Just a nightstop

I woke at 0400 and heard the morning prayer go around 0430.  It felt warmer than the evening, after having spent the whole night in a warm bed.

We took breakfast together at 0745 before leaving at 0830 for the long drive to Naran. Around 1100, we took a stop in a small village for a comfort stop.  Despite having to India many times, M had never seen a tandoor oven.

Our route took us near Abbottabad, where Ashfaq is from, before joining the motorway around 1130.  This was a followed by a 1.7km tunnel built by China.

The smooth ride was short-lived as we took a smaller road to the east to continue our journey.  We saw a number of new trucks that were being driven on delivery from China.

We made a photo stop at a valley where villagers cross the valley quickly using a simple cable car instead of a circuitous route by road.  The cable car is essentially the deck of a Suzuki ute.  That’s quite handy as a full load of people on the ute can clamber onto the cable car and be off immediately with no waiting, and vice versa.

The weather was starting to get hot by now, unlike what had been forecast.  We took a lunch break near Balakot.

Then came a hold-up as the police at the check-point required photocopies of our passports and visas.  I was surprised that we hadn’t been taken to the photocopy shop to get them on the first day.  Kim and I stayed back while the others went to the local village to do that and return, taking a total of about 30 mins.

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We passed the world’s longest and highest zipline later in the drive before arriving at the Northern Retreat hotel in Naran at 1715.  Naran is nothing more than a nightstop for us.  The hotel was nice but very cold, considering we were only at 7900 ft.  We warmed up with a dinner of a big chicken curry and a couple of vegetarian ones.