We as Pakistanis often miss out on the things and places in our country, which can really reflect on the better side of this country; I often wondered do we actually travel in business class or eat at a 5 start Michelin restaurant just to get number of hits on our social media?
My several visits to Balochistan over a span of 15 months has provoked me to explore and experience something for which I do need to Google or search Wikipedia as I am the source of what I have experienced and witnessed.
Travelling to Sapat Beach was like a roller coaster ride not sure if there would any road further or merely escape the dead end; nevertheless the 75 minutes journey from the Sapat village (goth) were the Zikris reside I had no idea where this hidden beach was located.
No Google map was available and the traces from the last car tracks was the only way for us to follow. I wonder why there was no road or even signs / roads labels or directions marked. The only thing I was told by a camel rider was to see a tyre handing out from where I could turn the car and then just keep following the tracks till we see the sea front.
Sapat Beach is located 220 kilometres from Karachi at Lasbela District. The journey towards Sapat Beach was good enough to digest the food and painful enough to desire for a massage and sauna bath. However, all these seemed meaningless once I saw the beautiful greenish blue shore line of the sea and the glittering golden sand; my eyes suddenly glazed to what I was looking at “Sapat” Buji Koh. To pen down the feeling I had then would not justify the beauty and glory of the beach which no one talks about or probably no one knows! Explore
The Zikris who call themselves non namazis consider this beach “sacred” and have marked few placed with colourful flags where they sit and do the Zikr, their form of worship. The caves on the off shore of the beach surround the entire coast. My imagination as to what I was told by the local people was just not an imagination but literally created the look of the ancient merchants who used to trade using this sea route and how the pirates / traders used these caves as their hideouts and to safeguard their camels and goods.
There is another story where the people of this area also say that this beach is cursed as almost 300 camels were drowned and since then not many people visit this beach. No matter what the real story may be I felt that this creation of the Mother Nature surely mesmerized my thoughts and the quest to explore more that Why not Balochistan? Why do we not travel to such places and above all why are these places still unexplored and not promoted or developed? No one wants to talk about the development or the preservation of this beach.
Just imagine if beaches like Sapat were to be developed and highlighted as Tourism sites, the livelihood and socio-economic conditions of the people will improve for better.
BY:
Erum Masood
Copyrights are reserved by the contributor for photographs and content.
Erum Masood
Freelance _ Contributor (Commonwealth Journalists Association)
Entrepreneur & Social Enterprise Influencer
Eram.masood@gmail.com
