While camping around Kund Malir, there was a night with no waves or wind and we could see the fishing light thru the darkness of night. The next morning of such a calm night, we visited the fishing port.

Kund Malir is a really small fishing port. The system here is that the larger fishing vessles off load their catch to the smaller fishing boats to bring them into the beach. When we arrived at the beach, there were already many boats out gathering off the harbor.

This is the fishing boat. They had already caught so many fish. As I was wondering what fish that was…I found out it was a largehead hairtail (or beltfish). They say that these adult beltfish come to the surface of the sea in the early morning hours.

The smaller fishing boats offload their catch onto the beach for transport.

Locals carry the fish to the trucks. Even in such a small fishing village there is an Ice Factory. The fish are packed in ice and transported directly to Karachi.

The local people all pitch in to help with the haul. They were kind enough to allow us to see their catch for today.

These are the largehead hairtail. Now that we have seen them, we cannot resist buying a little. Such a fresh catch! We loaded it in our cooler and took it to camp. Working with our cook Noor, we prepared the 15 beltfish and made sashimi. We grilled some with salt over the charcoal and ate our Fish Nanban (escabeche). It turned out to be a gourmet meal with our steamed Japanese rice and all kinds of prepared fish for dinner.

At our campsite, we dined on our fresh fish sashimi with the beer and wine we brought along with us.

This really amazing beltfish grilled with salt…was beyond delicious. This night, there were 7 Japanese people to gorge themselves on the 15 fish that were prepared. In my many long years of travelling thru Pakistan, it turned out to be the best dinner I ever had.

Photo & text : Mariko SAWADA (Including photos taken from drone footage）
Visit: Nov 2019, Kund Malir, Balochistan