Margallah Hills

By Naved
In Photography, travel
Date March 17, 2019

The very first time I faced Margallah Hills head to head was May of 2008.

Ever since, I have climbed many other hills, trekked out in the wilderness along Murree Hills, Fairy meadows, Gilgit Baltistan and in parts of Skardu as well. But there is something magical about a weekend hike up to the Margallah hills, Its sort of easy to access if you live in or around Islamabad.

This past weekend was no exception. I joined forces with the group at Islamabad Run With Us Club. Explored a different location this time which i had only seen before in images, When i received invitation from Qasim, who actually organizes and run the club, I knew this was my chance, and I couldn’t deny.

Islamabad Run With Us (IRWU) Group

For me there were two challenges, hike/trek and to take images with same enthusiasm as 10 years ago. With a challenge of using only one lens, which I love to take and set myself up for whenever I have the opportunity.

Qasim Briefing some must to follows rules from the trek.
Kamran Hashmi in Black, my first contact who introduced me to cycling community in Islamabad, back in 2015
Bilal Running in dirt and mud
Qasim with his ever famous line “GoPro Take a Photo”
Crossing the very first stream
Bilal
Bilal Again climbing the tree
Sami
A runner holding his phone while posing for the camera.
Planning how to cross the next river bed..

Trips like these make it ideal for making new portraits of new faces, new stories and new way of looking at things.

Saba in the fields.
Baqir busy being busy.
Kamran Hashmi
Talking selfie on top of the boulder.
When the going gets slightly tough.
On top.
Baqir 🙂

Lets head to some experimentals 😀

Baqir at 50mm F1.2
Bilal at 50mm F1.2
Saba at 50mm F1.2
Sami at 50mm F1.2

Qasim in action while going full on with his GoPro.

Qasim on top of the boulder with GoPro Mounted.
Qasim inspecting GoPro.
Qasim in action.

On this trip i had the privileged to met Col. Retired Bhatti who has summited Mount Everest back in 2017, he too has a lot of stories to tell.

a man of courage, grit and persistence.
He lost these during Everest Summit, yet at 60+ he was stronger among the entire group here on this trek.
Ahtesham

Though this post doesn’t do full justice, This place demands an entire new posts with images dedicated to the beauty of this place. That shall soon follow in coming week, that’s all for now 🙂

a trekker after deep dive. 🙂
a group photo with Col Bhatti 🙂

that’s all for now, i am grateful to Islamabad Run With Us club for giving me this opportunity and showing us the way to this heaven nestled right into the Margallah Hills.

One last thing though, Video by Qasim.

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