Pakistan here we come..

Highest border crossing in the world...

There was a huge cheer from our packed bus as we went over the Khunjerab pass. 4732 meters, the highest crossing in the world marking the official border between China and Pakistan. 

The relief was palpable and genuine. It is weirdly stressful to be watched and monitored so closely by everybody around you 24*7, police, citizens, cameras and even drones while you just try to have a holiday. 

The bus was not allowed to stop until Sost some 50 miles from the border into Pakistan and at a height of 2200 meters below the pass. 

Wanting to cycle the pass we vowed to cycle back up from Sost to the Khunjerab pass despite the huge effort required. 

The plan was to take two days to cycle up and down camping when we were tired. However after only 20 miles and 500 meters higher the Police wouldn’t let us continue that day saying we couldn’t camp above the checkpoint. 

What’s more we needed a permit to camp where we were, which we didn’t have, so they tried to send us back to Sost!

The discussions escalated to the chief of border police who was not keen for us to camp near his border control post. Guards with guns were posted all around. 

Then the National park guard also refused to let us stay without a permit. 

Oddly enough the park guard agreed to let us stay only if the chief of border police took responsibility for us. Which of course he wouldn’t do. 

As our plight was now getting heard by everybody at the border post, I was approached by a guy, who said we could stay with him in his big stone building, and what’s more not to worry about what the chief of police or the national park guard said, they don’t matter. He was in control here. He turned out to be the army commander of the region. 

Well nothing could go wrong with this scenario then! However as a precaution we thought it better to get everybody onside so with a long round of shuttle diplomacy with our by now very pissed off NGO interpreter we reached an agreement where everybody was happy we could stay... phewww

The poor NGO guy just kept mumbling “its all fcked up, it’s all fcked up” much to our amusement.

The big climb.... 

We now had 1500 meters of climb left to do and 82 miles of steep winding roads to cover that day to reach the pass and get back to Sost. 

It was a beautiful but very hard cycle and we got absolutely mobbed with selfie requests as we got to the top. We have lots of truly memorable pictures and experiences of that day getting back to our Eagle Star room late at night to the relief of the owner who, bless him, was concerned about us. He gave us a great meal and we just crashed out. 

We agreed to take it easy for the next few days with rides of 25 and 35 miles through absolutely stunningly beautiful mountains valleys river gorges. The road was up and down a lot but the scenery easily made up for that. Staying in Passu, a lovely green village with great fruit trees, we kept being given summer apples and apricots by the locals. Karimabad was the next village on route, built on an extremely steep hill with a fort at the top, just beside our lodgings! .. typical hard climb at the end of the day then. 

Karimabad was to be our home for four nights whilst we enjoyed the spectacular views directly from our room onto Rakaposhi, one of the highest mountains in the world. Sunsets and sunrises were just incredible. 

By now we had run out of cash and we hadn’t been able to get any money from any cash machine since before China. So even our dollar supply for exchanging in the local market were running dangerously low. The cash machines in China and Pakistan so far didn’t accept any of our 8 different types of credit or debit card and two bank managers seemed unable to help even when we escalated to ‘head office’. One helpful customer offered his assistance if we transferred money to his account, but this looked a bit to risky with it taking days to clear and maybe we wouldn’t even find them after that!! No reason to think this would occur but well you never know!

Finally our lodgings host lent us 5000 rupees to feed ourself and a friendly Karakoram Biker gave Pedr a left on the back of his motorbike to track down an cooperative cash machine in the next village which worked thank goodness. 

Leaving Karimabad we headed for Gilgit staying along the way at a beautiful apple and fig orchard and small house Faizan guest house in Nasirabad. Our host was very friendly and educated us all afternoon about the Hunza valley people and the near 100% education, whereas the guys across the river in the Nagar region, a different Suni group, didn’t believe in education and had only 10% of their population educated. This education battleground between the sects proved to be a big issue with 12 schools being burnt down recently in Chilas a village we were going through.

Arriving in Gilgit after a very long, hot cycle over the mountain roads crossing the river many times proved hard work. Finding our only long booked accommodation on the main sakwar road, which was of course up a steep hill was even more of a challenge.

Eventually with some local support we found the place. The bathroom had collapsed, no internet connection, sink that didn’t work and shower that at best dribbled water proved a bit of a disappointment, but at least they had a fridge with cold water and we managed a 'shower with a bucket'. 

Tabish and Ali of the Karakoram Bikers, (the company who helped us get our visas), arrived shortly afterwards and were very helpful and knowledgeable, which was exactly what we needed. 

We decided to hire some bikes (with engines!). The process was as easy as, “help yourself there’s the bikes” £12 per bike per day, cash, seemed reasonable. 

Pedr’s bike lesson was just get on and ride proved to be almost as challenging as my relearning to ride a bike after 35 years made particularly complicated by the fact that the front brake didn’t work. Worse than that it actually locked the front wheel if you accidentally pulled it. 

It’s surprising how much inherent learning takes over and makes you pull that lever anyway, scaring the sht out of me!!

Ali recommended a trip along the Gilgit river to Haim, (towards Afghanistan), a long day riding a narrow valley part tarmac and part dirt road to see a new area. 

You could tell this area was a bit more tense than Gilgit by the reaction we were getting from the locals. Still mostly friendly but there was definitely some tension in the air. 

We decided to head back to Gilgit. Ali later admitted that there had been a shoot out between the police and the Taliban fighters in the village we stopped in for lunch, just two weeks ago. This resulted in three police and five Taliban dead. When we asked why he recommended for us to go there he said it would be safe now, they had increased the numbers of police in the area!!  Safety is all relative here, clearly they had more to worry about than motorcycle tests and legal bikes!

We then took a motorcycle trip back up the Karakoram Highway to visit Karimabad where we had spent three lovely days. The road was much better and the riding was fun. We also knew the people would be friendly. It’s amazing to see just how far we manage to cycle in one day when it takes you over 2 hours of hard riding on a motorbike to get the same distance as a mornings cycle ride in a fully loaded bike. No wonder I found it hard cycling!

We misjudged our return to Gilgit so it got dark on our way back. Biking in the dark through Pakistani villages and towns proved particularly terrifying. Sheep, goats, cows, bikes without lights people just crossing the road in front of you and cars with full beams on the wrong side of the road on their busy EID holiday all complicated by the fact that my bike also didn’t have any back lights, indicators or front brake. 

Somehow we made it back in one piece with a million stories of ridiculous things happening along the way. 

Tomorrow we head out into the desert for a long trip to the start of Rikort Bridge. Fairy Meadows and Nanga Parbat basecamp.