“Hold on tight!” The jeep echoed with my friend’s voice on our journey to Taobat in the Neelum Valley of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK).

The person was apparently trying to alert the children, who were sitting on the back seats of the jeep, chattering, snacking and teasing each other. But before I could grasp the handle firmly, my head bumped into the window with a bang. Amusingly, it was neither the first time, nor the last. It bumped at least six times during our five-hour jeep ride from Kel to Taobat.

When I was not bumping my head, I was watching the sunbeams peering through the clouds, absorbing the smell of the trees, enjoying the scenery and counting the fluttering butterflies. I would lose myself in the wilderness in a moment and then, would glide back to my real life with the laughter and conversations going on in the jeep.

The distance from Kel to Taobat is a little more than 40 kilometres. But since there are no proper roads, it takes nearly five hours to cover that short distance. Almost the entire track, from Dawarian to Taobat is unpaved and unmetalled. The narrow, rough and bumpy path is only suitable for jeeps, which are rented on a per day basis. We left our Hiace van at Sharda and took a jeep for our three-day trip ahead to Kel and Taobat.

Taobat is the last station along the Neelam Valley in Azad Jammu & Kashmir. The long and bumpy ride to it and lack of communications become all worth it once its breathtaking landscape comes into view

Majid Raja was our jeep driver and a master of his craft. He has been taking tourists to these areas for the past 13 years and knows almost every nook and cranny of Neelum Valley.

As you proceed to Taobat from Dawarian, you can see several small settlements and villages along the way, including Machhal, Janoi, Phulwai, Sardari, Hilmat and Makroon. Large herds of cattle, led by two or three shepherds and a dog, often blocked our way.

“It does get annoying sometimes, but this is how it is,” Majid bhai tells us how particular these shepherds are about their animals and how important their dogs are for them.

Most of the houses in these villages are made of wood and painted in bright neon colours. Kashmiri women stroll about, wearing long black velvet gowns with striking embroidery, carrying piles of sticks and wood on their heads.

“They are stocking up the wood for the winter,” Majid bhai explains. “Spanning from December to March, the winters in Taobat are harsh and extremely cold. Snow engulfs the entire valley. Therefore, the locals gather ration and wood during the summers and lock themselves in their houses in the winters, as they don’t have enough resources to migrate for long durations. Since the locals work half of the year and are homebound for the rest of the year, they have limited means of income.”

As we were leaving from Kel to Taobat, Majid bhai suggested getting the necessary items we would need for two days from Kel. “There is a small bazaar in Taobat, but you would probably not get the items of your choice,” he warned.

All the places we stopped by, including Muzaffarabad, Keran, Sharda and Kel, have their own charm. The beautiful bank of Neelum River in Keran that serves as a natural border between India and Pakistan, is as mesmerising as the meadows of Sharda and Kel.

Taobat was our last destination in Neelum Valley and my last hope to wear the sweater that took up the most space in my luggage. In early June, the days in Kashmir are bright and sunny, whereas the nights are pleasantly cold.

MAGICAL TAOBAT

Located at an elevation of 2,281m (about 7,500 feet), Taobat is the last station and village in the Neelum Valley before the Indian Line of Control.

My elder daughter lovingly remembers it as “the woodland” as all the houses over there were made of wood. The village is spread over 100 houses, most of which are in shabby condition. The villagers mostly speak the Shina language.

A vast section of the population works in the fields to make their living, whereas a small section works in other sectors as well. Fields of corn, kidney beans, potatoes and other vegetables are scattered around the village. The village has a bazaar, as small as Majid bhai had told us.

There is also a primary school, whose worn-out sign board indicates the miserable state it must be in.

“There is no gas facility in this area,” Majid bhai informs us. “The locals use wood for their domestic chores. There are no colleges or hospitals either. The locals try to treat patients themselves or take them to the hospital in Hilmat in case of an emergency.”

We had stopped at a checkpost in Hilmat, where the officials kept our national identity card. It is approximately six kilometres away from Taobat. The perfect time to visit Taobat is between June to October.

“Approximately 60 percent of the tourists who visit Kashmir visit Taobat,” Majid bhai states. “However, the remaining 40 percent do not go there due to time or budget constraints.”

But another major factor that Majid bhai fails to cite are the road conditions that are not favourable for many of the tourists.

As soon as you enter Neelum Valley, mobile networks stop working and you are left at the mercy of your hotel’s WiFi facility. The only network that works well in AJ&K is SCom, which is run by the military. You must purchase the Scom SIMs in Muzaffarabad, but we had not realised this.

By the time we reached Taobat, we lost whatever little connection we had with our families back home. The WiFi facility in the hotel was next to none. We had to buy a mobile card that offered 2G service and enabled just enough connection for us to inform our families about our whereabouts.

BRIDGE TO ADVENTURE

One of the spotlights of Taobat is a long bridge over the majestic Neelum River, which connects the unpaved road to never-ending meadows. Most of the hotels are located on this side of the bridge. Amazingly, this is as far as jeeps can go and you have to cross the bridge on foot and trek ahead to explore the meadows.

As soon as Majid bhai told us about this bridge and that the jeep would be parked on the other side of it, we were curious to know how our luggage would reach the hotel. Majid bhai asked us to leave it to the hotel staff as they are experts in transporting goods.

With a handbag and my two-year-old, I got off the jeep to cross the bridge. It was the first time I had walked on such a bridge, so it took me quite some time to reach the other end. The bridge was wobbly and would get even wobblier if many people were crossing together or if someone was walking along in the opposite direction. Neelum was flowing underneath the bridge with all its might. It was a sight to behold.

While moving with the breeze and wobbling with the bridge, I saw the staff members transporting the luggage in wheelbarrows. They crossed the wobbly bridge with lightning speed and settled the luggage outside our rooms in no time.

The breeze in Taobat is tranquil and peaceful. Lush green meadows enveloped by thick dense forest calls you to narrate a story. There are flowers, streams and birds and insects as far as the eyes can see. There are birds chirping on the trees and babbling rivers and streams as far as the ears can hear.

The hundreds and thousands of white daisies reminded me of the golden daffodils William Wordsworth might have seen when he wrote his famous poem Daffodils. The thick shady trees took me ‘Under the Greenwood Tree’ where William Shakespeare might have been. I wandered around lonely as a cloud.

The writer is a freelance journalist.
She tweets @Tanzeel09

Published in Dawn, EOS, August 6th, 2023