Following my circuit of Africa before COVID (“Gael warning in the Congo” etc) I intended to continue onward to the ‘Stans in 2020. However COVID and then Russia’s invasion of Ukraine put paid to that idea.
The attraction of the region remained and on the spur of the moment this summer I decided to plan a motorcycle trip to the Hindu Kush and Karakoram Highway. It’s no easy matter to get a motorcycle here….when I travelled through Iran in 2017 I was strongly discouraged from continuing through Baluchistan to get to Pakistan, and the need for an army escort reinforced that…so I left well alone.
An easier solution, I surmised, was to fly to Pakistan and use a small local bike, so that is what I have planned. Indeed, I am going a step further and going with a small group (not really my thing, so we will see how that goes
).
The target area:
Whilst the bike would be provided and so I did not have to worry about that (at least for now), packing was fairly challenging as the temperature would range from 39/40C in Islamabad
down to sub zero temperatures and the prospect of snow in the Hindu Kush high passes 
.
So I ended up with a huge variety of clothing layers:
But with the invaluable help of the ‘Packing Queen’ aka my spouse of 40 years
, chaos was rendered into order, with judicious use of packing cubes
A wheelie suitcase doesn’t look very ‘adventure riderish’ but the advantage of travelling with others is that a luggage van will follow in support, so I won’t have to burden a local Suzuki 150 cc bike with all this range of clobber.
So departure planned for 1 October. Seems odd to be leaving as the beauty of an English autumn unfurls, with pumpkins in the field as I did a final cycle, and apples ripening in the garden.
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The attraction of the region remained and on the spur of the moment this summer I decided to plan a motorcycle trip to the Hindu Kush and Karakoram Highway. It’s no easy matter to get a motorcycle here….when I travelled through Iran in 2017 I was strongly discouraged from continuing through Baluchistan to get to Pakistan, and the need for an army escort reinforced that…so I left well alone.
An easier solution, I surmised, was to fly to Pakistan and use a small local bike, so that is what I have planned. Indeed, I am going a step further and going with a small group (not really my thing, so we will see how that goes
).The target area:
Whilst the bike would be provided and so I did not have to worry about that (at least for now), packing was fairly challenging as the temperature would range from 39/40C in Islamabad
down to sub zero temperatures and the prospect of snow in the Hindu Kush high passes 
.So I ended up with a huge variety of clothing layers:
But with the invaluable help of the ‘Packing Queen’ aka my spouse of 40 years
, chaos was rendered into order, with judicious use of packing cubes
A wheelie suitcase doesn’t look very ‘adventure riderish’ but the advantage of travelling with others is that a luggage van will follow in support, so I won’t have to burden a local Suzuki 150 cc bike with all this range of clobber.
So departure planned for 1 October. Seems odd to be leaving as the beauty of an English autumn unfurls, with pumpkins in the field as I did a final cycle, and apples ripening in the garden.
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
)…the day of departure dawned.
)
. Anyway got to the end of the queue and did the passport thing….only to be redirected to another queue (for dodgy foreigners?).
) to greet my bag shortly after and then Tabish who brought me to the guest house I am staying in until we head North on Wednesday. Good sized room, despite its alarmingly cracked wall
).
Three calls to the provider result in complete failure so I will need to walk back to the mobile shop tomorrow and get that sorted.
And indeed he was, born in Mallow and complete with the accent. Back here visiting family, he introduced me to his wife who I think was coming to Ireland for the first time so I warned her about the rain!
