Daniella and I have finally locked in our honeymoon plans, and we’ve decided on a truly memorable, once-in-a-lifetime trip. Straight after the wedding weekend in Mexico we’ll hop on a plane and fly to Kathmandu (via Istanbul) where we’ll disappear into the Nepal Himalaya for three weeks of exploration, trekking and even a spot of high-altitude, Read More
We retraced our final steps from Tashkurgan to Kashgar today, and left straight after the 8am breakfast. Unlike our previous morning in Tashkurgan a couple of weeks ago for which we had a brilliant blue sky and sunshine, the pre-dawn light was hazy and the surrounding mountains were faintly visible through it. It turned, Read More
We started the day in Sost knowing we had a long day ahead to get out of Pakistan, over the Khunjerab Pass, into China, and back to the town of Tashkurgan. We were at the immigration post in Sost by 8:30am in time for its 9am opening. The first step was easy enough, a, Read More
The second day of our long road trip retracing our steps back to Kashgar took us from Skardu, where we had spent the night, back up the valley to Sost which was to be our staging point short of the border crossing back into China. The drive followed the Hunza River upstream around the, Read More
We left Shigar at 6am expecting a 12+ hour day of driving ahead. Following the road back to Skardu, we turned up a side road just before we got into town and headed south up a deep valley. As we gained altitude we drove through different layers of vegetation, and the first light hitting, Read More
We left Khaplu and drove back down the Shyok valley to where it converged with the Indus, and then followed the Indus past the turn-off to Shigar/Askoli to Skardu. We were going to spend a few hours in Skardu and I was curious to see what it was like given the historic role the, Read More
I was excited this morning as overnight we had received special permission from the authorities (police + army) to travel further up the valley from Khaplu. Usually foreigners aren’t allowed further east as we’re getting close to the Line of Control, and the Siachen Glacier (the world’s highest battlefield with soldiers posted at over, Read More
Shigar was just our destination for the night – we’ll be back there for a couple of nights in a few days. The reason we stayed there on the way out was to break up the long trip from Gilgit to Khaplu, our farthest destination on the entire trip. After breakfast we had a, Read More
We had another early start today as this was going to be one of our longest days yet. The plan was to follow the Gilgit River downstream to where it meets the mighty Indus River. From there we were going to turn off the KKH and follow the Indus upstream for around 200km to, Read More
I woke up early in Duikar with the clouds and a little rain still obscuring the views of the valley below and Hunza Peak above, so I opted to stay in bed rather than hike up the hill to snap some photos. With a short drive ahead for the day we spent most of, Read More