Aug 22: Sorry, I just had to lead with that headline. It’s absolutely true, but very misleading–a perfect web posting. Of course, I’m fine, but here’s the story. I agreed to walk hard on the trek down if we could stop at one of the hot springs on the drive out. We awoke at 5:30, got away by 6:30, and had breakfast in Dasso at about 9:00. Breakfast was definitely the local variety–a plate of greasy lentils and some greasy ‘porter bread,’ and some milk tea.
Our porters and sirdar (Saliman) live in a village on the way to the hot springs, so we agreed to drop them off at their village while Deedar and I went to Chutrun (or Chhootroon) and soaked. We would then return to the sirdar’s house for lunch, then proceed to Skardu.
All was going well, except for our jeep driver. I wasn’t impressed when he had to use a rock to beat on the transfer case shifter to get into low-range, and I wasn’t impressed by his confidence that he could race up to blind corners and deal with anything he found, without going into the river. At this point, if a jeep driver makes me nervous, I make them conform to my driving ideals. This guy was pretty cocky and didn’t take advice easily.
We had a wonderful soak in very hot water. The hot pool was shallow but clean. After 20 minutes or so I began to look like a lobster, so I walked to what I thought was a cold pool. However, it was delightfully warm and provided a good second soak.
We drove back to the sirdar’s house and sat around for the obligatory 90 minutes while lunch was finished. Salad, chicken, rice, lentils–probably a week’s worth of food for that family. Don’t worry, I tipped him quite well!
As we left, the sirdar’s wife and kid climbed in the jeep. We drove them some distance on a different road, then dropped them off. We were on the opposite side of the river from the usual road, and it seemed to take forever to get to Skardu. Finally, the driver’s overuse of the brakes caught up with him and a rear wheel seized up. I started fuming, in large part because my sat phone was dead and nobody’s cell would function. Finally we started again and drove 20 minutes, only to seize up again about 10 km from the K2 Motel. Both rear wheels were frozen, and there was little traffic heading our direction on the road. If we had a functioning phone, a taxi would have arrived quickly.
Finally, a station-wagon-type vehicle pulls up. Being a Westerner meant that Deedar, the sirdar, and I could hitch a ride into town with the new local ambulance. They dropped us off at the ATP office, where we greeted the staff. We went to the K2 Motel and slept in a bed for the first night in nearly 2 months. So that’s how I arrived in Skardu by ambulance 🙂
8/23: I flew to Islamabad, with a bad weather stop in Peshawar.
8/24: Rested, mostly
8/25: Wrapped up the paperwork and did a bit of shopping.
My schedule for the next few days:
8/26: Fly to Gilgit and meet Deedar.
8/27-29: Visit Hunza region
8/30: Fly back to Islamabad. Try and get out of town ASAP. My booked flight is Sept. 4.
Mike