Sardanna Top - Kotla Valley - Azad Jammu and Kashmir (Muzaffarabad, Khori, Battal, Danna)

There was a big festival "Kohala Valley Festival" going in Kashimir spread over 3 days out of which two days were for hike including Makra Peak's summit from Kashmir side.

When I reached Makra top back in October 2021, I realized that it's legs/ridges go in all the different directions and it's usual for mountains. So Makra has a few ridges and routes in Kaghan side and also in Kashmir's side.

We went there in early morning. things were very confusing and no body had information.
What puzzled me the most was that we were at 800 meter altitude, whereas Makra was at 3,900 meter. So we had to gain 3,100 meters all in one day (it was a planned one day hike)?

Finally we were told to reach to Battal in our car and hire a jeep for Danna.
Now Danna is a village and that day the festival party, which was already at Danna, were going to Sardanna, a meadow at the ridge.

We joined the hike, through lush green meadows, forest and most hospitable people. Some families and media people were on jeeps. Weather would get sunny and clouding in matter of time. There were musicians who would play the "dhool" and "shehnai" to keep the spirits up.
Ridge was the border of Pakistan (Balakot) and Kashimir (Kohala Valley).
Sardanna was a spectacular place with couple of ponds which made it look like Switzerland. For some reason whenever I see pond, I think of Switzerland.

Anyways, it was a real festival at Sardanna.
People enjoying biryani , pakoray and cold drinks.
Later I found out the biryani was quite pathetic.

We came for day hike so we did not have anything to spend night. We rented a camp and quilts from locals for Rs 3,500 for 5 of us. It was very pleasant night followed by beautiful morning.
No local would dare go with us to Makra so our plan for Makra next day was abandoned as I calculated it would be 14 km hike with the last patch to be steep. There were several other routes in the same valley which were shorter and quicker.

We got good pictures and on our way back enjoyed the 14th august with spectacular views.
At a meadow we met and befriended with Saleem Raz's family. Our jeep Driver took us to his home and no matter how much we insisted he prepared a tasty lunch for us. He charged us only 40% of what was the jeep fare.

Local as well as most of guests were angry over the management of the event. A bug motorcyclist group left a day earlier because they were misinformed about the trek and had their bikes damaged,

The round track is almost 26 km.
But on the ridge, at Saleem's residence it threw me to Indian Occupied Kashmir and back .
Hence the distance is wrong .