An encouraging road sign on the Karakoram Highway says ‘Better to arrive late than never’ and I guess that pretty much sums up this hairy scary road! No sooner out of Islamabad than our driver had to take evasive action as a big steel cage fell off the lorry in front and bounced right into our path! Mind you, our driver did at least have the decency to flag him down and let him know!
We made the 760kms journey from Islamabad to Skardu in two very long days with the journey split by an overnight stay in Chilas. One good thing to come from such a long journey was our Pakistani guide, Saddiq, giving us some rudimentary lessons in Urdu and our army liason officer, Captain Kamal, regailing us with tales of his more usual day job fighting the Taliban and insurgents on the Afghan border. We initially passed through the city of Abbottabad – named after it’s founder, Major James Abbott and very much a city of the Raj. Today Abbottabad is renowned for the high standards of its many educational institutions and it’s large military establishment. Continuing northwards, we drove through Mansehra, Besham and Battagram – three of the towns devastated by the earthquake in October 2005. Many of the 75,000 killed came from these towns and the villages in and around them, and it was heartening to see the huge international aid and reconstruction projects that are clearly doing so much to help. It was also immensely rewarding to see at first hand the kind of relief effort that Merlin has been engaged in, and that you are now assisting through your sponsorship. It makes you believe again in humanity.
Eventually we entered into the impressive Indus river gorge. The road, or rather track, contours around deep inside, with vast rock walls towering 1000m+ above and fearsome drops down into the fast-flowing Indus way below. All very reassuring when your minibus is hurtling along inches from the edge and certain death! This is not a route for those faint of heart! Yet despite one’s vexation, it was impossible not to be awed by such incredible landscape. Similarly impressive, but in a very different way, were the trucks that trundle along this modern day Silk Route between China and Pakistan and beyond. With their cacophony of horns and highly decorated cabs, lovingly adorned with all sorts of paraphenalia, they are a sight and sound to behold – unless you happen to meet them on a particularly precipitous stretch of road! Yet despite our spectacular surroundings, I think we were all rather pleased when we finally escaped the claustrophobic confines of the gorge and headed onwards into Skardu.
