Family Picnic at Coolzay and Trail # 5 Camping Site

(Coolzay Coordinates: 3344'03.94"N 73 02'10.33"E) Elev: 2,029 feet) (Trail#5 Camp Coordinates: 3344'53.86"N 73 05'12.47"E) Elev: 2,072 feet)

(Shaikh Muhammad Ali)

3D Google Map of the two picnic locations in the Margalla Hills

He who does not travel does not know the value of men Moorish proverb.
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I usually say my Fajr prayers before I start hiking. This does not in any way mean that I am anywhere close to being a Moulvi. I personally feel that I am a true representation of the devil on the planet and commit a sin as and when I deem appropriate. Laughter! I just wanted to put the record straight as far as this issue was concerned before my readers take me as a holy cow. Now lets jump to something philosophical. Events, big and small, occur as though the world was invented each morning and retired each night, without a care for whats been, for the suffering and the shattering dread and the way people held each other. Unfortunately, as a nation we have stopped listening. We have lost our capacity to be surprised, to be taught. The solutions really lie within us; we are the strength, with capacities. But to do this we have to be humble. And we are anything but humble. My father, who turned 81 last March 2012 (May he live long with health), is visiting us from Karachi these days & I tell you it is so much fun hanging around him and providing him company. The children are going bonkers with dada baba aka Grand Dad around and it becomes rather difficult to differentiate at times as to who is younger; my kids or my father. They argue, they fight for the remote control of the idiot box aka TV and the newspaper. I actually get great spiritual revelations just from watching them when they go to sleep. Three generations in one mad house. We belong to the Qadri silsilah of Shaikh Abdul Qadir Jilani. All Jalalis. All Shaikhs. Under one roof top. And its fun!!! I can go on and on and on! He usually rises early while we are on our way to school or work. My wife makes him porridge, toasted bread, sometimes eggs and he enjoys his cup of tea with his morning newspaper. He waits for the kids to come home and plays with them and once I am home from work, we enjoy supper together with a hot cup of tea, discuss politics and then he takes one of my sons for a walk. On the weekend, we drive him around and since he cannot walk much due to arthritis; we tend to go to places where he does not have to walk much. Three weeks ago, I took him to one of his old friend who has lately moved to Islamabad and all three of us ended up discussing politics while pitying the nation. Last Saturday, we had Halva & Puri together in F-10 at Jamil Sweets while on Sunday evening we had barbeque at home. In other words, Dada is having a ball with us & we are loving it. Oops. Reminds you of McDonalds!

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I am making the most of his trip here since he usually comes for a month or two from Karachi and it is a wonderful experience to be with him at that age when all he need is our love and affection. He prays all the time for the health and prosperity of my family and thus the devils are staying away for the time being while he is around. Now lets move onwards to the particular topic of this article. While we were returning from our hike with Dr. Fahim Hashmi and Wing Cdr. Gohar on Trail 4B i.e. the Faisal Mosque Trek on 31st March 2012, we reached a place about a 45 minutes walk before the end of the trek and named it Coolzay. Cool as in cool and Zay is a Pashto word meaning Place. It was so cool probably due to a natural spring, thus I named it Coolzay. We had decided that we will come back and have a family picnic here later. Thus, come Saturday 7th April 2012; Wing Cdr. Gohar, Dr. Fahim Hashmis family and mine decided to have a picnic at Coolzay. We got up at 7:30 a.m. and after having a sumptuous breakfast of Omelette and Paratha, left the house at 9:00 a.m. First we attended a parent-teacher meeting at the City School, F-11 campus (where my children and salary go) between 9:15 10:00 a.m. We then reached the parking lot behind Faisal Mosque close to the famous Kuwait hostel of International Islamic University (IIU), picked up a small fight with the guards there while parking but decided to leave our macho egoistic selves in the parking lot & continued for our 45 minutes 1 hour journey towards the chosen hideout. This is the only marker leading to the Trail # 4B. We passed through here around 11:00 a.m.

(The marker which shows that you are on the right path)

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This trail is also known as the E7 or Faisal Mosque trail. Little used, in part because it is so difficult to find the trailhead. Head to the car park to the rear of the Faisal Mosque, and look for a gate with a Margalla Tree Plantation Project sign next to it. Head through the gate, take the first right, then right again (at a grey metal box with a hole in the top) through a small clearing and turn left at the end. Walk north towards a large concrete water storage tank, and walk to the right of this on to a well-defined path (GPS coordinates 33.73 41 12, 73.03 84 21) from here it should be plain sailing. This trail wind its way up to the ridge, where you can turn right and reach the Pir Sohawa road, near the turn-off for Talhar village. It takes about 2 hours to get to the top (but not with Ayesha; my little daughter).

(Mohsin, right past the trail head) Within 40 minutes of brisk walking, we reached most of the flowering trees like Bauhinia variegata, Ficus carica, and trees like Pinus roxburghii, Quercus leucotrichophora and took a short water break here.

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(The happy picnickers captured by Adil Shaikh) By 11:53 a.m. the bushes were getting thicker, the walk steeper and the pace of the ladies had started to slow down.

(The flora, caught on my Olympus 7.1 MP camera)

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(Which then of the bounties of your Lord will ye deny? Chap 55: Verse 18, Al-Quran) Although we had been here just a fortnight before and had almost thought that we know the place like the back of our hand but we were sadly mistaken. We had thoroughly lost our way by 1:15 p.m. But with our never ending perseverance, we found the Sirat-e-Mustaqeem (The righteous path) and reached the destination albeit a few minutes late. I am always better than I think and stronger than I believe. Although, we wanted to go slightly further up to the Natural Spring but the ladies protested and we ended up choosing the next best alternative and parked our picnic gear at this spot around 1:45 p.m.

(Our picnic spot) Out came the lunch, which comprised of two types of curry, Roghni & plain Nan (Bread), drinks etc. and we feasted to our hearts content till we had the devils
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in our stomach. Before we would have slept on these rocks after stuffing our faces; we put up a fire and tea was in the making.

(Our little tea ceremony) After having tea on the rocks, we enjoyed the serenity of the place; the children frolicked for a while and around 2:45 p.m. we decided to move back to civilization.

(Ayesha basking in the sun) It is always painful to say goodbye to the Margalla Hills. Sometimes I wish I could have a small shack and stay there for the rest of my life with no newspaper, no mobile phone, and no laptop, just a lot of books, my camera, lots of food,
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honey, olives, dates, figs and my family. Yeah, heaven on earth for a rascal like me. If wishes were horses! Around 3:21 p.m. we took this picture on the way back.

(Now you know how I define heaven) By 3:47 p.m. we had descended all the way on the Trail 4B behind Faisal Mosque, and took this last picture.

(Myself, Ayesha, Dr. Hashmi, Adil and Mohsin in the backdrop) We reached our cars around 4:30 p.m. exhausted and after exchanging good byes & farewells with Wing Cdr. Gohar & Dr. Hashmis family, we headed home while reaching there around 5:00 p.m. To live is to experience things, not sit around pondering the meaning of life. Looking at the weather forecast on the eve of 14th April 2012; we were again

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tempted by the weather pattern to have a little picnic at the Trail # 5 Camping site on the following day i.e. 15th April 2012. This place we had earmarked on the way back from our hike on this particular trek on 24th December, 2011 and had decided that we would come have a barbeque here sometimes later. We got up at 8:30 a.m. Had the usual Anda-Paratha (read Omelette-Paratha) breakfast and left the house at 11:10 a.m. Got in the CNG line at the G-11 Markaz and after filling her up; we reached the parking lot of Trail # 5 at 12:05 p.m. As usual, we took the first picture and started walking towards the camp site.

(Here we go again) Before I forget to confess that in order to have a picnic, go hiking, take a tour; our family is never dependent on other friends and their families etc. We appreciate the fact that we live in modern times, in a busy world where people have their own sweet priorities and we cant expect them to follow our schedule. We try & invite friends to our escapades; if they come fine, if they dont; we still get on with life and have a blast. Life is like that!

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(Take only pictures; leave only footprints) Ayesha was in her usual mood to frolic and left no opportunity to get herself included in all the pictures that I was to take enroute the camping site.

(Our little tour guide) By 12:20 p.m. we had reached the camping site and had already ignited the fire for the barbeque.

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(The Shaikh couple at the camping site) Suddenly, around 12:40 p.m. when the Chickens were coming home to roost, we realized that we had forgotten to bring Nan (Bread) along with us. I was thoroughly disgusted with this faux pas since it is always my responsibility to arrange for Nan and cold drinks etc. While I was to take care of the fire that was burning within and without, Sabeen (my wifey) volunteered to rush to Kohsar market and get the Nan. Mohsin also sprang to accompany Mamma around 12:45 p.m. Poor them, they had to walk all the way to the car park, rush to the Nan shop, came back and walked back again from the car park to the camping site.

(Baby can you light my fire?)

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While both Mamma and Mohsin were away, I tried to contain the fire. They returned with hot Nan around 1:05 p.m. while in the meantime I had barbequed the chicken and the kebabs. Lunch was thus served hot and tender and we ate to our hearts content.

(Food is all we came here for) After lunch we had a hot cup of cardamom tea around 2:15 p.m. which we made on the burning coal while the children played in the camping grounds. Right after we finished having lunch, a group of college students swarmed the place. They had two tents set up in the camping ground and started returning from the Trail # 5. We had some 4 extra cups of tea and thus shared with them and they were delighted to take this family picture of ours.

(The famous five after the lunch)

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By 2:25 p.m., we packed our stuff and started to return. Adil & Mohsin wanted to check out what lied ahead of this marker and thus we took a three minutes walk to go see the pine sit out.

(Ayesha & Mohsin at the Pine Sit out marker) After further walking back towards the car park, we encountered a small yet old mosque and took this picture around 2:34 p.m.

(An old mosque in Darra Janglan) While slowly walking back, we reached the car park around 2:45 p.m. and finally reached home around 3:00 p.m., offered our late Zuhr prayers and relaxed. Between robbery, work, education and travel, I have lost so many things that now I begin to say good bye to something almost as soon as I buy it. While on
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the subject of buying, Adil my older one has turned 13 on 8th May 2012 and amongst other things that he wanted as his birthday present; I bought him a small trekkers bag of his own and he now carries his own oranges, water, towel, cap, compass, Swiss knife, whistle etc. A grown up young man, huh!

The Wandering Dervish

Shaikh Muhammed Ali

E-mail: dushkashaikh@gmail.com Cell: +00-92-321-5072996 th May 2012, 7:55 p.m. (PST) 26

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