Welcome to Khusal - Indus
There are ancient echoes through a fraught valley...
a RIVERS original
RIVERS team traveled to Pakistan to paddle the "Blue Indus"
Khusal, Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan
There are ancient echoes through a fraught valley. The road moves in jolts and then fast movements, depending on its condition. Out the window, the fall colors of the fruit trees have turned. It is late October, and we are on the road that winds through the heart of the Indus River Valley, north of the riverine city of Skardu, in the province of Gilgit-Baltistan.
On a trip to eventually paddle the infamous Rondu Gorge of the Indus, the RIVERS crew made a pit stop on the “Blue Indus,” high above the confluence with the Braldu River and on the road to the Line of Control that separates Ladakh in India from Northern Pakistan.
Here, on the bridge above our put-in—inscribed “Welcome to Khusal”—we met Hassan. With my camera already out, Hassan leapt into dialogue with us as he crossed his way toward the main road that leads from Skardu to Kargil, in the Indian province of Ladakh.
Take a look here to see how close he lives to the disputed border that, since the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947, has dictated the freedom and mobility of those who live in the mountainous regions below the heights of the Karakoram.
