PBITG: The Shandur Polo Festival

PBITG: The magnificent chaos of freestyle polo and the incredible Shandur Polo Festival

Applying Chaos Theory to Shandur Top was one of my interests of returning to Shandur, four years after I had witnessed the madness of the freestyle mountain polo. As a polo official who has organized and directed national and regional games and multiple world championships, I deal with rules, regulations, tournament formats, and every form of officialdom you can imagine. My encounter with freestyle mountain polo in 2019 was an introduction, not to chaos, but how chaos organizes itself.

After two fabulous nights acclimatising at Mastuj Fort, we made the last push up to Mas Junali, the highest polo ground in the world, at Shandur Top. The mountains, the waterfalls – it is glimpse of heaven as we drive up. 4WDriving over mountain roads, driving single-file under overhangs, hugging steep slate sides and looking down even steeper drops that seem to have no bottom, it is not a drive for the faint of heart.

To read the full story on Pete’s Blog-in-the-garden, please click here: https://www.pbitg.com/shandur-top-chaos-theory/