The Kalasha, or Kalash, are a Dardic indigenous people residing in the Chitral District of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. They speak the Kalasha language, from the Dardic family of the Indo-Aryan branch.

This is quite simply the one of the most amazing, original and wild trips in Pakistan, in 2006 few travellers were the first to experience the Kalash winter solstice festival of Chamos and probably one of the first to see the rare snow leopard in the wild.

This is the most important time of year for the Kalash, when life, the gods and ancestors are celebrated in a weeklong party and joining them for their celebrations is a privilege to which very few Westerners are invited. And having liaised with the BBC Planet Earth team as to the whereabouts of the exquisite snow leopard, it was only fitting that on the second day of the tour we watched her all afternoon as she roamed gracefully over the mountainside and as dusk fell, make her kill.

And now with the relatively new Lowari Tunnel making access to these hidden valleys all the more accessible we can now offer this trip without the hassles of the past. So if you are game enough to experience a true adventure you will witness events that will certainly stay with you forever. This is as close to real exploration as us mortals are ever likely to get.

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