Globe Gallivanting- motorbiking across the world

The way down to Gilgit was fairly uneventful, and a lot faster than the way up.  Just as we were getting there, there was an enormous truck that had fallen through the road and was stuck, half on the road and half off, with steel cables all over the ground.      There was no way round. The trucks had amassed a few miles back.  We had to turn back for an hour to the next bridge.  We arrived to find the Karimabad gang already in situ.  We spent another pleasant evening chatting, and found an English guy riding an old Aussie postie bike called Dot Cotton from Australia to the UK.  We went trout-fishing.  In Pakistan.  It pleased me greatly.     A shabby old jeep took five of us, with only three rods and two hooks.  We had adventure in our hearts and the smell of grilled fish in our noses…. We didn’t catch one bleeding fish the whole time.   The actual fishing was very relaxed though, despite the strange numbers of Pak...

I don’t remember much of the trip to Lahore.  I know I met a lovely girl from Quetta in the toilets of a café who was very nice, but who had just come out of the toilet with excrement all over her left hand.  I remember being put off slightly, and trying very hard not to show it. I also remember we stopped for lunch at a very smart hotel complex with an excellent restaurant, where the bosses came over for a professional photo shoot with us, asked us for a brief review of the food, and gave us the same meals again for free, to take away. I was shell-shocked, and very giggly.  The Uruguayans acted as though it was part of every-day travel, and totally took it in their stride. On the way into Lahore, a station wagon wound down its window and a shaved Pakistani head poked out. ‘Alright mate’, it said, in perfect Cockney.  He was a Londoner over in Pakistan to see family, and that’s all we could find out before we were off again…      Arriving into Lahor...

  The next day we rode from Sindh into Punjab, and the police changed into big Punjabi guards.  They wore ‘PUNJABI ELITE FORCE’ T-shirts with the ‘No Fear’ logo on the back.     They went fast, and for very long periods of time.  They relayed each other, so the handovers were rolling, and we still didn’t get to stop.  The driving was manic and very unsafe.  Being behind the police cars was definitely far worse that not being anywhere near one, security threat or not.  I lost the wallet.  I left the zip on the tankbag open, and it must have fallen out on the road.  It contained Adam’s driver’s licence, 130 quid in Rupees, and 100 quid in dollars.  Funnily enough, I wasn’t that popular that day. The Uruguayans were great, and paid for everything for us all day.  They even bought us ice creams.    Suddenly, the police truck in front swerved, causing the Uruguayans to emergency brake.  The police off...

The next morning our new police escorts were hardcore to the max!  We had two trucks full of serious police with mounted machine guns on the trucks.  They relayed seamlessly with each other until we reached the county border.    Then everything relaxed slightly, and the escorts allowed us to ride on ahead, and stop when we wanted.  We travelled with the Uruguayans- the German had stayed behind to put his bike on a train to Islamabad.  The scenery started to improve, and the rivers were bright blue, and there were pretty caves in the rocks.  Possibly they housing Bin Laden, it was definitely his neck of the woods.  Kingfishers fluttered past.  Buffaloes bathed in the mud.   Adam & Eve giggled in the bushes… It was incredibly hot, but the riding was excellent.  The boys stopped to pour buckets of water onto their heads from the wells.  We stopped to recover and drink sugar, and gathered an enormous crowd of pleased onlo...