Day 106 – 21st July 2014 leave 8.45am altitude 2,800 metres (KKH) Chilas – Karimiabad

The last several thousand Km have shaken my bike so much my GB letters on the back of the bike have fallen off. The G went first, maybe the Great in GB went many years ago?

I had the best days riding of my life today.

Off road riding with rocks, sand etc then later the most perfect Tarmac (the Chinese laid the road) for maybe 50 km as again we followed the KKH alongside the Indus River as the road twisted and turned, up and down.

The police didn’t bother us today but we signed in at a few police roadblocks, I looked in the register and very few tourists are visiting region, the last people from the UK passed through 6 weeks ago.

So few people have visited Pakistan since 9/11 that they are trying to address the situation, today we were filmed for a tourism movie and interviewed by a graduate at the hotel regarding our travels.

We stopped for lunch in Gilgit and after we entered the Karakoram National Park where two of the worlds tectonic plates meet so, it was an earthquake we experienced two days ago.

Mid afternoon we arrived at Karimiabad and rather than stay in the town at 2100 metres we rode another 700 metres up a very steep small track with so many switch backs I couldn’t start to tell you how many. We arrived at ‘Eagles Nest Hotel’ the hotel with the best view in the world.

I am in Northern Pakistan way up the KKH in the Hunza Valley. This has to be the most beautiful place in the world where the Indus River has carved a beautiful valley with lush green produce being grown for miles around on the valley floor and spectacular mountains covered with snow surrounding it on every side. Mt Rakaposhi 7788 metres, Diran Peak 7265, Golden Peak 7027 & Hunza Peak 6370 to name a few.

The view from the hotel and my room has to be best view from a hotel anywhere which is why I stretched my budget and spent £22 on the room as opposed to the £12 I normally spend.

My words and photos cannot do justice to this amazing place. It’s such a shame that there have been so few tourists since 9/11. Hunza Valley – google it.

Sunset was early as the mountains are so high, at 6pm we walked a further 100 metres up to the best viewing spot and watched the mountains change colour as the sun dropped behind the mountains to the west and shone brightly on the snow covered mountains to the east. I sat quietly for 45 minutes taking in this wonderful place.

I’m 100 km south of the Chinese boarder and there are no cities giving off light for a thousand km, I look out from my balcony and the sky is black, all I can see are the lights from the houses in the valley 1,000 metres below and so many stars.

I wondered if I would ever see such a beautiful place again?