February 18th, 2008 
Sheila Simkin The weather went from one extreme to another. Broiling heat to very cool with mist. The jackets and hats finally came out of our packs and we prepared for this very long day and downhill. Downhills are always bad on the knees and I just hoped I had some left after the 1,200-1,600m/4,000-5,000′ elevation drop. With porters on either side of teenager with sprained ankle for support, Irene stopping every now and then to get sick in a shrub, we started down…and down…and down….
Aslam hired a shepherd to guide the way since this trek was still an “exploratory.” I don’t remember the downhill being difficult…just interminable. We thought it would never end. Through some pine forests and wildflowers, watching our step at all times…down…down…down…for hours.
Jeeps waiting at the bottom, we quickly took off wet clothes and fell into the jeeps absolutely exhausted while children stood around watching us. View image…
A drive to Gilgit along the Karakoram Highway for an overnight at the Gilgit Serena Hotel and hot showers! Believe you me…we needed them.
Gilgit was once a transit trading center on the Silk Road. and now is a major commerce spot on the Karakoram Highway. Stores sell everything from tea to German guns. Srinagar is the nearest major city and before the Karakoram Highway, it would have taken a month by mule track to reach Srinagar. That is without landslides, flash floods or blasting on the road.
There was still time to wander through Gilgit and its bazaar where ex-Marine bought the first of his old British raj-era unworking rifles…View image… (U.S. Customs doubled over in laughter when they saw this piece of trash, but ex-Marine loved it.)
Tomorrow would start our “great jeep safari” to Chitral, Swat – Pakistan’s Northwest Frontier – on the border with Afghanistan. This is the remote tribal area that the Taliban and Al-Qeada loves, filled with its multitude of leaders. But that is now…this was then…
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