Blogs from Skardu, Northern Areas, Pakistan, Asia

Sleeping Altitude 2230m or maybe 2310m depending on your info source Day 8 0512 sunrise across the mountains, open up the door to let in some cool air. We don't have much of a plan for today as it's mostly for the company to get the permits finalised, organise their porters and cooks and purchase food supplies. Still feel slightly subpar in the gut so decide to hit up my drug stash- Azithromycin, Lomotil, Buscopan and Ondansetron pre breakfast ought to finally knock it on the head. No idea when breakfast is so after a hot bucket and ladle "shower" wander down to the restaurant area. There are several tables occupied - the large French group (actually all svelte, just large in number), a Spanish group (animated), an Irish group (slightly animated- probably less so than ... read more

Our 4WD driver had come to Gilgit late on the evening we arrived. We were heading straight out the next day on a 4 day loop; out to Skardu day 1, spend day 2 there, then take 2 days to come back via the Deosai National Park with an overnight stay in Astore, a Himalayan mountain village. The road to Skardu is bad; rough and unsealed, and there’s currently a lot of construction happening to improve it, making it even slower. It took us 9 hours with maybe a half hour lunch stop to travel 168km (that’s an average speed of 19kmh…). Our driver was generally cautious but he could have gone a bit quicker, our Prado is quite old, it has no A/C, sounds rough, makes some funny noises over bumps and before the end ... read more

Leaving Skardu could run down Indus gorge again or go up over Deosai high plain (at 4100m 2nd only to one in Tibet), with a nice run past a lake. On the maps it suggested track was no worse than usual, although on bike revered to it as Devil's eye! Well run up from Skardu past Satpara dam was mostly tarmac, but washed over by gravel and sand. Higher, it just got steeper loose gravel, bit tricky given drop on one side. Quite pleased to escape onto the top, just to meet 6 Jeeps with 10 American torists on a guided tour, they were equally surprised to see lone Brit biker. So few km on, they all stopped, where guides had prepared hot coffee and biscuits, would I like some? Yes rather! Gravel tracks with some ... read more

Phew... after a ridiculously long time with no proper internet connection I can finally sit down and write here :) It was all a pretty quick turnaround from Islamabad and the wedding to this: straight from the ac luxury of chaffeur-driven vans, delicious home-cooked food and being glamourous to backpacker mode within just a handful of hours. Shahrukh (Saher's brother) was super kind and managed to wield his powers as an influential member of Pak Army to get me a seat on the next available flight to Skardu. The wedding reception finished after midnight and at 5am I was at the airport waiting to board my 'once in a lifetime experience flight' to Skardu, Baltistan. I'd pre-arranged to do some voluntary work for Project Snow Leopard so I was pretty flaming excited! By sheer coincidence Rabaab ... read more