Trip of a Lifetime: Gorakh Hills

Trip of a lifetime?

In Gorakh Hills?

For those of you who don’t know, Gorakh Hills is in Sindh and yes, it was a trip of a lifetime because it was the first (or second?) time ever (first (or second) trip ever) that I took with my friends and IT IS A BIG DEAL in the part of the world where I come from. Lulz.

So if you, like me, belong from a fairly decent household in Pakistan, you can understand exactly why travelling alone with friends is such a big deal. However, after much convincing I got the permission and although it was back in 2015, that I took this trip with some of the best people I made friends with at work, I still reflect back on it with much fondness. It really was a great trip filled with fun, laughter, tons of pictures and COLD- yes it was freezing cold in Sindh, up on the mountains.

A little about Gorakh Hills

So Gorakh Hills is a hill station located northwest of Dadu city, at an elevation of 5,689 feet. You can say it is almost at a distance of 500 kms from Karachi in the Kirthar Moutains. You can travel by car or bus till the last town of Wahi Pandi at the foot of the mountains but from thereon you have to ascend by jeeps as the roads are quite rough.

View on the way to our ascend

The glorious mountain views on the way

Gorakh in Sanskrit means shepherding, spefically in difficult pastures, which could be the reason of the name Gorakh Hills and practically true because tribesmen do bring their herds for summer grazing here. Locals believe that the word Gorakh comes from the Balochi word “gurkh” which means wolf, and those were quite in abundance in the Keerthar range before and a threat to cows and sheep. If you want to read more on the history and origin of Gorakh Hills,I Found a very interesting post that you can read here.

My Experience

It is hard to believe that at this point of writing the blog post, it has been almost 4 years since we visited, but honestly I remember it like it happened just last year. So we booked our tour with RnB Tours and I have to say it was a very pleasant and comfortable experience. We left early in the morning (like around 6) I remember it was still dark when we assembled at the meeting point and started our journey. By afternoon we were there, sitting across the table waiting fon our lunch. On our way there, we made a stop for breakfast, so don’t think they starved us. Lolz. We made ample stops (for food/washrooms/views/pictures) on our way to stretch our legs so I will have to say that the journey was well planned and not haphazard in any way that it put us behind schedule or anything.

Early morning tea

You will find that there is just one guesthouse there and a couple of rooms where you can relax, but the guest house provides some great food. We chose to rest in the rooms and since we were a group we took one room, 4-5 people could easily share a room. There were tents too, and people did spend their night out in the wild. If you can stand the cold, I am sure it would be an experience.

View of the guesthouse

View of guest rooms

I do recall us going into a partial food coma and dozing off quite peacefully at night. But wait, don’t think that all we had was food and rest. no no no. We retired for the night only after we were done chilling around a bonfire, singing songs, playing antakhshari and enjoying the cold night breeze.

Bonfire night

Basically when you are with fiends, every moment feels blissful. In the morning after breakfast, we took the short trek upwards to the summit, which has a beautiful, no, beyond beautiful view of the mountains and the surrounding areas. (wait for it:p)

The way leading to the top

Views of Gorakh Hill

Sunset at Gorakh Hill

We caught the sunset at Gorakh Hills and it was mesmerizing to say the least. To be honest, I was just too tired to catch the sunrise but i am sure it would have been sight to behold from these hills.

Mesmerizing sunset at Gorakh Hills

It was a weekend trip which means spending two nights there and returning on Sunday. We did not have to worry about food at any point, not even during the travel as RnB made sure the stops were well managed. We even stopped for lunch on our way back on Sunday.

So if you are in Sindh and haven’t experiences this site as yet, I suggest you do. Gorakh Hills has a calm, peaceful vibe where you can unwind and bask in the mountainous silence.

Have you been there? How was your experience? I would love to know!