Karakoram Highway Gilgit to Islamabad
Karakoram Highway
Gilgit to Islamabad in 18 hours
The Karakoram Highway or KKH is 1,300km long from China to Pakistan, tracing one branch of the silk route. It is 887km long in Pakistan from Khunjerab Pass to near Islamabad. Construction started in 1966 and finished in 1979 with the highest loss of life on any road project ever. On the Pakistan side, 810 Pakistani and over 140 Chinese workers lost their lives building the road. In 2010 additional construction had to be done at Attabad when a major landslide put 22km of road underwater. This section was finished in 2015. An appropriate sign at the Attabad construction site said: "The path to success is always under construction".
After leaving Gilgit at 6am we pass Juglot where the Gilgit River meets the Indus River. Below the Indus River (right side), originating in Tibet, makes a large directional shift after leaving Ladakh and flows behind Nanga Parbat it turns south at this point where it meets the Gilgit River (left side).
Early morning views of Nanga Parbat, the 9th tallest mountain at 8,126m in height. At the western end of the Himalayas, it is so difficult to climb that it is called the Killer Mountain.
A road sign appears on the lower right corner of the photo showing curvy roads ahead.
What we found when we went around the curves was an 8km long traffic jam with 3 landsides.
This is where we would sit for several hours waiting for traffic to start a slow crawl forward. Below is one of the three landsides.
The villages along the road are built on steep rocky areas with very little arable land.
Need a car wash? Young boys tap into a small stream and offer to hose the car - for a bit of money.
Perfect spot for selfies.
The panorama at the top of the pass was worth a stop for photos.
The road below was starting to zig-zag down.
Our road was looking better in the far distance.
At least the decorations on the trucks were interesting.
Near Chilas there is an alternate route that is shorter than the KKH, blue line off to the left on the map below. Our route to Islamabad would go over the 4173m Babusar Pass, the lower middle section of the map.
At Chilas where we turned south taking a shorter route. I saw a lorry carrying a boat and thought it was odd but it was probably going to Attabad lake for
tourists.
At Babusar Pass there were small huts and hastily built shelters for serving drinks and salt-roasted maize to truckers and tourists. It was cold and windy there at 4100m.
Many people were living in the valley below the pass. They are mostly seasonal nomads that bring their animals to graze and sell goods to passing cars.
Plus play a bit of cricket.
Ice steps with a chair at the top make for a great photo followed by and an ice-cold drink.
Slicing the ice from a snowbank while passing by.
There were many men selling honey, almonds, figs, and apricots along the road. The falcon was not for sale just a novelty to attract business.
Beehives are brought to the mountain areas in the summer a respite from the scorching plains and to keep the bees cool.
Yes, this car jam was just as bad and stupid as it looks. Two cars head to head sitting in the water from a flooded stream, with no way to move ahead or back.
These young girls were curious about us and we stopped to talk to them. They had such interesting faces showing their different ethnic backgrounds.
One last beautiful stretch of road before we started to see more villages and descend to the higher populated plains.
Balakot bazaar is full of colorful plastics from China.
The dried fruit and nut shop is overflowing with products. The dried apricots, figs, almonds, and walnuts are fantastic.
One man thought he would scare me with a rubber snake - it didn't, but it did make a good photo.
Nice photos
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