Day 99. Besham - Islamabad

Our breakfast table this morning overlooked the Main Street outside and it was very interesting watching the comings and goings. One shop took a delivery of massive blocks of ice which had obviously machine cut into what looked like about 100kg each, the poor Suzuki Carry Ute really struggled, then a massive truck arrived loaded high with a variety of  boxes and it duly backed up the lane to unload. Then there was the chicken man, no Tegal frozen chicken here, there are trucks loaded with cages and the chickens are delivered live, the poor creatures are then transferred into the shop cages to await their fate, it was interesting watch them being carried into the back of the shop 2 or 3 at a time, then a few minutes later the plucked and clean carcasses were brought back to a little bench on the street where they are hung, then cut into portions and weighed.  

Then the rest of the day was all about the road really. We started out ok but then we hit about 50km of roadworks and I mean roadworks, a cross between a motocross track and a trials course complete with crazy driving and unbelievable dust. We breathed a sigh of relief once we got through that only to run into about 200km of built up area with rough, bumpy roads and you guessed it, crazy drivers.

Mark doing the job for the Police at a police check. Even had to supply his own pen. 

To be fair the countryside is very pretty, we are in the lowland hill area and when we climbed into the hills the air was noticeably cooler and very pleasant.

Cows found a good place to have a rest. 

We passed through many villages, it is Saturday and market day so were very busy. 

Bit of a traffic jam. 

On the outskirts of one of the towns there was an  animal market going on as well.

A beautiful expressway exists but we were aware that motorbikes are forbidden to use them, I thought I would have a go, we were 80km from Islamabad, hot and dusty and a bit beaten up, hey presto, the guy in the kiosk gave me a ticket and woohoo, a brand new expressway with bugger all traffic, unfortunately the police nabbed us after about 5km’s and duly escorted us back to where we came from. 

Bugger 80 more km of  potholes, dust and snarled traffic. ( actually it was torture after having 5 minutes on the expressway only to have it snatched away and sent back to the rough roads😫) Robyn 

Eventually we came to a sort of motorway with a reasonably smooth surface and traffic flowing well. So the final 30km into Islamabad were quite good. 

Our bottoms are a bit sore after the pounding today. I don’t know how Robyn does it and also how the bike holds together. 

We have booked into a nice hotel for a couple of days, we need a break, the bed is soft, the wifi works, the electricity works, the toilet flushes and the shower has hot and cold water, oh and we have a towel each. 

Happy days, the only thing missing is beer!

We have been chatting and agree that this has been one of the most satisfying but challenging weeks of our trip so far, a real adventure.