The road out of Teru was pretty bad. It was heavy going even though it was flat. Soon the road started to climb very dramatically, with the steepness came a deterioration in the road surface. This combined with the altitude had me pushing for quite a while.
We reached the top of the pass at lunch time, it had taken us 3 1/2 hours to cover 25km! There were glorious views of the Hindu Raj mountain range. The place was almost deserted, 2 cars had passed us all morning. It was hard to imagine that thousands came up for the polo tournament in July.
At the top there was a sign indicating that the road was completed in 2004. The way down was even worse than the way up. It was hard to go faster than 10 km/h down hill! One can only suppose how bad it was before. Later I was told that the previous road had been built before the partition by the British & was just fit enough for jeeps. I think I've become a bit of a wimp in the last month or so as I didn't enjoy the rough road over the pass. I'm looking forward to asphalt.
We camped behind an old farmhouse just off the highway. We were visited at dinner time by a couple of guys from the nearby village coming home from an afternoon hunting. They stopped for a chat, impressing on us that we were their (they meant of Pakistan) guests & gave us their names in case we should need help while in the area. I've almost become used to this expression of hospitality though it always gives me a feeling of warmth.
I cycled 56 km in 6 hours & 33 minutes
Total so far 11248 km in 174 days
GPS Coordinates of end point - N 36°8.963, E 72°28.558
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