in full shape in helsinki!

We are finally back home. Our luggage and our bikes too. This is the end of an incredible trip. Now it’s time to relax a bit

Our lat flight. We are a bit impatient to get back home…

7 hours of stop over in Vienna. We have time for some sightseeing, a beer and a Wiener Schnitzel

Originally we were supposed to fly with Swe fly from Lahore to Stockholm but since they decided to fraud all the customer going into administration we re-book the whole trip with Emirates from Karachi. At the end we replace the Swe Fly with Lahore - Karachi (Air Blue), Karachi - Dubai (Emirates), Dubai - Wien (Emirates), Wien - Helsinki (Finnair). Thanks SWE Fly

Time to leave!! Of course at the airport we get a special treatment from the anti narcotic agents and their dogs. Did we really look so dishonest ?

We quickly pack the bicycles in the packages. With some complaints we also get back the money of the hotel room. We call a taxi and straight to the airport.

Tuctuc to go back to the hotel

With some help we ask the tuctuc driver to bring us to the bicycle shops. We don’t fit very well inside the tuctuc, but we are getting used to it

This morning we tried to reach our airline company and confirm out flights. The Lahore number was not answering. While changing the hotel, we found their office. Closed and empty. The guardian of the building was mumbling something like “fraud, fraud”. What fraud ? To who ? To us ? We changed the hotel and we went to one of those kiosks where it’s possible to make international calls. At the Swedish customer number, a recorded message was saying that all their planes have been grounded because of financial problems. What ? The company went bankrupt during our trip and they were not helping us at all. Great. We were a bit shocked for few minutes, then we decided to act quickly. We looked for the first travel agency we found and we tried to purchase new tickets. We both had to be in Helsinki on Monday morning, there was no time to waste. After a long search, the girl in the photo found the perfect itinerary that would bring us back on Sunday evening: Lahore->Karachi->Dubai->Vienna->Helsinki. Beautiful. There were no alternatives. We paid and we rush back to the hotel. Our first flight was leaving in the evening and we had to find a way to pack the bicycles.

The old city of Lahore is quite an experience. One of the best in the world, I think

One of the biggest in the world.

We slept some 7 hours and now we are ready for a decent lunch! We jump on the first tuctuc and we head towards the restaurant street

After wondering around for a while, we found this one. I’m actually surprised that they accept us given the conditions we are. Of course, we need to pay in advance. Who cares. We pay, we take the shower and we go straight to bed.

We are finally arrived in Lahore. The trip as been a torture. 300km in 7 hours. We did a total of some 24 hours of bus. Every single bone hurts and our brains are basically off. We only need to find one hotel as soon as possible.

16 hours on the bus was not enough. We decide to take the local bus to Lahore. It’s only some 300km and we thought it’s going to take some 3-4 hours. The bus was packed with people, very slow and broke one tyre (again). I was sitting in the corner in the very back with my legs in my stomach because the seats were too small and with one pakistai sleeping on my shoulder. A torture!!

It’s 11pm, we have been sitting on the bus for some 16 hours. We are totally exhausted. The bus driver has been continuously driving the bus on this mountain road for 16 hours with only one break for lunch. Amazing, where does he get all the energy ? We thank him a lot and we think what to do now in Islamabad.

Just a short stop for changing one tyre. The driver is amazing. He has been driving for already 7 hours and it seems that Islamabad is still 10 hours away!!! We don’t really get it because Gilgit-Islamabad is only 500km and he’s driving like crazy (not even cars have been passing us but we have been passing anyone else!!) on a mountain road.

Just half an hour break for lunch, praying and taking the photo. The driver was not tolerant with people who were late. Some of them had to run and catch the bus while it was leaving.

We have found the Minister of Safety of Pakistan. He’s just sitting in the
front center.

The Nanga Parbat is the last highlight for our visit in Pakistan. The return starts now. At this point we just wished that an helicopter could make a rescue operation and get us out of here as soon as possible. But that was just a dream. The reality is that it will take some 5 days to get back to Helsinki. We called this long operation of rescue “dinner out” like in the movie with Brad Pitt. So, let’s start

The little red house is the base camp for the north side

Walking on a glacier is always a new experience. A glacier is something alive. The ice is melting is melting, little torrents flow everywhere and disappear in blue crevaces, a river flows below, there are little sounds all the time and stones that fall when the ice below them vanishes. And the whole thing is moving down the valley everyday little by little, carrying down stones and whatever it contains. Just we weeks ago, the Italian climber Reinhold Messner found parts of the body of his brother that died during their successful attempt 30 years ago. The brother died because an avalanche and he disappeared inside the glacier. In 30 years the glacier has been changing its shape and now it decided to give back what it contains. The Nanga Parbat is not a technically difficult mountain but it’s the most dangerous 8000 peak because of its avalanches. Some 50 people died while attempting the north side that we are watching now and only very few climbers dared and succeeded in climbing it. Not a surprise that its alias is “The killer mountain”. While we were walking to the base camp, a couple of huge avalanches fell down creating big clouds of snow.

Just amazing!!!

The trail to go up to the base camp was very steep. We couldn’t figure out how the porters can carry 50kg on their shoulders up to this way. Someone said that it’s their job, they grow up by doing that. We are engineers and they are porters. Yet it’s hard to believe how they can manage. It took about 3 hours to reach the part of glacier that we need to cross. The view was terrific, fantastic, breathtaking and whatever else. It was like being on a mountain magazine or in one photo of my old school book of geography .

The huge mountain is there behind the clouds. But for today no chances to see it. We hope for good weather tomorrow.

Tonight we’ll sleep in one nice little cottage.

The jeep arrived safely in Thatto (wow!!) and we immediately started to walk up to Fairy Meadows. Rather steep trail that we completed in about 3 hours. It’s a very familiar alpine landscapes that on the Italian alps is usual located at 1600-1800 meters.

Ops, what has happened here ? An apparently “new” torrent just washed away part of the road… The stones are unstable and it’s full of slippery and very watery mud. Great. Our driver quickly fixes the road (it must be a routine for him). This is a small example of what happens when it’s rainy (today is sunny): the mountain becomes a river. We wait on the safe side for the jeep. The jeep quickly passes over the stones without too much trouble. Good. Let’s continue.

This is one of the scariest and hair raising jeep trip I’ve done in my life. From Raikot bridge to Thatto it’s about 14km of very steep mountain road. The road climbs up one side of the mountain of a very deep gorge. On the left side there is a very steep fall of some hundreds meters. On the right side there is very an unstable mountain with high risk of rockfalls, especially when raining (when we arrived in Thatto we discovered that half of the village has been washed by a huge mud avalanche during the spring). The road is very narrow, enough only for one jeep. When another jeep is coming from the other direction, the drivers need to find a wide enough area where the two jeeps can fit at the same time. And one jeep is going to be really close to the edge of the road. The road is built only with stones, they haven’t used any concrete and it’s open only during the summer time. It is only trafficked by local jeep drivers who ask for a rather expensive fare for the trip. Anyway, the locals says that the only accident that ever happened in this valley was caused by one external inexperienced driver who wanted to drive this road with his own jeep. Two passengers and the driver died. Their bodies were lifted up from the very bottom of the gorge by the rescue team. Of course, the jeep is still down in the canyon. The road was built in ‘95 and originally it was reaching Fairy Meadows (3 hours walking time further up from Thatto). The legend says that only two jeeps reached Fairy Meadows. This happened in October ‘95 when the road was inaugurated. During the winter period, snow and water damaged the road to the point that no other jeeps ever drove any further than Thatoo. And, believe me, when you finally put your feet back on the ground after the jeep trip from Raikot bridge, you thank God that the jeep cannot go any further than Thatto.

Today we start the trip to the base camp of the Nanga Parbat. First, we take a jeep to the bus station where we’ll catch a local bus to the Raikot bridge. There we’ll catch another jeep to Fairy Meadows. We’ll spend two nights there and then we’ll come back to Gilgit

We are finally arrived in Gilgit. The situation is not very safe because two persons have been killed just few days ago. There are checkpoints and blocks for cars on the streets. There is a plenty of army and police around with guns and MGs. Not so great but we have to stay here a few days to organize the trip on the Nanga Parbat. We are staying in a wonderful guest house called Madina. The staff is very hospitable and friendly. We had a nice time in what it looked like a safe island inside in Gilgit.

We had a short break

…after we passed they launched some stones to us. It looks like it is the favourite sports of the kids in this area. We have heard that this could happen but we couldn’t believe it. Luckily, we have almost finished the biking part of this trip

We didn’t have pens for everyone but we promised them to put their photos on the web! Here they are!! cheers

Along the way we passed through this little village. In Pakistan all the life usually happens along the main street of the village as in this case. It was not easy to cross as we had to pay attention to people, other bicycles, cars, buses and trucks. And Pakistani know very well how to use their lound and weird horns.

Yesterday we rested in Karimabad but today it’s a biking day again!! We woke up rather early and this is what we saw when I went to pick up the bikes. We fount the chef who was… cutting a mutton in the “kitchen” where the bikes were parked.

With a 3 hours steep hike from Karimabad we got to the Ultar glacier below the Ultar peak (7389m.), a very difficult peak to climb.

Here the king of Hunza ruled till the 70s when the region of Hunza became part of Pakistan.