Day 98 Chilas - Besham

The day got off to a very nice start, a group of men in the restaurant insisted on paying for our breakfast as well as plying us with very nice marmalade for our bread. 

Well fed we set off in the naive hope of reaching Islamabad, almost 500km away. We started well enough, the road was good and the traffic light.

We continued down the KKH (Karakorum Highway) which follows the Indus River. Very spectacular gorges that just go on forever. 

We meandered through little towns but not much going on. Some of the villages are built on terraced hills and there is a good water supply which means arable land, they looked very pretty.

The road deteriorated and was very slow going, massive potholes, some very wet areas with unknown puddle depth, one we went through I don’t know what we hit but the front suspension bottomed out big time and we were only doing 20 or 30 KPH. Anyway it appears we got away with it, these Heidenau tyres are as hard as hell and just made for this work.

We climbed up and up and have spent a great deal of the day very high up on the road which is carved into the side of a massive cliff with huge drop offs into the impressive river below. 

A few days ago Robyn was bemoaning the fact that many of her photos taken on the bike included the guard rail along the bottom. 

Be careful what you wish for I say, the last couple of days there were many many times a guard rail would have at least provided a little comfort.  

Long way down! 

Mark cooling himself down, truck driver cooling his truck down.

Massive loads are carried on seriously rough roads.

Just checking to see we were alright when we stopped for a drink.

More selfies 

We started out today at 8:30 and finished just after 4, we have been held up by trucks, traffic jams, police and army checkpoints, not to mention the condition of the road and we only stopped for snacks and water and once for gas. The dust today was incredible, every orifice is full up on us, the bike and probably the camera gear as well, still we are all boxing on. People are still curious and friendly.  

I am in a bit of denial but when I checked on the maps.me we have covered only 200km!  Bugger. 

I have to admit that even though we have left behind the mountains the scenery and the sheer scale of these hills is staggering and very beautiful. 

So we are in a town called Besham, I know nothing about it, it looks like a market town. 

We found a passable hotel, the wifi is better than we’ve had for a few days and the clincher is the bike is parked in a little foyer area, open to the street but the doorman has a BF gun.