Karakoram hw, simply unreal...driving on the highest paved road in the world...

Hitting the road again...but not any road, THE Karakoram highway, also known as the highest paved international road in the world, an adventure in itself! This road built by Pakistan and China connects Kashgar to Islamabad, reaching the altitude of 4600 meters, and goes through the border area where Pakistan, Tajikistan, China, Afghanistan are all within 250 km from each others. Sceneries...well, the word in itself sounds weak to describe the unbelievable diversity of landscapes, lights, colors, climates & the speed to which all those could change for better (and sometime worse...) , a paradise for the one seeking nature at its purest...

Leaving Kashgar...short backtrack

Here I was, standing by a local SUV at the very far end of Kashgar, sorting out the transportation for the first part of the journey along the Karakoram highway. Done deal, bag properly tied up on the roof (knew the journey was going to be rough) & ready to meet the locals I would be sharing the ride with! Still not sure who was the most surprised, them (6 local Kirgiz men) or me... Smile! (best thing to do anyway)

First part of the journey

Breathtaking
The Karakoram Highway

- Kashgar to Karakul Lake

A three hours drive to start this journey, the SUV is going full speed, passing by locals on foot, donkey carts and the usual motorbikes...Kashgar quickly gives place to a more agricultural landscape with here and there mud houses and looking at the hats worn by the men (four-corner flower hats) the majority of those locals are still Huizu.

An hour drive, the mountains ranges are getting closer...short dinner break at a local village where my new companions invite me over to share their meal...by then, we still couldn’t communicate (so to speak..) but the first cigarette offered to each of them broke the ice and followed lots of smile & "animated discussions" using the sign language/ a bit of Chinese (one of them could understand basic Chinese)

Back on the car, starting to go up the mountain on a very well maintained two lanes road, so far so good!

Reaching the outskirts of Ghez, I find out that here as well (same as last trip by the Myanmar border), there is a check point to enter the area, starting to get used to passport controls in China...so here you go, my companions walk into the tiny office first, showing their permit to enter the area (required for Chinese citizens) & when it comes to my turn, the Chinese officer looks up, then around, and surprised ask me how I came... He seemed somehow relief when I point out the SUV then parked on the other side of the check point (no, I didn’t come on foot...)...guess most visitors pass by in the morning using the official bus system...

In the meantime, our driver had decided to turn on the vcd player & flat screen TV (yes....there are tiny flat screen TVs absolutely everywhere in China), show time!
Somehow, I enjoyed it as the music & dance was the perfect match for the landscape we were starting to see from the car...getting more and more dramatic as we went up and crossed the Pamir mountain range. Mountains then became pink, lots of dust, landslide too & a cloudy sky that seems menacing...

The pink mountains are then replaced by a sand color range with snow capped mountains on the back, the canyon created by the Ghez river is impressive and somehow I am glad to be traveling on a SUV...We then reached a plateau that goes as far as your sight can see, guess that's when the sky decided that we would start by a sand storm.... couldn’t even see at one meter...and were all hoping that one of those big truck we had seen earlier would not come the opposite way... and after a few minutes, the sand was replaced by snow!!
Still have no clue on how this climatic aberration is possible ... so snowing for few minutes it was, strong wind and the sun still breaking through the cloudy sky from time to time...
Once the snow stopped, the light was simply amazing, sceneries somehow lunar... going further up, seeing very little local yurt or earth house on the way, villages being located a few km away from the road.

Karakul Lake...simply unreal...

Here it is...the Karakul Lake is right in front, with the Mount Muztagh Ata (7,546m), Kongur Tagh (7649m) and Kongur Tiube (7530m) in background. The SUV dropt me by the road, a few hundred meters and I reached the Kirgiz settlement... The lady who welcomed me had the same reaction than the

Gez River canyon
The Karakoram Highway

check point officer, looking outside to find out where I parked my car or where my guide is hiding (pick one....)
Follow a really nice chat in Chinese & before I knew it she shown me the way to one of the yurt and invited me to join them for the party that was about to start in the main yurt, youth day celebration!

Sharing the room with two other European girls that night, nice chat while enjoying some coffee and getting acclimated to the altitude (3600m+). Seems that I would be the only one joining the local "party", so as my yurt mate went to sleep, time to head to the main yurt!

Inside, 30+ local Kirgiz are dancing, laughing, playing, drinking tea... they gave me a warm welcome, offering local cigarettes and tea & we quickly started to laugh as the "party people" went back on the dance floor, dancing on some local style songs and disco songs & making fun in the meantime! Before I knew it, I ended up on the dance floor too... ever tried to dance at 3600+m? Simply exhausting but had so much fun that before I realized it, it was already 1 am!...time to get some rest!

Great night of sleep, had learned from the first night spent in a yurt and thus loaded the stove with coal before going to sleep (while keeping plenty of coal next to it...) Nice & warm!

Another day in middle of nowhere, sensation of infinity as I enjoy the morning sun while drinking some coffee...

Back on horse! Ride along the lake

Short discussion with local Kirgiz kids who arrived at the settlement with some horses and back on the horse I was! Starting to feel really at ease and here we were full gallop in the middle of the grassland , along the Karakul lake that had decided to go for a dark blue color, too windy to see the mountains reflection on it but still so unreal...
By that time, I was the only foreigner left as the other group had left early with their guide, nice & quiet...

Crossing water, riding by yaks & sheep, going along tiny path before going back to the grassland where we went for one full gallop after the other...horses seemed exhausted and somehow so were we, so we finished the ride slowly, going on foot for a little while for the horses to rest... 3 hours ride & by the time we reached the settlement, the lake is taking a azure color...

Time to head to the next stop: Tashkurgan, Tajik autonomous county

Standing by the road, guess I was lucky as I waited less than 5 mn before one of the SUV stop by and give me a ride to the next town, Tashkurgan located within the Tajik autonomous county.
Nice ride with a Chinese family, and within an hour and half I was reaching the Tajik town.

Tashkurgan in itself felt like I had reached the end of the world, in the middle of nowhere, the sky was low when I arrived & at first the overall look of the city (ugly concrete buildings along one main road) made me feel like I was going to head straight back for the Karakul Lake...

Gave a second chance to the city and decided to spend the night and walked around, well, after a little while I still felt the same way toward the city (not even mentioning the "fortress" supposed to be THE site to see...) but somehow people were friendly and it was interesting to see how different they were from the Kirgiz in their attitude and outfit, another day another experience!

Managed to miss the bus back to Kashgar the next morning (again...), although I was at the station on time (well at least at the time the driver indicated the day before). Starting to have doubts about which time they were using in this area (seems there was one more hour difference...) anyhow...took me about 10mn to find a minivan heading back to Kashgar for a fare of 40RMB (4 Euros), getting good at it!

Back in Kashgar, ready to head for the journey starting the next day that will be taking me through the Taklamakan desert all the way to Urumuqi.

Trip around Xinjiang
PART 1: Xinjiang Southern Pastures: Kazakh, horses, snow & yurts!
PART 2: Hundreds years of dust...welcome to the Gobi Desert!
PART 3: Kashgar, the gate to Central Asia! Vibrant & colourful!

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