The exciting part of the trip! From Kashgar in China, we drove on the Karakoram Highway which connects Pakistan via the Khunjereb Pass. The road took 20 years build and was completed in the 1980's and resulted in the death of hundreds of Chinese workers. We stayed in Yurts on the way up to the pass, basically a skin tent which the Kyrgyz village people use in the summer to tend their animals.
We were met on the Paki side of the pass by our guide and stayed in a place called Passu for our first night in Pakistan.The next morning was for hiking up the nearby Ghulkin glacier, nestled in between the ferocious looking peaks around. The people here are incredibly friendly, dressing in brightly coloured clothing and working in green terraced valleys. If you live in the Hunza valley, its likely you will live over a hundred!
Out local guides had a fleet of Willys jeeps. We jumped into these and whistled through the valleys, the locals waving and cheering as the crazy westerners careered through their villages!
We spent a couple of nights in Karimabad, Hunza's ancient capital perched high above the Karakoram Highway. We camped above the town in place called the Eagles nest, so named because of its incredible views of Rakaposhi (7788m) and Ultar 2. There was meant to be a solar eclipse and although it was visible, it wasnt quite the dark event we were expecting! The locals took us up the nearby Ultar valley the next morning, and went up a glacier that was very dodgy and would give Health and Safety officials a heart attack if they saw the path!
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