The Karakorum Highway is only a Highway in name presumably to provide a simple acronym that is bandied about quite readily – the KKH. In reality, it should be called the ‘Very scary little road that is cut out of cliffs susceptible to landslides and falling rocks’, but VSLRTICOOCSTL doesn’t quite have the same ring to it as the KKH so we’ll forgive the authorities on this one. However, I must tell you in case you’re considering going – it’s not even close to a highway, the only resemblance would be the madmen that drive on it way above the speed limit. Whether it’s to minimise their chances of being hit from falling rocks and ultimately spend less time on the KKH or for pure thrill seeking purposes, we too found ourselves hurtling around bends doing 100km/h in what I would think would be a 30km/h zone.

In the 60’s & 70’s Pakistan and China built this road across these mountains which passes through the ‘collision zone’ of the Indian and Asian continents. Here the ground rises higher, over a greater area, than anywhere else on the planet, and China, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India all come within 250km of each other.

This is where the 3 mountain ranges meet as well as the Indus & Hunza Rivers – The Karakorum, Hindukush and Himalayas

For most of my first day on the KKH, especially once it started raining and got dark I had my eyes closed and my head wrapped tightly in my scarf. The one time I did look up I caught our guide peering out the front window looking up…. stupidly I asked what he was doing. The groan that escaped Michelle’s lips when we were told quite matter-of-factly that he was looking for falling rocks told me she too was going to be clenching her eyes closed from then on in.

Welcome to Pakistan. I think I missed the part in the Lonely Planet that talks of the dangers of travelling up north. I was so busy worrying about terrorism attacks and other propoganda the media here in the west feeds us that I forgot that Mother Nature herself can sometimes be the most frightening. Definitely it didn’t occur to me that we would be dodging rocks for close to 2000km. The plus of course is that without living through the journey we would never have seen such magnificent mountain ranges nor met some of the most beautiful and peaceful people ever. And at the end of it all, we were safe. Hatam’s prayers for us everyday, and his continual “in shallah” at the end of every statement- got us all the way up to Sost just 100km south of the Chinese border, all the way back and through the hair-raising pass into the Swat Valley and down through Peshawar and to the border of Afghanistan. We made it, and what an adventure it was. Pure brilliance. I had a fantastic time.

That first day we drove from Rawalpindi to Chilas. Because of the atrocious weather instead of taking about 10 hours, it actually took us close to 16 hours and it wasn’t till the following day when I dared open our guide book that I read that we should ‘absolutely never travel in the rain or at night on the KKH’. Bandits, landslides and general lawlessness abounds. Thankfully our guide was local and our driver was an ex-bus driver on the Sost-Islamabad route so had plenty of experience on the road and a deep respect for his vehicle, and the 4 or 5 foreigner registration points along the way went a long way in installing a little bit of confidence. The second day however, I was already trying to plan how to get back without having to drive…..

In Gilgit we were treated to tea and french fries (quite the treat!) in the hotel suite of one of the Northern Areas Council Representatives from Skardu. We had turned up at a hotel for some tea and it turns out that Hatam knew this gentlemen so we were invited to join him and discuss politics in modern Pakistan with him and three other members of the council. It’s a big deal. Really. Pakistans official position is that, until a vote by the people of Kashmir (as specified in the ’47 ceasefire terms) is held, Kashmir doesn’t belog to anyone. This leaves the Northern Areas in limbo, bcause making it a province would concede the status quo of a divided Kashmir. So now, all the former mini-states from the north are governed by the 24 member Northern Areas Council headed by a federally appointed chief executive, however they still cannot vote in national elections. So you see, a big deal. We met 4 of the 24 drinking tea at the Hotel Park in Gilgit. A fine day. to be continued….