. Such a trip I took in 1896, with Karbir as guide. We climbed two little points above the Bichala Valley of Manoor, and had intended to stay there and do more. But the wandering spirit seized me, and away we went over the range to the top of the Droua Valley to a grass alp known as Tōd Gali, my idea being to find my way over to the lakelet of Saifal Maluk in a side valley draining into Kaghan river. ”

“ The actual road to Kashmir leads over the Shikara Pass into Kashmir territory, and cuts at right angles the Droua and Kishenganga Valleys, which have almost exactly the same character as Kaghan itself, though the first parts are possibly even finer. One of the most charming features of all these western Himalayan sub-Alpine valleys is their forests, finer than I myself have seen anywhere in the Alps, and probably quite as fine as any Caucasian forests, excepting the great beech forests, which occur nowhere in the Himalaya. ”

“ We left the main Kaghan Valley for the large Swati settlement in the Manoor Valley, and found ourselves immediately in far more interesting country. Before arriving at our branch road we had a really fine view of the striking Shikara peak at the head of the Shikara branch valley, and determined to get as close to it as we could. That march was uninteresting, and consisted chiefly in struggles with the mules, for the road was very bad again, and we took all day getting to our camp at the Bichala Kutta, only some six or seven miles. ”

“ It may be as well for me to impress on those who have never experienced a thunderstorm at high elevation that they must not think being struck by lightning at a height is the same thing as being struck in the lowlands. ”

“ Pleasant as the side valleys are, they have their disadvantages; there are no roads, and hardly any paths, and travelling is not luxurious. The luxurious traveller sticks to the main route to Chilas, and lives in the comfortable bungalows of the Public Works Department. And he might do very much worse. The valley itself opens out considerably as it rises, and two marches beyond the village of Kaghan, the local capital, forest is almost entirely left behind. The climate is really fine, but the scenery, though large and rugged, is rather ugly ”

“ Since the Saiads obtained possession of the greater part of the Kaghan Valley they have multiplied greatly, and in consequence the greater part of the lands have been divided up amongst many families, the result being that there are but two or three families who are even decently well off, and the non-working remainder are paupers. ”

“ It was late in September, and Kaghan up high is very cold then, as we were later on to learn. The next day we set out with trepidation. We were behind our time, and the relief expedition with more luxuries was in front. We, or rather, I think, chiefly I, were filled with misgivings that it might have given us up for lost; and although we were fairly well supplied with the necessaries of life, such as champagne, etc., we were now so accustomed to luxuries that the mere chance of missing the relief expedition filled us with horror. I must mention again that this was an epicurean trip. ”

“ I have often wondered whether the Kaghanis themselves appreciated the valley being opened up and a good road made, for although they are now able to get a much better market for almost their only produce, ghee or clarified butter, and although life is now easier for them in many ways, still bad communications had for the upper classes among them many advantages. ”

“ They would much rather carry loads down a really awkward rock passage than cross half-a-dozen perfectly simple crevasses. It is more or less new to them, and all simple folk dread what is new and unaccustomed. Our descent was at first over a rapidly shelving steep snow slope, and then fifty feet of what was practically ice at a good steep angle, but with comfortable snow on the glacier below. But in order to get to a convenient angle steps had to be cut diagonally across a small schrund and over a very substantial snow ridge, which could not be seen from the top. ”

“ He has also an appearance of venerable respectability which attracts confidence in his dealings with the indigenous inhabitants of these wild parts. But, hard as we tried, all my powers of persuasion, and even the natural respect caused by my companion’s trustworthy and venerable appearance, could not induce any of the local people to take us over the range into the forbidden Chilas valleys. ”