Continued from parts
1,
2,
3 and
4.
One of the main highlights was this expedition up to Lake Saiful Muluk. In summertime you can take a jeep part of all of the way, but since the jeep track was buried under several feet of snow, we'd be walking the whole way.
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A couple of km in, and well into the snow. The group ahead dropped behind us,
and at some stage disappeared altogether. |
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| Don't look now, but you're being followed by half a pirate. |
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Bashir goes ahead, kicking out steps for the rest of us -
in his loafers. |
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| A long way up... |
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| Made it! - 4 hours, 10km and 2600ft of snow from Naran. |
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Lake Saiful Muluk - somewhere under that lot! (click for large version)
The big lumpy peak left-of-centre with the hanging glacier is Malika Parbat. |
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| Lunch consisted of the day's second set of parathas with omelettes inside. |
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At this point Bashir handed Jenny a blanket and pointed down
the slope. Jo's plastic bag was somewhat faster, leading to a
high-speed snowy somersault or two - like in a cartoon but
thankfully minus the giant snowball part. |
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| The descent took just over half the time of the ascent. |
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| The slidey-trails go back a long way up! |
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Next day we went for a gentler and flatter walk a little way up the main valley.
Here's the next wee village, currently deserted. |
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After a pause for a drink, we decided to go and see what what was round the corner
before heading back - this was what we found. (click for large version) |
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An executive decision to leave on the Thursday evening instead of Friday
morning proved to be a fortuitous choice, as a storm chased us down the valley.
Had we stayed the extra night we would have had to hike over landslides to get
my parents to the airport on time! |
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| Halfway through this glacier we met a stuck minibus. |
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| One more reminder of the flood's toll on the road. |
