The Karakorum Highway - Kashgar to Tashkurgan

The Karakorum Highway links Kashgar with the capital of Pakistan, negotiating some serious mountains and reaching an altitude of 4600m along the way. Our plan was to travel as far as Karakul Lake and we paid for a 4 day trek around the 7500m high Muztagh Alta.

Karakul Lake is pretty close to Afghanistan and for that reason and because of the upcoming Olympics and the situation in Tibet, China has clamped down on tourism in the area. The first thing we had to do after arriving at the lake was visit the military base. Here we were studied by 10 soldiers who had nothing better to do but were still irritated that we'd interrupted their tea. We found out that the trek that we had signed up for was no longer permitted but that we could go were they allowed us to, for an extra fee of $40 each. There was no way we were even paying a cent to these palookers, so it became a fairly easy decision.

We changed plans and decided to carry on along the highway, as far as we could go without having visas for Pakistan. This took us as far as the city of Tashkurgan which is famous for its Stone Fortress and set in the beautiful grasslands between the Pamir Mountains. The culture is very interesting with a mix of Tajik, Krygish and Uigher people and with the abundance of roast lamb I wasn't complaining.

On the way back to Kashgar we spent a night in a yurt at Lake Karakul. After stretching our legs with a walk around the lake and eating a basic meal with 1 of the local families, we snuck into our yurt and climbed under the covers.

The trip turned out to be worth our time, with amazing scenery along the way, but I can't emphasize enough how irritating the military check points are. The power hungry young soldiers look you up and down as if you're naked with a line of snot dangling from your nose and study your passport as if you've somehow managed to pole vault into the country. Lucky I'm so patient!