Monday 15th June
June 16th, 2009 by Jake
If you are reading this then I have successfully made my first post via the satellite phone (well via Saskia anyway!), rather than the more traditional way of doing it online through a standard connection. This is particularly exciting because, due to last minute planning, I’d left the UK without having even tested the sat comms, and the first few tests in Islamabad and Skardu had proved unfruitful. I was beginning to think that I was going to end up carrying the Satphone, PDA, Laptop and all the attached paraphernalia to the mountain – and them all being completely redundant – other than a particularly heavy method of taking solitare to the hill!
Today we finally left Skardu (after 3 days there) to make the journey up to Askole, the end of the road and the village from which we would start walking. Having spent nearly a week in the country already, it was easy to forget why we are actually here, but every time we make a physical move, it reminds us of our goal and gets us one step closer to the mountain. The distance from Skardu to Askole is only about 165kms, however (and I take back all of my whinging about the KKH!) it proved to be quite a hair-raising adventure. Rather than buses, today’s favoured method of transport was 4x4s (old school Toyota Landcruisers and Jeep Wranglers) and we had about 10 of them to take us and our kit (75kg/person + another few tonnes of group equipment/food etc) up to Askole.
Initially the route out of Skardu was on a decent tarmaced road, but this very rapidly changed into a rutted, rocky trail. We drove through small villages where the women toiled in the fields with the crops and the children ran up towards the vehicles waving, shouting, and over rickety wooden suspension bridges above raging torrents. The mountains rose impressively on either side of the valley, many of which were snow capped, and the road was generally only wide enough for a single vehicle (sometimes even that was debatable!). We hand-railed narrow and exposed mountain cuttings where the wheels of the jeeps were often mere inches from the edge, and on several occasions had to skirt off-road around landslides which covered the existing track.
It took us about 7 hours to make the distance which was incredibly impressive, considering that the estimate was between 6 and 16 hours (depending on the state of the road), and that included stopping for lunch and a couple of tire changes after punctures. After arriving in Askole, we later heard that one of the jeeps following us (although not part of our team) had gone over the edge on one of the steep sections of the road. Although it was completely destroyed in the fall, none of the passengers or the driver were harmed, as they weren’t actually in the jeep at the time it went over the edge. The passengers had got out of the jeep to take some pictures and the driver had rolled the jeep back until it’s rear wheels rested on a rock, and then he hopped out as well (not many of them have handbrakes!!). Obviously whilst he was out, the jeep rolled backwards over the rock and thus over the edge as well. Thank goodness that nobody had been in it – it was certainly a sobering thought for all of us, and made us very happy that from now on in, at least we were under our own steam!
Whilst all of our gear was being unloaded in the compound in Askole, there was a meeting for the porters – basically their chance to get hired for around 10 days work (very good out here). We all set up tents in a field, from which I am now writing this, and had a delicious supper of tortellini, chicken, vegetables, chips, potato cakes and fresh melon. It’s our first meal in about 6 days that hasn’t involved dahl, for which we are very thankful, although I imagine it won’t be long until those spiced chickpeas come out again!
The basecamp banter has already started (even though we are 8 days away from BC!). This afternoon in the mess tent, after watching Wilky spooning about 5 teaspoonfuls of Nescafe into his mug, Fab dared him to snort a foot long line of coffee in exchange for carrying 5kgs of Wilky's kit up the mountain. The terms went backwards and forwards and eventually the wager ended up at 12 inches of Nescafe for 50kgs of gear up the mountain throughout the expedition. 50kgs!!! That's basically like having your own porter! The rules also stipulated that Wilky would have to sit in his chair afterwards for 1 hour without throwing-up, passing out or bleeding through his eyeballs! Unfortunately, fearing his hayfever would get the better of him, not to mention not being able to sleep for the rest of the expedition, Wilky reluctantly declined. Also, he wasn't convinced that the reward outweighed the cost... What a wimp. Perhaps he should MTFU!
On a personal note, a big thank you to all my friends and family who’ve already sent me text messages on the satphone – they put a big smile on my face, and it is so nice to know that you haven’t completely forgotten about me – when I get a chance I will try and reply individually!
Today we finally left Skardu (after 3 days there) to make the journey up to Askole, the end of the road and the village from which we would start walking. Having spent nearly a week in the country already, it was easy to forget why we are actually here, but every time we make a physical move, it reminds us of our goal and gets us one step closer to the mountain. The distance from Skardu to Askole is only about 165kms, however (and I take back all of my whinging about the KKH!) it proved to be quite a hair-raising adventure. Rather than buses, today’s favoured method of transport was 4x4s (old school Toyota Landcruisers and Jeep Wranglers) and we had about 10 of them to take us and our kit (75kg/person + another few tonnes of group equipment/food etc) up to Askole.
Initially the route out of Skardu was on a decent tarmaced road, but this very rapidly changed into a rutted, rocky trail. We drove through small villages where the women toiled in the fields with the crops and the children ran up towards the vehicles waving, shouting, and over rickety wooden suspension bridges above raging torrents. The mountains rose impressively on either side of the valley, many of which were snow capped, and the road was generally only wide enough for a single vehicle (sometimes even that was debatable!). We hand-railed narrow and exposed mountain cuttings where the wheels of the jeeps were often mere inches from the edge, and on several occasions had to skirt off-road around landslides which covered the existing track.
It took us about 7 hours to make the distance which was incredibly impressive, considering that the estimate was between 6 and 16 hours (depending on the state of the road), and that included stopping for lunch and a couple of tire changes after punctures. After arriving in Askole, we later heard that one of the jeeps following us (although not part of our team) had gone over the edge on one of the steep sections of the road. Although it was completely destroyed in the fall, none of the passengers or the driver were harmed, as they weren’t actually in the jeep at the time it went over the edge. The passengers had got out of the jeep to take some pictures and the driver had rolled the jeep back until it’s rear wheels rested on a rock, and then he hopped out as well (not many of them have handbrakes!!). Obviously whilst he was out, the jeep rolled backwards over the rock and thus over the edge as well. Thank goodness that nobody had been in it – it was certainly a sobering thought for all of us, and made us very happy that from now on in, at least we were under our own steam!
Whilst all of our gear was being unloaded in the compound in Askole, there was a meeting for the porters – basically their chance to get hired for around 10 days work (very good out here). We all set up tents in a field, from which I am now writing this, and had a delicious supper of tortellini, chicken, vegetables, chips, potato cakes and fresh melon. It’s our first meal in about 6 days that hasn’t involved dahl, for which we are very thankful, although I imagine it won’t be long until those spiced chickpeas come out again!
The basecamp banter has already started (even though we are 8 days away from BC!). This afternoon in the mess tent, after watching Wilky spooning about 5 teaspoonfuls of Nescafe into his mug, Fab dared him to snort a foot long line of coffee in exchange for carrying 5kgs of Wilky's kit up the mountain. The terms went backwards and forwards and eventually the wager ended up at 12 inches of Nescafe for 50kgs of gear up the mountain throughout the expedition. 50kgs!!! That's basically like having your own porter! The rules also stipulated that Wilky would have to sit in his chair afterwards for 1 hour without throwing-up, passing out or bleeding through his eyeballs! Unfortunately, fearing his hayfever would get the better of him, not to mention not being able to sleep for the rest of the expedition, Wilky reluctantly declined. Also, he wasn't convinced that the reward outweighed the cost... What a wimp. Perhaps he should MTFU!
On a personal note, a big thank you to all my friends and family who’ve already sent me text messages on the satphone – they put a big smile on my face, and it is so nice to know that you haven’t completely forgotten about me – when I get a chance I will try and reply individually!
