Cycle Karakoram Highway

Cycle
Karakoram Highway

Summer 2003, a few months to spare, and wanting to do something different than South East Asia, I took my bike to Pakistan. After storing it in Rawalpindi, I backpacked around Pakistan and looked at Afghanistan, then returned to 'Pindi, picked up my bike and rode back to Kashgar, China via the Karakoram Highway. All in all, good fun. The article I wrote for a local Nanjing magazine is here.

Starting point, Popular Inn, Rawalpindi. I took a detour via Murree (about a 2000m ascent) on the first day - and wondered what the hell I was doing...

Day One, Popular Inn, Rawalpindi

Murree, local tourist mecca

A great aspect of the ride was the people you meet. On a bike you attract them all, most good, some not so good. My arrangement was, you take a photo, I want one on my camera.

These trucks are a common sight in Pakistan, but these are mild compared to the 'works of art' of other trucks. The drivers are also amongst the best people I met, courteous on the road, often paying for my meals, waving constantly, offering me a bed (in the hollow area above the cabin).