The KKH - one minute tarmac - the next - washed out mud and stones
Slept not a wink - worrying about how I will get back from the base camp alone - glad to be leaving Rawalpindi though! Went through many emotions last night - elation,worry, euphoria, fear and dread.
Van arrived - Toyota Space Wagon, still - looks good.
First taste of full on Pakistani driving - front seat terror! One skid nearly into the back of a van within 10 minutes - going to be a white knuckle ride!
Pollution is unbelievable - diesel clouds so thick you cannot see through them belch out of trucks and buses - much breath holding!
These overloaded trucks can be seen on the KKH - our driver liked nothing more than to wait until a blind bend before he overtook them...
We eventually get onto the KKH after many hours travel.
Driving involves the accelerator and the horn. Only as a last resort are brakes and horn applied in unison!
Many near misses are a way of life.
Stopped for tea and 'fries' (sweet potato deep fried in crispy batter) in a small grotty village. The other 3 are trying to freak me out I think!
We attracted quite a crowd of locals around us as we ate. many flies in tow.
A really old knarled chap came begging so Tom offered him some roti, the tea shop owner tried to get him to go (the beggar - not Tom) but he was not for moving - he would not take the roti as he already had some.
We decided to leave but had to be chased as we had forgotten to pay!
Tasty deep fried goodies at a 'tea stop'
Eventual stop at Chilas - driver was doing 100kph on narrow winding roads that could suddenly turn to a pile of rubble where it was washed over by mud and stones. Round blind bends - horn in use. He seemed to speed up when he did not want to stop for tea.
Had first authentic Pakistani food - Dahl - very good, Okra - very good, Rice - nice but a big chunk of meat in the middle - did not dare chance the mince meat or the goat.
Minor discussion over the final bill saw a refund via Toms insistence.
We stopped at a small village and saw our first arms shop - AK47s for sale! Over the road was a man making them by hand.
A skilled gunsmith used very basic tools to create replica versions of the most widely used killing machines of this century - the AK47
Driving through the darkness was very scary, 100kph to 5kph via a four wheel skid when the road turned rough!
Stirling Moss - our driver was determined to pass anything on the road ahead of him. With the lights of Gilgit in the distance when he nearly lost it as a Toyota pickup cut us up whilst we were on the outside of the bend. - I was gripping the seat with my arse!
Footnotes:
The other guys had traveled the KKH before and so this was their excuse for offering me the front seat - "you'll have a great view" they said. I thought them most generous at the time but was soon to find out why I was offered this prestigious location... After our first 4 wheel drift almost into the back of a van I noted the number plate read RIP - this is the Rawalpindi registration - but it was none to comforting at the time.
'Stirling' drove for 14 hours without too many rests - the very near miss over Gilgit was too close for comfort - the white bollards by the side of the road would not so much stop you from going over the edge into the Indus river a few hundred feet below, rather they would flip you onto the roof as you passed by them. I remember looking back with a pale complexion to see what they thought about or near miss only to see them all fast asleep in the back... ignorance is bliss...
The cost for an AK47 was a mere 40 GBP - they were very keen to sell us one and we did muse over it for about 10 seconds or so - tempting to take one up into the middle of nowhere and shoot it - but carrying it would have brought trouble I'm sure, and getting it home as a 'souvenir' would have been tough...
The gunshop was in Besham - about half way to Gilgit. We had planned to overnight here but the driver wanted to press on. He was non too keen to stop in the village we had tea in for some reason - he was not comfortable there - maybe he knew something we did not...
was still a good number of hours from I had still not plucked up the courage to eat meat yet - I was not alone in this and I followed the lead of other more seasoned travelers as to when it was/was not safe to eat meat. ChilasGilgit and the thought of getting the craps on the KKH was none to appealing to anyone...
Begging was frowned upon it seemed by the locals - they did not like to see us getting hassled by beggars and they would usually shew them away. It was as though they were ashamed of them begging from us for some reason.
Google Earth shot of Chilas, Northwest Territories, Pakistan. We arrived in the dark so I never knew there was an airport there, or all of those cultivated fields.
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