Day 44 Islamabad

4:45 am start from the campsite. 6:20 am - so much for our early start - a mechanical banging noise when Henry drove out of the campsite first thing this morning - apparently a bolt has snapped on part of the steering arm or something. So now we have done a grand total of half a mile and are currently stuck at a PSO (Pakistani State Oil) gas station. Found an electric socket so we could plug in the kettle and so T and I could make respective cafetieres of coffee. Plus biscuits. No way could you do this in the UK - I mean plug your kettle into a gas station! Not sure what the state of play is now...I think they have gone off to get a bolt made - don't see whay they cannot carry a bolt kit on the bus. And to think I was totally fed up before all this crazy business. I guess we just wait here. Not clear why we are driving to Karimabad in anycase - seems to be an awful lot of effort for probably no climbing (rock) at all.

By the way, last night had a nice meal out in Islamabad - we tried to escape the masses, but people tend to herd together. T still doesn't have India visa - seems that Hot Rock shows no real concern or interest in trying to sort this out. There's so much 'fire-fighting' on this trip. Total lack of planning, e.g. truck maintenance, or lack thereof is a good case in point.

This gas station has its own security guard - like the banks and similar operations in Pakistan. The guard has some sort of shotgun, though it looks a bit rudimentary and cheap. Probably quite effective though. 9 am and the truck is fixed - until next time! Hopefully we can get going soon. 1:15 pm just had an awesome Afghan curry; fantastic rice and beef. Bhindi / okra still difficult to stomach - but trying to eat it a bit to see if it's possible to learn to like it - there's a lot of okra around. 190 rupees. Really good idea to stop on these long drive days and get a decent lunch.

10:05 pm and we are near Abbottabad staying in some totally skanky hotel. Horrid looking loo in particular. Still a long way to go (north to Karimabad) - today we managed just 280 km from Islamabad. I very much doubt that we will reach Gilgit tomorrow. Feeling very tired. Feeling dissolusioned about climbing even. That's not a good thing.

The interesting thing about Abbottabad is it's where the Karakoram Highway, or KKH sort of officially starts. The KKH goes north following the Indus river to the Khunjerab pass between Pakistan and China. Basically we are going to drive up the KKH as far as Gilgit and thence to Karimabad.