Trip Plan for Neelam Valley, AJK
Neelam Valley is located in the Pakistani administrated Kashmir. On the eastern side of this valley is district Kupwara of Indian occupied Kashmir. The west side is bordered with Kaghan Valley, basically these two valleys are sisters that are separated by sky kissing mountains. Kaghan valley is situated in the Khayber Pakhtonkhaw Province and Neelam Valley is in Azad Jammu and Kashmir. I visited the later one in July 2011 and want to share my travelling experience with you.
However, we managed to reach the town around 10 PM and looked for hotels outside. It was a small town but the only hotel opened that time had some vacant rooms. Rooms were made on the back side of the hotel. Early in the morning, the next day we found it pretty scenic as a stream was flowing on the back side of our hotel room and the view from there was enthralling. Let me share with you the view outside my hotel room. So the photograph on the right side is the view from the balcony of our room. It was a beautiful scene to sit and enjoy but our destination was yet far from this place. Around 8 AM in the morning we boarded on a passenger bus and went towards the Headquarter of Neelam valley , Athmukam.
Athumkam being the HQ of Neelam valley is a fairly large city compared to the other town in the valley. There you can find Communication facilities as well as a good hospital. There is a lot of shops that provides a good opportunity for shopping indigenous commodities. Athmukam become famous during the late 90s when Indians targeted it during the high tension times. Apart from all this scenario there are a lot of hotels and a govt. motel too, but it requires prior booking. From Athmukam upwards the valley is known as upper Neelam Valley and it is from here the breathtaking beauty of Kashmir starts in its true sense. After a brief stay at Athmukam we boarded again on a local passenger bus and went for the scenic and historic town Sharda. It took approx 3 hours to reach Sharda. There were three or four military check posts on the way to Sharda. In between was a place where Neelam River was also serving as the border between Azad Kahmir and Occupied Kashmir. We saw indian troops standing on the other side of Neelam River. Beleive me there, the border was barely a round few hundred feet. At around 4 PM we reached Sharda.
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| An evening at SHARDA |
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| View of NEELAM river from KEL. |
The whole neelam valley is surrounded by mountain range known as Western Himalayas or Punjab Himalyas. In some places they are called on the famous peaks like Makra Peak range, Ratti Gali Mountains range etc.Due to high tension border areas these mountains are not famous among the Alpine clubs. If you have a plan to visit Neelam valley here are my bits of advice.
- Carry your identity card with you while travelling to Neelam valley. The whole valley is alongside the border therefore do not forget to have your CNIC with you.
- Proper camping gear if you intend to do camping. once you entered the valley you will not find any shop for camping gear.
- Seasonal clothing. Neelam Valley is snow covered from Oct- July.
- Some medicines specially for Stomach and headache.
The tour plan can be set according to the following schedule however you can tailor this according to your needs and desires.
- Day 1: Arrival at Muzaffarabad and start your journey to KEL and night stay at KEL. If you arrive at evening do not take the risk of going to NEELAM. Approx 12 HRS journey
- Day 2: Visit to Arang Kel and site seeing
- Day 3: Visit to Shantoor lake and night stay at KEL (lake is at a journey of 4 hrs on Jeep).
- Day 4: Visit to Kacha chatta lake and night stay there ( For visiting here you need to have good stamina and camping arrangements).
- Day 5: Back to KEL and night stay in SHARDA.(Approx 4 Hrs)
- Day 6. Back to Muzaffarabad (approx 8 hrs)
The people of this valley are very friendly and it is considered safer for tourism. The food in Kashmir is mostly rice with lobia and good quality soft drinks are also available. I wish you a safe trip to this heavenly place.