John & Mick's BIG AdventureChilas to..
Day 51 – 179 kms (14032 kms total)
Last night there was an almighty storm, which woke us with a howling gale blowing into the room through the open window.
After breakfast of Chapatis and our own Marmite, we set off and got some petrol at a small local station – a rip off at almost 2000r rather than the usual 1500.
Cloud overhead kept it cool but up ahead beckoned blue sky. The bumpy surface continued with the regular holes to dodge and streams to forge.
We skip through Dassu, where the stories of rock throwing children are thankfully not fulfilled but even locals have warned that this area, ‘Indus Kohistan’ is unfriendly to foreigners. A shame as it has some brilliant scenery.
5km after Dassu, negotiating a couple of small rockfalls, we come across a group of Brits at the roadside. They say the police informed them that the road ahead is closed but their friend has gone ahead to check.
We carry on along a increasingly impassable road, completely littered with small rocks and crossing numerous rockfalls, large and small – the result of last nights storm.
15km later we come across the other Briton, returning to his friends. He says the road is blocked by large boulders first, then it’s washed away beyond that, along with a village and 11 people. Deep mud stops us proceeding to look for ourselves so after some debate, we decide to turn back to Dassu.
John drops his bike going over one rockfall, jumps off it and nearly disappears over the edge, but unhurt, we pick up the bike and all is well.
We have two options, stay in Dassu and wait until the KKH re-opens, or go back to Chilas and take the rough jeep track over the Busabar Pass, which is likely to be a two day hard journey.
We learn that the Busabar road is also closed, so we stop at the Khyber Lodge in Dassu.
The Brits we met on the road are here, determining their options, which is to return to Chilas or Gilgit and catch a plane to Islamabad.
We told them that at a police checkpoint, we were presented with a list of names and asked if we had seen them. These were the very same people.
Also, a group of Polish climbers stop here to feed and water. They too head for Gilgit airport.
Huge thanks to Rafal in this group, who let us use his satellite phone to inform home of our situation.
Unable to fly, we get a cosy room overlooking the Indus, with fab views of mountains for 600r.
Monday Day 52
Monday dawns and the chap next door starts doing his building work at 5.30 – a free alarm call!
Latest News is that almost 30 people are dead in the landslide and 16 injured. The army are working on clearing it and repairing the road but they have to get the bodies out first. The army is working from the south as well so at some time they will meet.
At least one more day here. Oh Joy!
The temperature rises steadily through the day. By noon, our cool shady room is 29 degrees. Everything outside is still. Lorries & buses line the roadside as nothing can move on. Only the occasional local vehicle passes.
The morning highlight is watching a car drive along the track on the other side of the river, and disappear around the edge of the mountain.
The evening highlight is its return.
By 4pm it is 30 degrees, but the sun has shifted enough to draw shade over the bikes at the front of the hotel. With little else to do we opt to do some maintenance on the bikes to utilise this dead time.
Five minutes after stepping outside the hotel, we have just unwrapped our tools, when the manager comes outside. He requests that we move inside and do not stand outside. Sorry Sir, too white Sir!
North of us, towards Chilas, there have been some repercussions over the situation at the Red Mosque in Islamabad. Thats good then!
The road has apparently been blown up by rebels, the army then came under fire from local militants.
We have heard what sounded like gunshots, but figured it was hunting. Perhaps not!
We sit in the hotel and drink a coke in perplexed silence. Children who were playing outside this morning are no longer to be seen. Maybe this is a sign of the tension. Perhaps it’s just too hot, or just a pervasive sense of boredom, with so many of those here being trapped drivers, awaiting some news of the roads’ repair.
There is nothing to do in the town, so its hard to say that a busy area has become silent. There is no international calling point, no internet, no mobile phone signal.
Our co-residents are two sets of Pakistanis from Lahore who spent much time talking to us. They invited us to join them for dinner, and not wishing to offend, we accepted.
We were treated to a lovely dish of chicken something, a tad spicy, followed by tea for Mick (much too milky) and hot water for John to make coffee. We retire sated, but 15 minutes after turning in, two loud explosions had us on the floor, awaiting the clatter of Kalashnikovs….but nothing. Ten minutes later, our co-residents sauntered back to their rooms, unhurried so we figured it safe. In the morning they said, it was just pistol shots in the air.
Quite normal !!!! Mmmmm???!!!
Its getting to feel a bit iffy here.
Tuesday Day 53 – 30kms – 14080kms
Pattan
After news last night that the road would be cleared by this afternoon, we got ready early so we could get to the front of the queue before it opened. We waved farewell to Ghulam, the manager of the Kyhber Lodge at 7.45. Less than an hour later we were passing the point where we had reached before.
All of the previous slides had been cleared and things were looking hopeful. We reached a queue of a dozen cars and edged our way to the front where a bulldozer was shuffling backwards and forwards, pushing large piles of boulders over the edge of the road into the river below.
Within the hour there was sufficient room and we all moved forward a couple of kilometres to the next fall.
Other bulldozers had cleared some space, but the biggest, had to clear more. We waited another half hour and then while he was refuelling, the two of us were waved through. Another km later, another bulldozer was at work, but soon let us pass too. The road ran easily then through Pattan, where we grabbed some cokes and water and continued another 10km until a huge rockfall that was being worked on. We watched work for two hours, sitting amidst the wild Cannabis growing at the roadside.
John found a pet rock as a KKH souvenir. If you are a bit anal with a GPS, It came from here: N035.08064 E072.97727.
We chatted to the locals until the bulldozer-driver stopped for lunch.
We were told by one of the passers-by who were making the journey from rockfall to rockfall by foot and then by taxi, that there were still another four rockfalls beyond this, of similar size. Given the rate of progress, it seemed unlikely that we would get far.
We returned to Pattan and had lunch of salad, Mixed veg and Chapatis in the Kohistan Tourist Inn. The hotel has a babbling brooke, ROARING past the door!
Figuring that the road behind would soon be clear and a surge of people would be trapped here too, we booked a decent room at 1000r overlooking a very noisy, burbling, Chowa Dara River, in which children are playing, and the waiting lorry drivers are washing, and the goats wander the banks munching the marijuana.
Wednesday Day 54 – 19kms – 14099kms
We set off a little after eight, it is already extremely hot and humid. Clouds shroud the mountain tops though it is starting to break up.
Shortly after yesterdays point of return, we reach a queue and a digger is re-clearing remaining rubble. We sneak our way to the front and surge forward in small doses behind the digger. Finally we come to a stop yards from the hole in the road where it had fallen into the abyss. A lorry driver suggests bribing the workmen and they may let us cross. Mick walks down to the front to suss it out. The hole in the road is enormous, some 20-30 metres across. Pedestrians scamper over the rocks above the fall, but the rocks are too steep and big for the bikes.
No work is being carried out on bridge building. Word is that it will still be 1 or 2 days. They will have to dynamite a new road into the mountain. The crowd from the Dassu hotel appear. They opt for return to Pattan and, based on their information we opt to do the same. We return to same hotel where everyone is curious and wants to see the photos. We tell our tale and people scurry off to pass on the news.
We manage to pay the hotel bill in dollars, thus saving our rupees for fuel should we need more. Lunch of Aloo bhujai (potatoes and stuff) suffices. The town is running out of supplies fast. So far, we have rumours of no flour and no vegs. In this heat, water will soon be low too. Today’s total distance – 19km.
Thursday Day 55 19kms – 14118kms
Our early trip to the front line shows a little work, but word is that it will not be done today.
We return to the hotel and wait.
We find a phone in the village and call home.
The kitchen has run out of most cold drinks and also Chapatis, so we scoot across the road and buy some freshly baked ones and have them with Marmite or honey.
By mid afternoon, they are saying the road will open at 6pm.
The road opened at 6:30pm. We decide to stay out of the mayhem that followed and wait for morning. Its raining a bit anyway and will be dark soon so best to wait and have an early start tomorrow.
The cleaners arrived to do the vacated rooms. The guest had bagged up all their rubbish and the cleaners just tossed it all into the river!
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