11 October 2007 Today I reached the Chinese border at the Khunjerab pass. The last couple of km I was accompanied by a member of the park security force. From about 4000m we climbed rather fast to 4750m over a distance of 18 km. Getting out of the car was OK, but once on my feet I felt rather dizzy. It was not as cold as I expected, but that was partly because of the sun. The reflection on the ice was dazzling. We were about to turn back when, from the Chinese side, a car rocketed up with a load [View Full Entry]

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Pakistan solo When I left Quetta, I was determent to leave a part of my life - and Ann - behind. Before I could go though, we had to finalize a few things that had cropped up at the last moment: proof of life for the SVB (my pension) and permission to drive the car, which is in Ann’s name, out of the country. That done though, after the usual hold-ups and misunderstandings, I was finally free to leave. A last picture, a fare-well and off I was, promptly going in the wrong direction. That was soon corrected though, and I [View Full Entry]

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Seeing that this is the first entry in my personal blog where thousands of people have been waiting for, I think it’s appropriate to start with an intro: where do I come from. I won’t go back into the misty past but refer to the number of times that I declared to my wife and friends that I wasn’t going to retire in a townhouse: security at the gate, high walls, big TV screen, small garden and little dog. With time progressing so did our plan, culminating in the first trip to Mozambique in a Toyota bakkie. It would have [View Full Entry]

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