+ 9 - 5 | § ¶Himachal-Pradesh, land of the thousand Gods

Himachal Pradesh.

Like a breath of fresh air in a trip with too many fumes.

It's 9AM, and I managed to get an early start to the day. I've been cycling since dawn. Now only 160kms and a couple of mountains stand in the way of the safe haven of Dharamsala. The rickshaws and monster trucks fade away as a long empty winding road opens up ahead.

Farmers continue waving from their fields. Pine trees appear, along with uphill slopes. The sun strikes harder and harder, avalanching onto the road.  Exhausting heat.

Wearing a turban around my head as a flimsy effort at shade, I follow the road to the mountains.

+ 9 - 5 | § ¶India: And now for something completely different!

As I waved goodbye to my friends in Lahore, I could not help but feel a little nostalgia. Lahore, with all its pollution, had been home to me for a month now. That morning, at 40+ degrees Celsius I cycled my way through her congested roads, zigzagging past noisy two-stroke rickshaws, coughing and spluttering on their thick fumes. 

Badly singing "Nothing can stop me now" by Queen, I found the road to Waga Border. One sign post: "30kms to India" lifted my spirits to new heights. A new chapter was about to begin!

One slight problem... My daily delays in meeting the mayor of Lahore meant my visa for Pakistan had expired over a week ago. To extend it would have meant another trip to Islamabad. My friends at Lahore municipality had warned me that I may even get arrested at the border!

With my bicycle as my ambassador, and a 100 rupees note (2 euros) in my passport as a cheap attempt of a bribe, I decided to risk it.

+ 9 - 4 | § ¶The Shimshal Experience

The alarm went off at 6am ready to set out on the little adventure we had set for ourselves. Yohann turned the alarm clock off, and we went for a full breakfast at 9am.

Yohann kept his bike light by leaving most of his stuff at the hotel and I decided it was going to be difficult anyway and took everything, including all camping equipment. We slowly cycled up the Karakorum highway to the point where the jeep track leaves the road in direction of Shimshal.

We made a break at the signpost indicating 'Welcome to Shimshal, this road was constructed in 2004'. At this point we were still in the main Hunza valley on the Karakorum highway, and before us was a gigantic wall of mountains which somehow had a track road going through it. After 15 minutes, we asked ourselves, do we go on? The track was mainly composed of medium sized rocks which were slightly displaced by the daily jeep passings, leaving for the bicycles, two strips to progress on. That and the sand patches were to make the day a 'Ca passe ou ca casse' day!

We passed the first bridge over the main Hunza river, and entered the gorge slowly. Yohann was faster on the way as he was lighter, and also on the recumbent bicycle things proved to be more tricky. The recumbent bike is perfect when you are looking into the distance, but when trying to look at the road 1m in front of the front wheel, there is a certain technique to acquire. We progressed along the road moving up and down from the Shimshal river that we would follow all day until we reached Shimshal.

+ 3 - 7 | § ¶North Pakistan, and along the Karakoram highway

Well Chris and I seperated in Lahore. We had no fixed plans for the future, just that he would look after Lahore, whilst I would pay a visit to Islamabad.

Throughout Pakistan, people I met had told me of the Northern Areas of Pakistan and how unique these parts are. The whole northern area is on the west of the Himalayas on the Hindu Kurch and Karakoram ranges, where it is frequent to find peaks above 7000m. The Karokorum highway is the only road that goes to the north of the country and used to be a major silk route. Its now of political and strategic importance as it connects the subcontinent to central Asia and China to Europe. Built in the 1970’s, it now stretches from near Islamabad right up to the Chinese border at 4800m altitude on the Kunjerab pass.

Stefan and Anita the Austrian tandemists were going to cycle up and down again. This gave me the plan of finding a way to the top using public transport, to then cycle down again, from 4800m to Islamabad. First though, I needed to stop off at Islamabad to apply for the Indian via…

I got the train up to Islamabad. There I stayed a few days, for the visa, and preparing future visit of the municipality, meeting the Sustainable Development Policy Institute, and…the minister of the environment of Pakistan!

A couple of days later I cycled to Rawalpindi and got a bus for the north. I had no idea where I was going and just got a bus ticket for Hunza, the furthest north they could sell me a ticket for. I arrived 24hrs later, in a completely new environment. It is very calm compared to Punjab, the mountains are steep and high around you, and the religion is not the same. Here they are Ismaelites, they believe the Imam heritance is still alive today as the 49^th is alive today, and are basically the ‘peace and love’ muslims who simply believe in peace and nothing else.