Monthly Archives: July 2012

The first surprise came before I had even left Gilgit.

An overnight arrival at the Madina informed me that the road to Karimabad was closed due to a strike by locals about 50km up the road. They were involved in a sit-in protest and were completely blocking the KKH. No traffic was able to get through.

Packed and ready to go at 11am, I was advised to wait a couple of hours to see if the situation would be resolved. I sat in the Madina twiddling my thumbs for two hours awaiting news of any developments. Come 1pm I was not prepared to wait any longer as the daylight hours for travelling were slowly slipping away and I had been advised that it would take “about 2-3 hours”. I had that estimate too many times in the past to believe it. Continue reading →

The Madina Hotel and Guesthouse in Gilgit was to become my temporary home for almost a week.

Gilgit is the only major town on the KKH north of Abbottabad and the last one before the Chinese border. While in Gilgit I had a few tasks to complete. The first was to find an ATM that would accept MasterCard/Maestro/Cirrus type cards. The second was to await the arrival by email of the all-important visa code for my Iranian visa. The third was to stock up on any grocery items before I ventured further north into the more remote parts of the Hunza valley where I would be staying for a few days while I organised how to get myself and the bike on to a boat that would take me across Lake Attabad. Continue reading →