Hiking on Cactus Ridge, Margalla Hills, Islamabad

(Start Coordinates: 3344'28.91"N 73 03'16.30"E) Elev: 2,386 feet) (End Coordinates: 3344'41.02"N 73 03'12.29"E) Elev: 2,852 feet) Total Return Distance: 2.80 kms

(Shaikh Muhammad Ali)

3D Google Map of the entire Hike: Maximum Trek Elevation 2,852 Feet

No one realizes how beautiful it is to travel until he comes home and rests his head on his old, familiar pillow. Lin Yutang
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Opening Statement: Lately I have been extremely busy at work and although did find time to go trekking on the Cactus Ridge in May, a lavish 5 day trip to the Kaghan Valley with family in end June and finally to the Galliyat in the Ayubia area in mid-July but was hard pressed for time to start writing on these escapades. Finished reading Princess by Jean Sasson in the meantime and picked up Odyssey by Homer which I missed reading when I was a child and was feasting on other Puffin classics like Treasure Island, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Robinson Crusoe, The Hounds of Baskerville and The Wizard of Oz to name a few. Today is the first of Ramadan, Hijri 1433; the month of fasting for the 1 billion+ Muslims all over the globe, a Saturday and thus after saying the 2nd obligatory prayer of Zuhr, I have decided to start writing on the Cactus Ridge Hike. The Main story: There is a Cactus Ridge in Okinawa, Japan which is famous for the start of iron resistance by Japanese land forces on Okinawa but this particular Cactus Ridge which I am writing about is a moderately steep hike and starts right across the entrance to the car park of the Daman-e-Koh in the Margalla Hills.

(Mohsin & I at the start of the Cactus Ridge Hike) For the first time ever, Adil, Mohsin and I attempt a hike in the afternoon on Saturday the 19th May 2012. Since I am a born pilgrim and after getting to learn about this trek, there was no way I could have avoided that. We started off @ 3:40 p.m. from home after filling up our water bottles reaching the car park at DKOH at 4:05 p.m.
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A few friends had warned that this particular hike could be steep and thus we were geared mentally to address the intensity of the trek. By 4:20 p.m. we paused, took this picture and continued the uphill walk.

(Adil and I at the first resting point) By 4:30 p.m., I was able to catch this scene from a height of about 2,500 or so feet.

(A panoramic view of Islamabad and the Rawal Lake in the backdrop) We paused for our first water break around 4:39 p.m., took a few pictures while the temperature was hovering around 35 0 Celsius and we were sweating fast. Thanks to the weather forecast tools on the Internet; I had brought sufficient amount of water for the trek.

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(Taking our first water break) By 4:40 p.m., I was able to catch this beautiful view of the Pir Sohawa road snaking its way up the mountain.

(The Pir Sohawa road going up the Margalla Hills) By this time, Adil (my older one) took the fire lane while Mohsin (the younger of the two brats) and I went up the defined trek. We could see Adil ascending fast on the slightly steep fire lane. Since Mohsin could not have handled that, I decided to stick with him on the gradually rising path. By 4:46 p.m., I was able to catch this glimpse of the grandiose Shah Faisal Mosque and caught it on candid camera.

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(The Faisal Mosque in its full grandeur) Adil reached the top around 4:30 p.m. while we reached 7 minutes later i.e. around 4:37 p.m. While at the top we could see the valley behind this peak and of course took this picture too.

(The valley behind the Cactus Ridge) On the other side of the peak, we could see Islamabad, Rawalpindi and the Bani Gala village beyond the Rawal Lake. This panorama too was hard to resist and I tried capturing it on my Olympus FE240, 7.1 MP camera.

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(An exhilarating view of Islamabad from the top) After reaching the top, we found a wooden bench for picnickers and thus brought out the snacks, chips and juices and feasted on the bounties at hand.

(Adil & Mohsin resting at the top)

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(Mohsin and I enjoying the snacks)

(Mohsin taking full advantage of the picnic bench) While Adil and I said our Asr prayers in the usual fashion, Mohsin found a unique way to submit to the will of God i.e. on his new found bench. I did not realize that he forgot to take his sneakers off and by the time I noticed, it was too late to check him since he was more than half way through. Boys would be boys sometimes!

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(Mohsin: There is no God but Allah & I submit to him wherever I can) After enjoying the cool breeze at the top of the peak at an elevation of 2,852 feet, we called it a day and started to descend at 5:10 p.m. We captured this picture at 5:15 p.m.

(The two brothers after their 7th hike) By 5:36 p.m. we had descended to the point where the fire line ends. We stopped to take this picture.

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(Our last picture at the end of the fire line) We reached the car park at 5:50 p.m. and thus spending a total of 2 hours: 10 minutes on the trek. We reached home slowly while enjoying the drive around 6:05 p.m. Post Script: A very old friend of mine from the USA days in 1990 sent me a mail lately on LinkedIn asking the following question: Do I read, read & read only or work as well for a living. And this was my candid response: My justification for voracious reading I am a Project Director at the Higher Education Commission (HEC) for the last 9.5 years and my basic job is to send faculty members of Public sector universities abroad for a Master leading to PhD. So far, we have been responsible (directly or indirectly) to send 4,000+ faculty to some 38 countries during these years out of which 1,000+ are already back & serving the 134 universities in the length & breadth of the country. Lately, I have been involved (for the last 3 years) in more strategic work at a more higher level whereby I prepare & give presentations at the President & PM Secretariat, write speeches for the PM, Senators & other Ministers on higher education, visit the Senate & National Assembly (sometimes) for question / answers, visit foreign countries for negotiations with universities at a country level for tuition fee waivers, attend international & local conferences on Change management, Education Policy & Management etc., write HRD reports for my unit, research articles & papers on education which are published

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internationally, provoke the student & faculty community on HEC Facebook account and engage with the media (at times) to refute nonsense that appears in the press against us. In order to do all of the above, my vocabulary, grammar, punctuation, spur of the moment ideas, grasping power, power of expression has to be extremely strong & I must have a grip on the political, social and economic situation in the country in order to write and thus I have to Read, Read & Read (Iqra) and in turn stay alive in the tough corporate environment that we have here at HEC. I hope I have been able to justify my insatiable reading appetite! I would like to leave my readers here with the usual note that anyone who knows God cannot describe him. Anyone who can describe God does not know him. God is always close to us whether we pray to him or not. If you conquer yourself, then you will conquer the world. True wisdom consists in respecting the simple things we do, for they can take us where we need to go. I have always believed that there is something very special about our DNA; having lived and experienced all sorts of challenges and crisis, we as a race have essentially become much more resilient, creative and sheer survivors. Ramadan Kareem!

The Wandering Dervish

Shaikh Muhammed Ali

E-mail: dushkashaikh@gmail.com Cell: +00-92-321-5072996 22nd July, 2012, 09:10 (PST)

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