Above:  Meeting point of the Hindu Kush, Karakoram and Himalaya ranges, and the Gilgit and Indus rivers. Driving to Karimabad Today, we drive to Karimabad in Hunza.  With a reasonably long day ahead, we needed an earlier start that the previous days.  Unfortunately, the hotel buffet breakfast was running late.  However, it was worth the […]

Above:  People (circled) walking on the dry river bed. On the other side of the Indus It was another leisurely start at 0930 today in excellent weather. We crossed the bridge across Indus River by car and handing over our paper work at the checkpoint. Ashfaq took us for a drive on the pale grey […]

Indus River Today we had a relaxing start, leaving the hotel at 0930.  We stopped at some pharmacies on the way, then at a viewpoint to look at the broad expanse of the Indus River. The Indus starts in Tibet/China and runs through Kashmir and Ladakh in India, then various parts of Pakistan before discharging […]

Crossing the Deosai Plateau We woke for sunrise at 0600 but the Nanga Parbat range was slightly obscured by clouds today.  With a long day’s drive ahead, we had an early breakfast at 0630 before departing at 0700. About 45 mins after a leaving, we made a wrong turn but fortunately that wasn’t rectified too […]

With the early night, I woke at 0300.  Sunrise was at 0600 and Ashfaq had told me to expect a golden view of Nanga Parbat. I went upstairs for a better view and found my way up to an even higher construction zone. I waited for the sun to gradually get higher and also see […]

The early wake-up from two days ago seemed to have put me into an early pattern.  I woke at 0330 but didn’t get out of bed till 0630. By the time we got to breakfast at the official opening time of 0730, many people were already leaving.  I reckon the groups had made special arrangements […]

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 […]

Flying to Islamabad We had ordered a car at 0415 through the InDrive app’s intercity feature for the early ride to the airport.  It was about half what the hotel’s driver wanted to charge but still double of the regular rate using the app’s regular intracity ride feature. The car arrived at 0400 and got […]