Feb. 24 - Chilas, Pakistan

Thursday, February 24 :: Chilas, Pakistan :: 124km today / 5163km total

The day dawned cloudy, but not darkly threatening, and I decided to go for it. From Dasu to Chilas was 124km of... nothingness... 1 food stop, no accomodation. Riding out of here is pretty much all or nothing, but I was well-rested and well-fed, and decided to go for it. I pounded down a huge breakfast and rolled onto the wet road.

I started slowly, allowing breakfast to digest and the roads to dry a bit. Clouds were very light to the Southeast which promised that the roads would get some sunshine as the day progressed. The terrain I was riding through now was alpine/arctic... no trees, little grass, lots of moss. Desolately beautiful. The road was also relatively flat, as the KKH goes, and stayed within a few hundred metres of the Indus River, never climbing too high on the valley wall. The River itself flattened, meandered, braided, and stopped thundering, which also meant less climbing for me - there were no switchbacks and no climbs longer than 2km today.

I was riding through a very conservative, rural area of Pakistan, and fortunately it was cold enough for me to wear pants all day. I was quick with the greetings and waving, better to be on the safe side. The traditional, respectful Islamic greeting is "salaam alekum", which means "peace be upon you". The knee-jerk required response is "wa'a alekum es salaam", which means "and peace be upon you, as well". So when I'm riding along throwing out "salaam alekum" with a wave and a smile, people cannot help but smile back and respond appropriately, whether they want to or not (their culture and religion requires them to). It takes the edge off of any situation where there might otherwise be tension. I think of it as pre-emptive resolution. And there were no problems at all, the people were very friendly without me pulling it out of them... the further up the KKH I ride, the more effort I put in, the more the locals seem to appreciate what I'm doing.

20km out of Chilas I rounded a corner and there it was, summit lost in the clouds... Nanga Parbat, the 8th highest mountain on Earth. Tomorrow I will ride across it's base, 30km from the summit (as the crow flies, but no crow flies to the summit of Nanga Parbat, believe me). Rolling into Chilas I quickly found my pre-determined hotel, and the staff were asking me "why is there mud on your face?" "why are you covered in mud?". Apparently they don't know what the KKH is like. Either way, all was heavenly when I found, in the bathroom, a bathtub! I haven't seen a bathtub since leaving Canada. And hot water! It would be 3 baths from check-in to check-out, the next morning.