Hopper, Altit & Eagle’s Nest

Hopper Glacier

We left in the Corolla at 0830 and attempted to fill it up at a petrol station.  There was no petrol available at the first station and we had to try a second.  Faisal speculated that they had stopped sales at the first as a price hike was anticipated tomorrow.

Leaving town, we stopped at the thousand-year-old Ganish Settlement.  It is the oldest and first settlement on the ancient Silk Road in the Hunza Valley, with various watch towers, mosques and a reservoir.  Wikipedia suggests the name is derived from the local word for gold and not the Hindu god.  As the ticket office wasn’t open for the day yet, we left without entering.

The road to Hopper Glacier got progressively worse.  We saw marble being carved from the hillside.

We parked around 1015 at a small hotel in the countryside and took a short walk to a spot where we could see Hopper Glacier.  Jo found a spot to sit down while the rest of us continued to a higher viewpoint.

The view from the higher viewpoint was awesome but I couldn’t help thinking that it wasn’t as good as my first visit in bright sunny weather.  None of us were inclined to make the walk down and backup for the glacier walk today.  We are getting old.

After a hot cuppa chai from the café at the higher viewpoint, we returned to the car and drove started our journey back around 1100.

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Back in Karimbabad, we tried Safina’s Café next to the hotel.  Safina was lovely and we took her recommendations to try some local specialties.  The chap shuru was a chapati-like bread made into a calzone-like pie, filled with very tasty chicken in caramelised apricot sauce.

Altit Fort

Faisal said we had to leave around 1430 to allow enough time to visit Altit Fort before going to Duikar Hill (Eagle’s Nest) for sunset.

M opted not to enter the fort as she had seen them all before.  The gardens of the fort where we entered were tranquil with trees, lawns and sheep grazing by a pond.

Even though the fort was nice enough, it was the view that was special:

• From the far side, we looked down a cliff into the beautiful Hunza River valley.
• From another side, we looked down over the roofs of the local village.

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Eagle’s Nest

We met M back at the fort’s entrance at 1530 to continue to Duirka Hill or Eagle’s Nest.  It was double heartbreak for me when we got there around 1600:

• A large bank of solar panels had been erected between the site and the Spantik range.
• There was considerable cloud cover over the Spantik range. This was the view that I’ve yearned to return to for so many years.

The view of the Hunza Valley was also less spectacular in the cloudy day.  After about 45 mins, we left after enjoying a bit of the golden glow of the setting sun.

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We took dinner at Safina’s again, repeating the Chap Shuru with another recommended dish, Dodou (handmade noodle in rich spicy soup). Both hit the spot really well.

Interesting conversations

Over the course of the day, we had some interesting conversations.

With the amount of plastic waste we see in Pakistan, M remarked on the benefits of the clay tea cups in India.  I recalled that they were single use and if the world used them en masse, we would probably see large tracts of land being devastated.  However, M said it would still be better than plastic litter.  Likewise with banana leaves being used instead of disposable plates.

[Edit: Various AI tools confirmed the impact of fertile topsoil destruction alongside the use of fossil fuel to fire the cups.  Further, broken used cups have been fired and hence chemically altered and do not return to the earth in the same state. Disposed clay cups take up more bulk and more land than plastic ones.]

We also laugh at kids today not knowing that chicken (the meat) comes from chicken (the animal).  Then we realised that we don’t know what form chickpea and lentils take on the plant!  [Edit: They grow in pods like peas.]