Bandipora to Gurez Valley
Nanga parbat view point


#faheemrafiqi
#razdantop #razdan pass
Gurez Valley: My All Time Favourite Valley
Gurez was known as a resting place for the people visiting Gilgit & Baltistan for trade. Route from Bandipora till Gilgit was known as the Silk Route pre-1947 era.

Being the natives of Bandipora District, my ancestors also used this route to visit their disciples in Gilgit & Askardu region. One fine day my great grandfather visited his disciples in Skardu but he passed away there and was buried in Skardu Gilgit. So I've an emotional attachment with this route and especially with Gurez.

For the first time I had a chance to visit Gurez with my maternal uncle in 1998. At that time, it was mandatory to apply for a movement pass before visiting Gurez. I was 21 years old young boy and the only option to visit Gurez was a Tata Matador 407. So we got the movement pass, booked our seats and left from Bandipora towards Gurez. It took us almost 8-10 hours to reach Gurez. On the way we had to go through almost 5-6 checkpoints. We stayed there for a couple of days and I started missing the place as soon as we left back for Bandipora.

As a biker, I started visiting Gurez since 2014, when I visited Gurez for the first time, it took me about 6 hours to reach Dawar on motorcycle owing to bad road conditions. At that time, road from Razdan Pass to Gurez was completely off road track. Once I reached Gurez, I found it very difficult to find a place to stay and a Dhaba or restaurant to have meals. I stayed overnight in a TRC accommodation.

As time passed on, I along with my friends from Bandipora formed a biking group in 2017 and we started inviting our friends and social media influencers from other districts of Kashmir valley and from outside states to visit Gurez and explore it's beauty. Our dedicated efforts started giving positive results and renowned social media Vloggers started visiting the place and it helped in getting Gurez on a tourist map. We collaborated with the locals of Gurez and helped them with the ideas of setting up restaurants and stays for tourists which in turn helped in boosting the tourism of Gurez.

I believe Gurez has a lot of potential in tourism sector. Nowadays, it takes me only 3 hours to reach Gurez from Bandipora. Road connectivity has improved a lot since 1998 but it needs more improvement and better facilities. Every stake holder is trying their level best to improvise the facilities for tourists.

However, since the beginning, I feel the need of basic necessities hasn't been fulfilled yet. There is a dire need of public conveniences in Gurez valley as well as along the route from Bandipora to Gurez as it's 84 kms long stretch. Also, Mobile phone network connectivity is only available till Pethkoot Village from Bandipora side and after Dahi Nallah from Gurez side, from Pethkoot till Dahi Nallah there is almost no mobile network available causing lot of hardships to tourists.

Everytime I leave from this place, I develop the urge to visit again. I have visited this place more than 200 times till date and I will continue to visit it till my health conditions allow me to ride a motorcycle.

Being a traveler, I believe everyone has his/her responsibility when visiting such places. We shall never litter around and we need to make sure that the ecology of the area is not disturbed by our wrong doings. Also, we should chit chat with the people there and help them with our genuine ideas as they are new into tourism industry and they lack experience. We should not exaggerate small issues which will have the potential to dent the tourism avenues of that place. Try to give your genuine feedback to the people there so that they can improvise and make the place much more better.

Hope to see you again soon.

#aofaheem #gurezvalley #faheemrafiqi



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