it was time to hit the road. I geared up and came out of the room with my saddlebags on my shoulder - and was immensely gratified to see a beautiful day! Clear blue skies with not a cloud in sight. The cumulonimbus of last evening had gone away to rain on someone else! Goody!
I had been chatting with a lot of local people about what not to miss in Kashmir - and all of them, without fail, had recommended Gurez valley. This place is very close to the LOC between India and Pakistan, and had been quite a dangerous place during the peak years of militancy. But nothing could demonstrate the normalisation of the situation more than the sheer insouciance with which the local people recommended it.
‘Oh, that’s all ancient history.’ One guy assured me. ‘It is perfectly safe now. Go for it.’


And on the way to Gurez was the majestic Wular lake - one of the largest freshwater lakes in India! WOOHOO!

I had a most enjoyable ride, and finally I had my first sight the Wular lake! WOOHOO!


What a beautiful lake! What a setting!


Wular is azure everywhere you look. It has schools of carp and rosy barb swimming in its blue waters. Across the lake shore, I could see little egrets, pecking away, their snowy feathers reflecting in the water. Ducks and teals bobbed about in the water and some fish eagles glided high above, thinking deep thoughts of tasty fat fish.
From the Wular lake, the road started ascending as I rode up the majestic Razdan pass!
High passes! WOOHOO!
Razdan Pass is a 3,556 m  high mountain pass which connects the Gurez Valley to the Kashmir Valley, and this road gets blocked with snow for half the year! So the valley is cut off from civilisation for the winter…which would have been just the normal way things are in the old days, but now is not an ideal situation. It’s a problem for the villagers living there, and its a problem for the security forces who need to patrol the area to protect against the Pakistanis and the Pak backed terrorists who can pop in over the line of control out there.
The views became better and better, as they always do as one goes up a pass - and I was riding very slowly indeed to appreciate the beautiful view of a fertile valley tucked inside the mountain ranges. The terraces of green and gold glowed in the sun - rice fields on both sides of a flowing white Himalayan river! What a beautiful bucolic sight!
While my mind had gone on this slightly insane etymological romp, I noticed something interesting in the road ahead.
A cyclist! A solo cyclist! Toiling up the high pass on a fancy drop-bar touring bike. How cool was that!
I roared up a slope, and then slowed down to again appreciate the beautiful sight of the valley - and it seemed that the BRO (Border Roads Organisation) people agreed with me that this was a place to stand and stare - like the sheep and cows- as the poet W H Davies would have said. Or like the  Bous, as the ancient Greeks might have preferred.

They had put up a large yellow sign, which said ‘Why are you in such a hurry, my dear? Stop a while and enjoy the nature views!’
And soon there I was! On top of Razdan pass! WOOHOO!
I rolled down from the Razdan pass into Gurez valley, enjoying some super-awesome Himalayan views.
Ah. What beauty.
It was a lovely sunny day, with blue skies and cottony white clouds… yeah yeah, I know you have read this line several times by now, but what a treat to ride down lovely twisty and deserted roads! Green mountains on all sides and this sky above you!
I stop again and again to look at one beautiful sight after another, and take a deep breath of that mountain air.
Ah. What air!
I carried on riding down the lovely road, till I got my first sight of the Kishanganga river, and immediately stopped to take in the view.
WOO HOO!


I WAS AT GUREZ!