Ka Pai Kiwis

We had decided to stay one more night in Islamabad as Mark had not had a good night and still wasn’t 100%. Unfortunately the hotel was full so we decided to ride the 300 kms to Lahore as we had a room booked there. The idea was we would take our time with lots of drinks stops etc. As we rode out of Islamabad we saw a little of what the city was like, as over the past few days we had only seen our hotel room and bathroom.  Whoops chopped off the top of the globe- still not at my best!  It is a modern city with lots of trees, wide street and huge buildings.  So we pressed on - the heat and humidity levels were really high- really uncomfortable to ride in but something we will have to adjust to from now on. We stopped for drinks and for Mark to slide off the bike and rest under a tree. We even found a MacDonalds which we stopped at because we figured it would have aircon, a cold drink and toilet.  The road was busy but in better condition than we had ridden on lately. C...

Well it turns out day 100 wasn’t so great for us. We started feeling off by the afternoon and by late afternoon we knew a storm was coming. It hit Robyn the hardest and I am not too flash.  So we are staying here one more day to try and recover. If we had to get sick this was the place to be, so thank goodness for that.   After getting the bike washed yesterday we left the panniers open to air them out, it rained heavily overnight and this morning so they are now 1/2 full of water. It never rains................... So we lolled about in bed this morning, Robyn who had by far the worst of it seems to be recovering more quickly than me.  The hotel management and staff have been very nice to us.  No photos today 😫

Wow. We’ve cracked the ton. What better way to celebrate than to have a chillout day.  A sleep in followed by a nice breakfast then the hotel concierge said that the owners would like to offer us a complementary dinner tonight by way of thanks for choosing their hotel and in recognition of our special journey.  How nice is that and it is typical of how we are being received here. Next time you are in Islamabad we recommend the Chalet Hotel.  So many people have mentioned how much they like our prime minister, the response from her to that tragic event has obviously touched many people here.  We have sent out every piece of clothing we have, except what we are wearing to be washed.  The concierge also took a look at our bike which hasn’t been washed since I cleaned it in Palmy and recommended a place a couple of k’s down the road, all spik and span now $5.  Mark putting the bits back on the bike, hotel in the background.  While this was going on we visi...

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...

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...

Big day today but we didn’t really get far south.  We got away early and back through crazy town, but it wasn’t as bad as yesterday. Tank of gas and we are back on the wonderful KKH.  Our first stop was a lookout for a spectacular view of the massif of Nanga Parbat an 8200m monster. Wonderful to see it with a blue sky background.  We then turned off the main highway with the intention of going to Skardu.  The road started nicely enough but soon deteriorated into a lumpy rough track. If you have seen those roads on TV where there are precipitous dropoffs, rough as guts narrow roads and maniac drivers then this was it. It was very scary at times.  We boxed on and arrived at a town called Astore, the Main Street was incredibly steep and was basically constructed of boulders, how the hell we got up it without coming to grief I am not sure.  We carried on for a bit and came to a bridge which was followed by a hairpin bend, a huge truck had unloaded its many sack...