A bit of a dodgy place to stay... But a bonus Praying Mantis!
We left Gilgit as planned. The massive problem with the bike turned out to be the starter motor. It was a good job we had Brock the mechanic to help, and a mechanic scraped the carbon off some important bit, and it was all go again. In England they would have just replaced the starter motor completely. Here, anything is possible. With Manfred purring happily again, we bombed it down the hill. There were no major hiccups, and it all went a lot easier the second time. We bounced over the same holes and through the same rivers, and whizzed through checkpoints with made up visa numbers and silly occupations like ‘gymnast’ and ‘dictator’. We raced all the way through to Besham. We stopped for lunch in Dasu. We met a guide, who advised us against staying in Besham & Batagram because of the Swat Valley fanatics. He mimed a giant beard, to explain. (The Swat Valley has its transport hub ...