Day 160: 26/8/19Location: Amritsar, IndiaMiles Driven: 49With only a few days before our Pakistan visa expired, it was time to say goodbye. Unfortunately for India, our arrival into the country did not provide a great example of the country or its people. Writing this several weeks later, I'm afraid to say that it set the... Continue Reading →
A short tour of Lahore
Days 156 & 157: 22-23/08/19Location: Gilgit - Burawi - Khanpur Dam, PakistanMiles Driven: 270Our journey from Gilgit to Lahore gave us our first true taste of the world's worst driving. The first part of the journey was uphill - a lot higher and steeper than we had anticipated. We trundled along hoping that Natalie could... Continue Reading →
A cold night in the mountains
Day 151: 17/08/19Location: Chutran, PakistanMiles Driven: 58After a week at the Madina Guesthouse we were packing the car ready to leave. Yaqoob (the manager) came over to say good morning and was disappointed to discover that we were leaving. We had told him the previous evening but he had misunderstood and thought we were leaving... Continue Reading →
A big bag of plums
Day 143: 09/08/19Location: Gilgit, PakistanMiles Driven: 68Our day started in a gorgeous wild camping spot, in the valley, not too far from the Hunza river. From the top of the hill came three teenage boys, making their way down the steep mountainside with expertise rivalled only by mountain goats. The previous night Chris had chatted... Continue Reading →
Welcome to Pakistan
Day 136: 02/08/19Location: Khyber, PakistanMiles Driven: 139 "Welcome to Pakistan. Please, take a seat, can I offer you some tea, coffee, water, a cold drink?" Arriving into Pakistan was strange, surreal, and wonderful. There had been so much build up and anticipation before China, and our five days there were so ridiculously agonising and futile,... Continue Reading →
Uzbekistan’s Big Three: Samarkand, Bukhara, and Khiva
Days 80-99: 07/06/19 - 26/06/19Locations: Tashkent, Samarkand, Bukhara, Khiva - UzbekistanMiles driven: 1074Rather unintentionally, we spent a significant amount of time in Uzbekistan - much longer than any of the other countries so far on our trip. This is largely due to the fact that I flew home for two weeks to attend a wedding.... Continue Reading →
Not so Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
Day 74: 31/05/19Location: Turkistan, KazakhstanMiles Driven: 116Our route took us past the ancient silk road town of Sauran (pronounce saw-ran and not like in Lord of the Rings). The city, once the biggest in Kazakhstan, dates back to at least the 10th century. It was abandoned in 1515, and now just sandy coloured shapes of... Continue Reading →