Bana road

I have just spent a two days trip further to the North to install a Radio Room. The place I went to is called Bana. I am not sure it is written on any map as it is small and deep into the core of the Northern Mountains. To get there you have to use some snaky slippery, extremely narrow road built-in the cliff of the mountains. When the mission was submitted, I wanted to arrange myself a trip via Helicopter, it was meant to be much more practical and safe. However, a colleague of mine also wanted to join for this special expedition to this no tourist seen place, so the trip by chopper was cancelled and replaced by a 4x4 road trip.

In order for us to depart, we had to get an escort from the police station. The reasons to these mandatory escorts are still unclear. No one here knows exactly, the real purpose of this escort. It’s meant to be for our protection the police says, but in fact, rumors tells that it could well be that Pakistan does not want certain people to lose themselves in some areas where certain things would be seen ( let free your imagination). This makes it a very intriguing topic, but for my own safety I prefer to not dig into this. Once we got our escort, we started heading north and begin our journey.

It takes 2 solid hours with good road conditions to reach Bana, and good road conditions means: no rain, and no landslides. The road is made of mud and rocks, and is engraved inside the 80% straight cliff! If it rains, you are very likely to get a 4x4 roll-over all the way down the mountain with tones of mud following up. As security is a concern in the ** the trip was prepared accordingly to the state of the road so no problems. However, on the way, we did face a small landslide and had to standby on the edge of the cliff for 20 minutes before the bulldozer made its way through and free the passage for all. The journey to Bana was just one of the most spectacular drive I have ever taken in my life. The road itself, the view, and the incredible people living along the road made it an unforgettable event! Arrival on Bana was a little surprise. We had been climbing up the mountains and reaching the top of some, but yet there was other mountain higher overtaking the one we were on. Bana was sitting in the middle of a valley which itself was on the top of a mountain. The altitude of this valley is only 1300m which does not sound like a lot but does look like it when your there.

Bana is one of the most earthquake affected area from the 2005 quake, and need a lots of support from humanitarian still. Installing a Radio Room there would allow more efficiency in the movement of this mountainous area. Food, Tents, Medical…etc distribution is a lot easier when you can coordinate things. There is no electricity there, no GSM network, and nothing modern like we easily find in big towns. We started working as soon as we arrived there, and the first obstacle on the way was to find good place to set the Radio room tent. Once this was localized, we then started installing the equipment and try to get the job done as soon as we could. We were only given 24 hours to accomplish this installation and return to base. Unfortunately, as the sun fell very behind the high mountains, soon we were in the dark, and no more work was possible. By this time, it was the moment to look for a place to sleep, and we only found this in on of the spare tents which were lying near by. We set our beds, and heated the room with Gas heater.

This was only 7:00 when we were done and ready to sleep, but I wasn’t sleepy, and neither was the Pakistanis driver which took us there so we both decided to head to the center of the village and check out for a place to eat! We went into one of them and there I could not think of me leaving this restaurant (hotel they call it) without having some footage of it. I asked my friend (the driver) Khurram if he thinks they would mind if I was to make a short movie with them, and he said: “They will love it; they have never seen a camera”. He asked them and they enthusiastically given their go ahead! I ran to the tent and got my video camera! It was certainly one of the best footage I had the chance to take since I have started using a camera. There were these men in the kitchen which itself was outside under a porch where they had set some wood fire cookers. The light was provided by the fires and the men where on the spot to make me some delicious local meals. Unfortunately, having been food poisoned the two days before, I was still worried of getting some bad stomach, so didn’t enjoy any of it but the making of it video taped was my pleasure.I guess seeing the video of this would be just self explanatory and certainly much more entertaining that “I” writing but have not found a way yet to share videos. The night went by with some really deep sleep and the morning arrived with its extremely cold and humid clothes! As there was nothing there, we didn’t get the pleasure of a breakfast watching the mountain, and immediately went on with the left out work from the day before. The mission was completed by noon, and soon we were ready to go! Of course, before that, I wanted to enjoy a little more the company of Khurram and his expertise of the place also to get to one of the high point in the mountain further up! It was worth the trip! Only about 15 minutes from the tent, and high up in the mountains was this riz culture and farmers working as hard as ever with for landscape background the entire valley we had taken so much time to come across from! Just stunning, what more can I say! We made our way out with as much pleasure as the way in, and reached Battagram in early afternoon! Mission completed the heart full of amazement and questions about how far can go the wonderfulness of Nature!

To top up the last couple of days event, this morning, while I was just waking up from a deep sleep 7 hours, I heard a massive noise! It was like if you take a bag full of round stones and shake the bag as strong as you can! Stick a microphone in the bag, gradually bring up the volume on the amplifier, and listen!
This was a 5.1 magnitude earthquake right near by our place. As I was lying on the ground I have not felt the vibration, but all the people in the office have ran out, and the one in the kitchen tent literally saw the whole kitchen set bouncing from one side of the huge tent to the other one! (You can check the earthquake status on a daily bases at www.iris.edu (seismic monitor).

What a Blast this week! ;-)