Pakistan 2019: A Ride Report?

Mellowtonin

Old Enough to Know Better
Day 7

Three of us woke up early and attempted to cross the Hussaini Bridge once again, this time we showed up before the guard! I’d decided to overcome my irrational fear of heights by forcing myself to cross at least half a dozen times, it definitely became much easier...so much so that we were competing to see who had the best pose. Thanks to Fahad for peer pressuring me into this :laughing.

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We got back to the hotel just in time for morning chai and coffee, then headed over to Aliabad where a few of us made last minute adjustments with the local garment tailor, who turned out to be quite the skilled Ibex hunter.

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As we have by now explored the Northern regions of Gilgit-Baltistan, it was a leisurely, few hours ride back down south to hotel “PTSD” in Gilgit, where we stayed the night in preparation for our trek East tomorrow - to Skardu!

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Mellowtonin

Old Enough to Know Better
Day 8

We got up at the crack of dawn...so early in fact we had to wait for the kitchen staff to arrive and make us breakfast! Desi Standard Time - it’s a real thing, look it up :laughing.

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When Moin had joked the day before, “There are those who make it to Skardu, and those who don’t”, he was remarking on how much dirt we would be riding today alongside the mighty Indus River. What he didn’t anticipate was that, Pakistan Army is currently trying to expand the hillside dirt road into a two lane, paved highway. This meant every 10 klicks or so, the road would be blocked while the demolitions team dynamited whole sections of the rock formation directly above :wtf. We had to wait for the rocks to fall, and the bulldozers to push them off the road and the cliff, right in front of our eyes.

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Not only was the constant stopping and going exhausting, we were also inundated by the fine debris particles that got into every nook and cranny :mad. However, the boys weren’t about to give up, we stopped for an assorted snack of roti, lentils, and masala crisps at the Midway Hotel Astak.

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With morale finally recovered, we soldiered on and rode straight thru the second half to our destination.

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Skardu is the city where mountaineers would start their journey on their quest to conquer K2 (second highest summit in the world after Everest) since it’s the nearest town with an airport to basecamp. As such, the aptly named K2 Motel where we stayed the night had its hallways adorned by posters announcing such expeditions from years past. But given K2’s infamous 23% mortality rate, I had the uneasy feeling that not every party on the wall made their way back alive :rip.

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Mellowtonin

Old Enough to Know Better
Day 9

Rest day in Skardu! Halfway through breakfast, we found the hotel completely deserted of any staff. Turns out they all went outside to join a street protest against municipal road expansion. We waited for at least two hours, until our waiter returned from the kitchen with our food -without even missing a beat:rofl. After the breakfast ordeal - Jimmy Khan, Alex, and myself decided to explore the King of Forts ~ Kharpocho.

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The place really reminded me of those Indiana Jones movies I enjoyed so much as a child, specifically Temple of Doom. I absolutely adored the panoramic view overlooking the Rock of Skardu.

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We hiked for an hour from the fort to visit the first organic village in Pakistan, where the women of the village avoided us like the plague :x. Although I heard later that it was a cultural thing since we are strangers of the opposite sex.

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In the afternoon I made a childish request and had our local guide drive a few of the boys more than an hour out to visit Shangrila Lake. What a disappointment that was, at least I got an okay shot of Alex at Upper Kachura Lake instead. But along the way we drove past the Northern Himalayans, it’s amazing to think that during winter, patches of snow would blanket the so called “cold desert” in front of these impressive mountain ranges.

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The eldest rider from our group, 70 year old Michael "Kareem Khan" from Canada, went to visit the governor’s mansion. Being an avid polo player, he heard that the governor wad renowned for being a polo fan complete with a stable of pure bred horses on site. Poor Kareem soon came to regret that decision, as a black horse chomped down on his little finger, all the way to the bone.

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Nasty horse that bit Kareem...

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Moin took Mike to the E.R., but being a small, remote town, the on-call orderly didn't really seem to know what he was doing wrapping up the injured finger, poor Kareem ~
 
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budman

General Menace
Staff member
They are working for me.

Alex... consider embedding photo's perhaps at some point.

I hate to see awesome threads get blasted when photofucket or other stuff gets lost. I know it is a PIA, but from my historical this is good stuff.... I love to see it live on should something happen. If you go back to rally threads you will see what I mean.
 

Mellowtonin

Old Enough to Know Better
Day 10

We heard news when we'd first arrived in Skardu that both the Deosai Plains (world’s second highest alpine plain) and Babusar Pass were closed due to heavy snow fall. Unfortunately the way back to Islamabad would either require us going through both locations, or completely around - which would’ve easily added another 2~3 days. Given the clear sky in Skardu, we waited until just before noon, hoping enough snow had melted to open the way up.

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Sure enough by the time we arrived at the entrance to Deosai National Park, the guards waved us through.

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What followed was 8 hours of hardcore slogging thru snow, ice, and mud.

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Everyone had a couple crashes, it was pretty much impossible not to riding over frozen mud. Good thing the Honda tech team wagon was always around to fix or replace any broken pieces.

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By the time we made it to the other side of the park at sunset, a few of the novice riders in our group were experiencing hypothermia of the extremities due to improper footwear. Fortunately we took a long break by the little hole in the wall restaurant next to the police station. We were provided with hot water to warm up our feet and surprisingly delicious food, I strongly suspect that they killed a chicken in our honor just to make us fresh curry.

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Jimmy Khan bravely volunteered to give Mr. Bangash an emergency foot massage, as the latter was in visible pain and discomfort by this point.

All the while Michael - who'd ridden in the truck all day due to his injured finger, heated up a pair of spare socks in the kitchen to help Alex #1 with his wet sock situation. To the cook's audible dismay, Mike had accidentally placed the socks directly over the roti/naan baking griddle, this quickly became a group running gag for the remainder of our trip.

Two hours after sunset, in almost pitch black darkness with only the stars lighting our way, the cold and exhausted group made it to the village of Astore. What a day! Since Moin never leads tours in the winter for fear of snow closing parts of the route, I do believe we might've been the first group to have ridden Deosai under such crazy conditions!!
 
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Mellowtonin

Old Enough to Know Better
That’s an adventure! Nothing like snow to get the story moving. Your pain our gain.

Thanks Chris, I'm glad that my day of suffering provided good entertainment:laughing

The landscape and photos are stunning! What an adventure, Alex! :thumbup

That's very high praise coming from the BARF unofficial photographer! But I can't take all the credit, only 65% of the photos were mine from the last post, the rest are from the group album. :thumbup

Great trip! Great writeup!

I wanna go. The scenery is stunning, the scale amazes. Wow!!

Pakistan is calling you Brian! Check out POST#2 on page 1 for the details, you'll have the time of your life ~ I promise that:ride

My feet, fingers, and nose hurt in sympathy frostbite.

Thanks Gwyn, all those years of riding Mount Hamilton in the snowy winter without any heated gear finally paid off. Most of the nerves in my extremities are dead by now:rofl
 
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