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Published: June 19th 2007
Left Islamabad at 6:30am and reached Naran at 7:00pm. But you can reach there in approximately 9 hrs. The distance between Islamabad and Naran is almost 250 km. The road up to Balakot is excellent. But as soon as you cross the bridge at Balakot to get to the other side of the river and onto Kaghan valley, the road is not that pleasant to drive at. The road has been damaged due to the earthquake that struck the area a couple of years back. Most of the damage to the road is from Balakot up to Kewai. After Kewai you will come across land slides which has covered the road and now the vehicles can cross it while driving over the land slides. In most places only a single vehicle can cross over it so you need to be careful at times. But generally I would say that the road once you cross Kewai is in good shape untill Naran. Once you reach Naran you will realize that this bit of bother of landslides and bad road is well worth it. One rule you should remember while driving in the mountains is that the vehicle driving uphill has the
right of way.
Accommodation at Naran is plentiful. You should look around different hotels and get a good bargain for yourself. One hotel that I must recommend for the people who are on a tight budget is Hotel Lalazar. It is neat, clean ideally located in the middle of the market. Big parking space and above all excellent tea.
You need to hire a Jeep to go to Lake Saif ul Malook. The ongoing rate these days is Rs. 800/-. Once you get to the lake you have 1.5 hrs to roam around and enjoy the serene beauty of the lake. On the way to the lake you will cross two glaciers which is a very scary ordeal but in the end worth it.
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Nadeem Ikram
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Travel tips needed...
As you mentioned eariler, after Kewai, the road is not so good for travel. We have a Suzuki VXR (1000cc) 2001 and a Toyota XE (1300cc) 2001 model and we are planing to go on both of them at July 14th 2007. Please let me guide, would it be possible to travel from balakot to naran on them?