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After a short day-trip to Rock Formations on Makran Coastal Highway last month, I could not resist and made another plan till Gwadar and beyond.
I was accompanied by a friend Haris; a couple of other friends were also interested but could not join due to other commitments. We planned to leave on Sunday September 19, so I made necessary arrangements on Saturday including arrangement of supplies (food, water, extra fuel, etc) and pre-trip car checkup. We departed around 6:30 in the morning on the scheduled day; first took Northern Bypass from zero point, which actually proved wrong because of heavy traffic, then replenished the CNG cylinder from Hub and Petrol tank from Windar, as per the previous experiences, and took our first major break at Hingol River Bridge for brunch at around 10:30 am.
We than continued till Pasni – bypassing Rock Formations, Kund Malir, and Ormara – and stopped at Pasni Fish Harbor to gather information about Astola Island logistics. At around 5:30 pm, we finally managed to enter into Gwadar city after a journey of around 700 km, and subsequently searched and negotiated for night stay. Early morning, the next day, we visited Zaver Pearl Continental and Gwadar Fish Harbor, and then embarked for Jiwani. On our way, we were struck by a pleasant surprise by the roadside milestone, which showed distance from Pak Iran border in addition to that of Jiwani. That was real good news for us and that too in the wilderness, as I was not expecting a highway type road till Iran border.
We returned back to Gwadar before sunset.
Next morning we started our journey back home after replenishing both, our car’s fuel tank and ours. Instead of bypassing Pasni, as per the morning’s plan, we decided to give Astola Island a second chance, but only to gather further information about the voyage. We took brief stops at Rock Formations and Malir Kund beach first and then went off the highway to follow Hinglaj Yatra. Luckily, the water in the stream was not enough to halt our car, so we made all the way to Mandir by car, and luckily found a troupe from Karachi to add flavor in our expedition. It was around 6 pm when we rejoined the highway, and due to night driving blues, could only made it to Karachi by around 11 pm.
Pictures and tips will follow in coming days, Inshallah, so stay tuned…
