Hi,

I was going through my pictures and saw the pictures of my fishing trip to Astola Island and thought to share with you guys....

Astola Island on Wikipedia

Astola is some 40km+- from Pasni(city) shore... and takes 4-5 hours of boat ride in good wind conditions... when we left for Astola in the afternoon we were met with a near-death sea storm (freezing cold) and lost almost 75% of out fishing tackle... so this was an un-successful fishing trip)

Astola Island is also know as "Haftallar Island" (Haftallar means the 7th hill, as Astola Island is the 7th hill above the sea the rest of 6 hills are under the sea... which can bee see from above crystal clear waters and also are dangerous as boats can get stuck there because of high grounds under water...)

Haftallar is 4km x 1km, many endangered turtles nest there (and believe me when we visited, millions of hatch-lings swarm our camp as they took the sound of the generators as the sound of the sea (sea turtle babies are blind on birth) we had to turn off the generators and try collecting and sending to sea the baby turtles). The Island can be dangerous as it has known sub-spices of Russel's Viper know as Astola Viper (Endangered)

The Island has mizar of Hazrat Khizer A.S who is the legendary savoir of fishermen (in fishermen folklore)... Some also say that the army of Alexander the great rested on this island... On top of the Island (200ft above sea) is ruined temple of "Kali Maa" some 2,000 years old..

A small solar-powered beacon is there it is not in working condition, no mobile signals... only Warid signal comes when wind is strong from the shore (land) side.

So here I go with the pictures... We started our journey from a friends house in DHA... in a hi-ace will all the goods and tackle... went straight to Mubarak village took our boat mens and "naqwa" (navigator)

From left-to-right (Me, Friend, Friend, Friend, Boatmen(sitting), Naqwa, Cook, Friend, Friend, Boatmen)





En-route to Pasni





Entering Hingol National Park





En-route to Pasni





The "Princess of Hope"



