Usman Tariq

I grew up in Chitral and now live in Peshawar, so this report is really about seeing home through the eyes of the two university friends I brought with me this time, neither of whom had been north of Islamabad before. We spent the first two days in the town itself — the old fort, the mosque, and long unhurried meals with family, which took up more of the trip than either of my friends expected but which I insisted on, because Chitral isn't only the landscape around it. My friends kept commenting on how different the pace of daily life felt here, and I think that observation was worth as much to them as anything we did afterward. Chitral Gol was the part they'd actually come north for. We went up early, before the heat and before other visitors, and were rewarded with a clear sighting of markhor on a distant slope — not guaranteed, and not something I want to promise anyone reading this, but a genuine highlight when it happens. The walk itself is gentle enough that it worked as much as a wildlife-watching morning as a hike. What I wanted my friends to leave with wasn't just photos of a park, but some sense of Chitral as a place people actually live, with its own rhythms that have nothing to do with tourism. I think they got that. One of them has already asked when we're going back.