Feb. 25 - Jaglot, Pakistan

Friday, February 25 :: Jaglot, Pakistan :: 82km today / 5245km total

A very light drizzle to start the day, but the promise of the oasis of Gilgit, 130km ahead of me, was enough bait to get me out on the road and riding. The drizzle continued all day; not heavy enough to really soak me or the road, but enough to be annoying and turn the rockfall sections into mud. The road conditions out of Chilas were absolutely horrible, with countless rockfalls creating long stretches of mud and rock to pick my way through. There were hills, too, to further slow my progress. However, I did roll across the foot of Nanga Parbat, literally, and the locals who were nearby were wondering what I was doing looking at the rocks at the side of the road (like a good former geologist!). Nanga Parbat itself was lost in the clouds, again, and I would actually never see it's summit. I could, however, see 7800m Rakaposhi, and it was awesome enough to satiate my appetite for high mountain views.

Dubious frame sounds 50km in further slowed my progress, and I was starting to do the math about whether 130km was possible before dark. At Jaglot, 82km in, I considering stopping, as it would be a tough, cold push to make Gilgit before dark. Then a snowflake drifted down onto my hand - decision made, I'm not going any further tonight. There was ONE place in town, and at 100 rupees ($2CDN) it was very basic, but it had the saving grace of a tightly-closing bathroom door. The food in town was actually quite good, or maybe it's just that I'm becoming very adept at finding it. Typical rural Pakistani food consists of naan bread and either spinach curry, daal curry, or beef curry. All are good but the trick is convincing the cook not to slather the food with oil.

There was a large bus stopped temporarily in Jaglot, and some Japanese tourists came over to talk to me. Apparently they are cyclists, back in Japan, and so we had lots to talk about. 4 hours later they were back... their bus was turned around near Chilas from a rockslide... and they would be spending the night back up in Gilgit. They came to my hotel room and were shocked at the condition of it. And they didn't even see the bathroom!

A generator was running a little movie room, where many local men were watching a Hindi movie. Pakistan does not really have any film industry to speak of, so it's all Indian movies here - Hindi (India) and Urdu (Pakistan) are very similar languages, enough so that the Pakistanis can understand the dialogue. The funniest part of the movie for me was a scene where a young boy was praying to the Indian god Hanuman - the camera panned from him praying on his knees to the monkey-faced statue that he was praying to. The entire room of Pakistanis broke into laughter upon seeing the statue, certainly to them it must seem quite silly compared to the austere, solemn presence of Allah.

Power is very sporadic here in Northern Pakistan, and I'm writing this in my notebook by candlelight.