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Published: November 10th 2017
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Geo: 35.2341, 75.1836
So after a brief breakfast we get ready to check out of our Government Hotel and meet a few Chinese tourists in the foyer. They heard we were heading up to Desaoi NP and decide to share their photos. Snow… hmm, the hotel manager points out that if no one has headed through the park it will be impossible to determine where the road is given 3 feet of snow had fallen a few days ago. Surely it could not be that bad. Anyway not put off we head into Skardu to get some cash and buy groceries. We were running pretty low on just about everything and this was the largest town we had seen for some time.
So fully stocked we head up the small winding road to Desaoi. I have images of lush green pastures with Himalayan Brown Bears grazing. The NP sits on a plateau which is at about 4,200metres, the second highest plateau in the world after Tibet. As we are snaking our way up the snow line gets closer very rapidly. I read the NP brochure to Darren that talks about the park being open to Mid September and snow bound from November
to May. Now alarm bells should have been ringing but we had a back up plan. Drive as far as was easy and if too much snow head back. Whilst still snaking up to the plateau the road deteriorated, snow packed on the sides, mud and slippery. Hmmm this was getting worry some already as the drop off the edge was not protected by crash barriers, it was difficult to see the edge and even more difficult to turn around so we headed up. When we got to the top there was snow as far as we could see in every direction. We were overtaken by two car load of Pakistanies so we had some comfort that was okay to continue. Long story short, the sun disappeared behind a cloud, snow started to fall and our outside air temperature gauge indicated it was minus 4. By this time we were getting a little uncomfortable with the likelihood we could get safely down the snaking switchbacks that were on the way in. On a perfect day it would be possible to drive right through the park and out the other side.
Half way through the park there is a camp we
Snow Lepoard prints
Well could be anyway had planned to stay but given the snow was falling quite heavily and if we wanted to get out we needed to see tyre tracks on the road we could not risk stopping. Only decision was it easier to keep going or to head back. At this point we met a local on a bike who told us a jeep had been through the park today and thus it was possible to keep going. Darren made a quick decision to keep going and from there we were up against the fading daylight and the increasing snow.
So we finally hit bitumen again about 5.30pm and although it was still snowing meant we were unlikely to be stuck on the top. Our next drama was where to sleep given there were very few flat areas, it was getting very dark and this area is not noted for its peace and tranquillity.
Our best bet was a town about 50kms down the road. It was raining fairly heavily, dark and we decided to look for any track big enough to head up and park the queen mary on for the night. Better to risk unfriendly villagers rather than bad drivers on shear drop off
roads in the rain.
Pretty tried and more than a little testy we eventually found a small track and made camp for the night.
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David
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Led by the crazy King in the middle