{"id":28317,"date":"2012-06-14T08:41:22","date_gmt":"2012-06-14T03:41:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pamirtimes.net\/?p=28317"},"modified":"2012-06-14T09:00:46","modified_gmt":"2012-06-14T04:00:46","slug":"biking-extreme-north-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pamirtimes.net\/tg\/2012\/06\/14\/biking-extreme-north-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Biking to the Extreme North – [Part 2]"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kaiser Tufail<\/strong><\/p>\n

O<\/span><\/span>n 26 April, I departed for Islamabad where I met up with Shahid who had arrived from Boston a few days before. \u00a0Next morning, we boarded PIA\u2019s ATR-42 turbo-prop for Gilgit under command of a very helpful and friendly Captain.\u00a0 The bikes had been transported to Gilgit by road earlier, as the baggage hold of the aircraft was found to be too small for bike cartons.<\/div>\n
\n
\"\"<\/a>
An old suspension bridge over Gilgit River and a dark tunnel tested our nerves<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In Gilgit, we promptly assembled the bikes and went off for a familiarisation spin to the nearby town of Nomal, which we nostalgically remembered having passed by nearly four decades earlier, while on a tough route march during a survival course as cadets.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Riding the rather dazzling bikes \u2013 what, with Darth Vader helmets and chic Polaroids\u00ae to complete the striking figures \u2013 we must have looked like creatures from Pluto, as we swished past the curious bystanders.\u00a0 After returning from the test run, we rigged the bikes with pannier bags, tents and sleeping bags and, carefully calibrated the bike computers to help us keep track of speeds and distances during the expedition.<\/p>\n

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Terraced orchards at Ganish (Hunza)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Finally, on 30th<\/sup> April, we set course for our first destination, Chalt.\u00a0 The Karakoram Highway (KKH) was in good shape and pedalling seemed like a breeze.\u00a0 The resplendent Common Magpies (Pica pica)<\/em> in their black, white and iridescent green feathers were to become a common sight throughout our trip.\u00a0 Said to be the most intelligent of all birds \u2013 being from the clever crow family \u2013 they cackled and quacked delightfully as if welcoming us to their garden localities.\u00a0 A more hearty welcome came from the village children who would run alongside our bikes, chanting, \u201cHello, one penny please.\u201d\u00a0 We\u2019d respond with salaams and good wishes in Urdu, but some of the kids would insist that we were angrez <\/em>and, would keep on pestering for pennies!<\/p>\n

After a tough 50-km leg, we approached Chalt by a suspension bridge and, to get our legs in normal working order, walked some distance to an old PWD rest house that had been booked in advance.\u00a0 The facility had seen better times during the Raj \u2013 \u201ccomfortable bungalow,\u201d according to the 19th<\/sup> century explorer Sir Aurel Stein \u2013 but even now, it wasn\u2019t too bad for a night\u2019s stay.\u00a0 A hot bath before sleep and, a hearty open air breakfast at the nearby River View Hotel put us in top gear for the next leg.<\/p>\n

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Apricot blossoms in Hunza<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Hunza evokes thoughts of a fabled land where everyone lives long, and happiness seems to be a gentle breeze that blows the year round.\u00a0 We had been to Hunza previously in hurried affairs, but never as merrily as this time, on bikes. \u00a0Leaving Chalt, which also marks the northern limit of Gilgit District, we had to negotiate a steep climb over a highway that suddenly was no more.\u00a0 The KKH was under major repair from Chalt onwards, and we found ourselves huffing and puffing over gravel and shingle, an ordeal that was to last till our final destination, all of the remaining 200 kms.<\/p>\n

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One of the many modern bridges on the Hunza River<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As we approached Hunza\u2019s main commercial town ofAliabad after a very steep 50-km leg, which took us nine long hours to cover, courteous adults and cheerful children made us feel quite welcome.\u00a0 Following the unfortunate spate of sectarian killings a few weeks earlier, tourism had come to a complete standstill in the region; now, we seemed harbingers of better times to the locals.<\/p>\n

Having no energy left to climb yet another 2,000-ft to the Eagle\u2019s Nest Hotel perched atop a sheer cliff beyond Duikar village, we hired a pick-up to haul our bikes. Just in time to catch the ginger and orange glow of the setting sun bouncing off the snow clad mountains, we enjoyed the dazzling spectacle from the hotel terrace. \u00a0Not too far in the sky, the crow-like Red-billed Choughs (Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax)<\/em> in their glossy black plumage could be seen performing some spectacular aerobatics in the mountain updrafts.<\/p>\n

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Rock carvings attributed to 2nd century BC, near Hunza<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

While climbing up, we had noticed scores of youngsters returning to their homes in the nearby towns after a day-long picnic at Duikar.\u00a0 Interestingly, there was no segregation, much like the rest of Hunza and, one wondered if this might be one of the possible reasons for bliss in the happy valley!\u00a0 Later at the hotel, a short dinner for two turned out to be a huge serving for four; though not quite a master of Burushaski, I suspected that the order for alto<\/em> (two) was conveyed as walto <\/em>(four) by the waiters to the cooks!\u00a0 Well fed and tired to the bones, we were almost sleep-walking back to our rooms.<\/p>\n

——–<\/p>\n

Part three (03) will be posted on Monday, 18th June. Keep visiting.\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Click to read\u00a0Part One<\/span><\/a>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kaiser Tufail On 26 April, I departed for Islamabad where I met up with Shahid who had arrived from Boston a few days before. \u00a0Next morning, we boarded PIA\u2019s ATR-42 turbo-prop for Gilgit under command of a very helpful and friendly Captain.\u00a0 The bikes had been transported to Gilgit by road earlier, as the baggage …<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[13],"tags":[1765,9,6,4109],"class_list":["post-28317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports","tag-climb","tag-gilgit","tag-hunza","tag-kaiser-tufail"],"better_featured_image":null,"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pamirtimes.net\/tg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pamirtimes.net\/tg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pamirtimes.net\/tg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pamirtimes.net\/tg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pamirtimes.net\/tg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28317"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/pamirtimes.net\/tg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28317\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28322,"href":"https:\/\/pamirtimes.net\/tg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28317\/revisions\/28322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pamirtimes.net\/tg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pamirtimes.net\/tg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pamirtimes.net\/tg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}