We sleep in a small guest house managed by a mountain guide. In the evening we have a nice discussion with him about the Pakistani culture. He tells us that women in this region are very strong and they usually take care of all the work for running the house, while the men are usually earning the money for the family. We also have a discussion about the terrorist attacks in London and we agree on the conclusion that the acts of few deviated people shouldn’t compromize the reputation of the whole country. In the Hunza valley (the region where we are) we found very hospitable and nice poeple always ready to say ‘hello’ while we are biking or to help us. The region is also very safe, probably safer than my hometown in Italy.

Crossing time of locals : 5min, Our crossing time was between 10 and 25 minutes.

Beleive me: it’s a scary stuff

We are finally arrived in Passu, a small and relaxed village. Just few hundreds meter above there is the Passu glacier and the peak Batura Muztagh (7785m.). We have an excellent lunch with a big group of Belgium “cyclists” who are biking with the assistance of van that is carrying all their luggage, too easy!! ;-).

The summary for today (Sust -> Passu):
Distance: 42 km
Altitude difference: 2900m. -> 2500m.
Biking time: 3h:10m

My bike and the kkh!

Most of the old trials of the Silk Route have been wahsed away with the time. But on the Pakistan side, if you watch carefully, you can still see some trails, sometimes running very high cutting the slopes of the mountains and sometimes very close to the current KKH. We saw one trail very close to the road and we couldn’t resist the tempation of walking on it. We did a little climb and then we were up on it. The trail is very narrow but large enough for the camels and their load to pass. Just with some immagination, we could visualize the trains of camels loaded with silk and spices to slowly crawl on these trails.

Still 30km for today. We are biking from Sust to Passu.

Now we are in Sust, Pakistan. We start biking early morning. We pass near the first suspended bridge. As we were wondering if the bridge is safe and stable, one jeep starts to cross it from the other side… Amazing.

Today it’s an easy stage, only some 40km from Sust to Passu. We can take it easy.