Lahore

I took the 7am train from Lahore to Peshawar.

Peshawar

I spent the day dealing with matters relating to transportation, how to go home. Nothing quite worked out as planned.

Peshawar

I decided last night to see whether I'd be able to follow the rules of Ramadan for a day.

Peshawar

I sleep quite poorly. I was awoken at 3:30am by a bang on my door, which I did my best to ignore. Just as I was about ready to go back to sleep it was followed up by another bang.

Peshawar

Camping may have been free but it wasn't without cost. It happened that the camping spot was in an area claimed by a jealous stray dog.

Chakdara

Ramadan started today. I was woken at about 4am to the sound of activity & the smell of pratha (fried nan) being cooked.

Dir

I'd been somewhat dreading this section of the trip.

Grom

After breakfast I walked up the ridge, a spur of the Hindu Kush, that separated the Rumbur valley from the Chitral valley.

Grom

This morning I awoke very early, before even the morning call for prayer rang out from the half a dozen mosques around Chitral at about 5:30am!

Chitral

The previous day I decided to speed up my progress to the end of the trip.

Chitral

I awoke early, I'm getting myself ready to be able to cope with pre-dawn breakfasts when Ramadan starts in a couple of days time.

Koragh

Another awful road day, though fortunately mostly down.

Near Harchin

The road out of Teru was pretty bad. It was heavy going even though it was flat.

Teru

The road continued up the narrow river valley as with the day before.

Jhandrot

We are back cycling on a new road. It feels good to be back into 'discovery' mode, after the returning to Gilgit over the same road as we'd passed by bus.

Gilgit

I caught the first day of a polo tournament.

Gilgit

It was cloudy & surprisingly cool in the afternoon. It even rained, something that has hardly happened where I have been in months. I did little more than sit around the guesthouse reading.

I cycled 0 km

Gilgit

It was cloudy & surprisingly cool in the afternoon. It even rained, something that has hardly happened where I have been in months. I did little more than sit around the guesthouse reading.

I cycled 0 km

Gilgit

The road continued as spectacularly as before, at times cutting through vertical solid rock. Tons of explosives must have been required to do this.

Dambudas

I had a second attempt at visa renewal at the Deputy Commissioner's office in Skardu in the morning.

Skardu

Today wasn't a long cycling day.

Gilgit

Finally I didn't need to force myself to eat breakfast!

Gilgit

I still felt affected by the after effects of the bug but began to get my appetite back.

Gilgit

I didn't go far today, not even leaving the dorm room until the Sun went down.

Gilgit

After a relaxing rest day it was time to get back on the road though not too quickly.

Karimabad

Karimabad was a good spot to have a rest day.

Karimabad

We left Passu after a leisurely start to the day.

Passu

What a scenic day! It's hard coming up with suitably descriptive language for the road today.

Barkhun Checkpost

We knew that we wouldn't be permitted to cycle from Tashkurgan to the Pakistani border at the Kunjerab pass & would need to take a bus.

Tashkurgan

I got up early to fix a couple of bike problems. I was greeted by the Sun coming up from behind Kongur Shan.

Near Karakul

Not long after we broke camp at the police checkpoint at Ghez the road started to rise.