Text by Madeeha Syed | Photography by Sohaib Roomi

Travel photographer Sohaib Roomi spent a year driving, hiking, camping and photographing beautiful vistas along the Makran Coastal highway.

When it comes to experiencing wilderness and beautiful vistas, most people turn to the very north. There is the lush green of the Deosai plains, the snowcapped mountains of the Karakoram or the turquoise lakes nestled between them. Most people don’t consider turning south. And definitely not towards Balochistan.

Except for Sohaib Roomi; for him the 653km Makran Coastal Highway held undiscovered adventures and opportunities to explore a landscape not frequented by many. The highway stretches from Karachi, Sindh to Gawadar, Balochistan and passes through Kund Malir, Ormara and Pasni.

Areas along the highway also make for an ideal place to camp out for a night of stargazing. It is far from the maddening crowd and light pollution of the cities and there are no streetlights on the road. Turn your car’s headlights off and you are enveloped in complete darkness and the night sky and everything that it holds is clearly visible to you. “Night simply fascinates me,” says Sohaib. “My eyes are adapted to low-light conditions already.” It definitely gives a whole perspective. For his photos, he has mostly experimented with long exposures.

“I choose Makran Coastal Highway because I think it is the closest place for people living in Karachi to get access to the most beautiful skies,” he says, “I have literally seen all of weathers on this highway. The coast also has the best beaches in Pakistan with some amazing ‘road and sand’ art on your way all the way down to Iran border.”

The Makran Coastal Highway snakes through the brown, barren and beautiful Hingol National Park, which itself is spread out over 1,650km. It’s one the most beautiful drives in the south. The more popular points to stop for photos are in front of two naturally-occurring mud sculptures called the Sphinx and the Princess of Hope. Close to these you will also find the route that takes you to the temple of Hinglaj Mata or Nani Mandir.

You can then choose to go off the beaten path to the famous cave ‘city’ of Balochistan, locally known as Gondrani. This is often marketed as the ‘House of Spirits’ by local tour operators. Heavily eroded and home to bats, if you go inside the caves you can imagine that these caves had probably been inhabited at some point: some parts appear like proper rooms with compartments with them.

According to local folklore, this area was the haunt of evil spirits and demons who were after the lives of the people of Gondrani. A brave woman, Mai Gondrani, lost her life freeing the villagers from their curse. There is a shrine dedicated to her as well.

And finally, you have the more popular mud volcanoes off the highway – Chandragup and two others. Of these Chandragup is the largest and only two are active. There are bigger mud volcanoes in the Hingol National Park but they are not easily accessible by road and haven’t been properly explored/documented yet.

“With my experience of traveling I can definitely say that Pakistanis are really beautiful people when it comes to helping one in need,” says Sohaib, “They really go beyond their limits just to make you feel comfortable. When somebody says Balochistan is dangerous to go, I feel kind of sad because this is the kind of thought that stops people from exploring.”

So he’s never felt threatened? “Not at all,” says Sohaib, “I simply stop my car whenever I like and just walk to wherever I like!”

Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, January 8th, 2017