Chitral and Kalash

Chitral sits behind the Lowari, in the far northwest, and it does not feel like anywhere else in the country. The Hindu Kush closes in on three sides, the Chitral river runs green through the middle of town, and the Shahi Masjid and the old fort sit on the bank as a reminder that this was a princely state with its own court long after the rest of the map had been redrawn.

The Kalash valleys, Rumbur, Bamboret and Birir, open off the road south of town. The Kalasha are a living community of a few thousand people with their own language, their own calendar and their own religious practice, and they still farm these valleys as they always have. Their festivals are religious observances, not performances laid on for visitors, and the harvest festival in August is a working celebration of a year's barley and wheat. Going means being a guest at something that belongs to somebody else. That is worth doing well: ask before photographing people, particularly women, buy from the people who made the thing, and follow the local guides who come with the group, who are from the valleys and will tell you what is welcome and what is not.

Chitral Gol National Park is the other reason to come. It has been protected since 1979 and it is one of the few places where you have a real chance of seeing Kashmir markhor, our national animal, on the slope rather than in a book. Snow leopard and lynx are up there too, though almost nobody sees them.

Two practical things. This is a domestic trip, so there is no visa, no embassy and no passport queue, which is the reason it is the easiest tour we run for anyone travelling for the first time with a group. And it is a road trip: the drive up from Islamabad is long, the mountain sections are mountain sections, and the valley roads need 4x4s, which is what the tour runs on. The window for going at all is seasonal, roughly April to October, because the passes and the valley roads decide that rather than we do.

The price above is quoted and invoiced in rupees. There is no dollar price on this one and there should not be.