Dagri Bangla! - From Mountains Top to the Depths of Forest

Dagri Bangla is situated in the middle of a thick, virgin forest located in the vicinity of “Dagri Naka”, according to wikipedia “Dagri” means “The home of leopards” and yes we recently had a chance to visit the place and it was an out of the world kind of experience for us.

For me traveling is as important for life as breathing. I believe adventurous tours are what makes you more stronger, they make you value the things you’ve in your daily life but you usually don’t really notice the importance of them. You can relate my opinion with Gustave Flaubert like so,

“Travel makes one modest. You see what a tiny place you occupy in the world.” - Gustave Flaubert

Checklist

Anyone planning a trip towards these woods should be careful about a few things:

• You should be fit because the track is about 8-10 hours long which includes hiking and most of the time you’ll be in a thick forest.
• Carry along a daypack for your trek which holds some instant energy sources like ORS mixed water, chocolates, dates etc.
• You should always have a raincoat with you on such tours.
• There’s not water everywhere on the track so keep a water bottle with you and make sure you refill it your way to Dagri Bangla whenever you see a waterfall.
• You should’ve a good pair of shoes as the track is a bit long so your feet should be comfortable all the time, beware there are too much rocks on the track so your shoes should be good.
• When going on such a trip you should check your feet nails (:P) although this sounds funny but if you haven’t cut your nails before going on trekking you’re most probably going to run out of your stamina real soon due to the pain in your forefoot and in your nails because when you’re going down on a track your nails will hit your shoes and this will cause you so much pain that you won’t be able to walk even on straight grounds.
• Always check weather forecast before going on such adventurous trips and be well-prepared for the situations before hand.
• Hire a good driver! Important one in my opinion, if you’re going to hire a vehicle with driver to go on such trips please make sure you hire a driver who’s comfortable on such routes and/or who is driving on the route, you’re planning to go, for quite some time otherwise you’ll mess up your tour badly.
• Hire a local Guide! It’s really important to have a local guide with you and may be a horse to carry all your camping gear otherwise it’s impossible for newbies to complete this track on their own.

Itinerary

There’re two ways to trek towards Dagri Bangla and the one liner itineraries for them are:

1. Option#01, you start the track from Nathia Gali, camp at Dagri Bangla for night (after 6-7 hours trekking) and come back from the same route of Miranjani next morning.
2. Option#02, you start trekking from Thandiani and camp at Dagri Bangla for night (after 8-10 hours trekking) and come back from the Miranjani side next morning.

So as I’ve mentioned above there are two options to complete this track, we personally followed the second option as it has two major advantages,

• You start from Thandiani and come back from Miranjani side so you’ll cover the overall track in one go.
• Trekking from this side takes more time, but it’s not as steep as the compared to the Miranjani track.

I’ll try to explain the second itinerary with enough details so anyone can follow.

1. Start from Lahore, pack your bags, throw’em in the box you hired for this tour. In our case it was a high roof Hiace by Toyota.
2. Short stay at Bhera Service Area, Lahore-Islamabad Motorway (only if your driver is sleepy :P otherwise no need to stop here).
3. Enroute to Islambaad, via M2 motorways.
4. Then all the way to Abbottabad, KPK, via M1 motorways.
5. Move towards Thandiani and just before reaching the Thandiani top you have to get rid of your van and driver so you could start trekking from here. Tell your driver to meet you on the other side next morning, approx 2 PM :P.
6. Trek for almost 8 to 10 hours and you’ll reach at Dagri Bangla.
7. Camp there for night.
8. Next morning, breakfast and start trekking towards the other side, Miranjani.
9. Just before reaching Miranjani top, you’ve to go down towards Nathiagali, where you’ve your driver waiting for you.

That’s about it.

Forest

Dagri forest is a thick, virgin forest, not many people go there that’s why the forest is preserved in its natural shape. You can find most of the information on wiki but I’m gonna describe a few things in here which are not listed on wiki.

When you start trekking from Thandiani, you just keep on going down until you reach a small, really small town called Beeran-Gali, which is in my opinion the last part of the track which has some houses and there’s also a shop there from where you can buy some basic stuff, we also bought a nail-cutter from there :P.

In the forest you’ll find lots and lots of snails, (even from the beginning), just be careful while walking so that you won’t crush some of them beneath your feet.

You’ll also find some other animals like fox, porcupine and snakes, and I know what you’re thinking, why leopards are off the list, if you google about the place it’ll tell you the place is rich with leopards but in contrary you won’t be able to witness one for some unknown reasons.

Track Insights

As far as the track of this tour is concerned, I would say it’s good, really close to nature, cool weather during hot summers of Pakistan and you’ll find some awesome sceneries while trekking.

You’ll find a few really beautiful meadows along your way from which the one near Miranjani top is my personal favorite.

From the aspect of the length of this track I would say only a bit above average people can complete it easily but you don’t have to take my words for it, if you are a bit weak physically but carrying a really strong will with you no mountain or track can stop you from being on top, as my dear friend Saif-ur-Rehman said on this track to me

“It’s not the legs which conquer the track, it’s your will!” - Saif ur Rehman

Day 01

Day 02

So be fit, be strong from the inside and you’ll be just fine.

Personal Thoughts

From the perspective of a person who’ve done Bayal base camp of The Killer Mountain (Nanga Parbat) and the majestic Chitta Katha lake, you can believe my words for a few things,

• The track of Dagri Bangla from Thandiani side is not too steep but it’s really really long for an average person.
• It gets really beautiful near Miranjani top when coming back from Dagri Bangla, the meadows there are beautiful.
• Overall experience is good for a nature loving person but this track lacks in having multiple sceneries, you’ll feel more or less the same sceneries of Galiyat mountains are repeated.
• It’s a long track, enjoy it and just be well prepared for everything.

And like the quote says,

It’s the not the Destination, It’s the journey. - Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self-Reliance

By Tahir R.

I work at Check24 on weekdays and read about latest tech trends, AI, & do some blogging on weekends. Find me on Twitter, GitHub, and Stackoverflow.