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
Our last day in Hunza was a fairly subdued one. We started off the morning by taking a walk along one of the water channels that funnel the glacial melt water from high up Ultar Glacier down countless channels, ditches and cascades to the lush green fields, meadows and orchards that cover every inch, Read More
While “Hunza” is used to refer to the local region, in reality it is divided into two: Hunza on the north side of the river, and Nagyr on the south. Our plan for today was to head up the namesake Nagyr Valley to the village of Hoper next to the massive but accessible Hoper, Read More
After a few days of constant travel, having a couple of days in Hunza to unwind has been a nice change. It was also our opportunity to meet the local team from Silk Route Expeditions, who would be coordinating everything during the Pakistan part of our trip: Didar Ali – Owner & Guide Muhammad, Read More
Given the length of the journey and terrain we had to cover, we had broken up the bulk of the trip from China to Pakistan into two days. Our first night in Pakistan was spent in Passu, a small village by the KKH. The next morning we continued south down the road towards Hunza,, Read More
What a day! Today I achieved a long-time ambition of traveling over the Karakoram Highway from China to Pakistan, a dream I had since a guy called Christian (whose apartment I took over in Baden) first told me about it as he departed Switzerland to bicycle to Delhi via Central Asia and through the, Read More
With a long day of driving along the Karakoram Highway (KKH) ahead we had an early start after breakfast. The initial drive south out of Kashgar is surprisingly mundane, but we stopped off in the town of Upal after an hour or so to stretch our legs and check out the local bazaar (a, Read More
Having met the rest of the tour group in the hotel lobby over breakfast, we set out to sightsee around Kashgar for the day. I was curious to see what had changed since I was last here in 2006 on my epic Silk Road trip across the region. I was expecting the worst, as, Read More
I went to SFO ready to take on the challenge of getting to Kashgar via Shanghai (including an airport change across the city in the 4-hour layover), Beijing (an overnighter) and Urumqi (brief layover) before touching down in KSH some day and a half after I started. Unfortunately these best laid plans were put, Read More