We went back down the Tarashing track – I am still amazed how the wheat lorry got up it - to the main track and turned right towards the Deosi plateau. This area is even more sensitive than many in Northern Pakistan as it is close to the Line of Control with Indian Kashmir. We passed a UN jeep just before the major Pakistan army post at the road junction where one road goes up to the Deosi and the other goes south towards Kashmir – no one, especially not foreigners is allowed to go on the road towards Kashmir. The road climbs up to the Deosi plateau which is at 4,000 metres – 13,300 ft.

 

 

The Deosi is a beautiful wide open plateau surrounded by even higher hills. There are brown bears, but these are in a sanctuary area some 30 km distant; we did however see Marmots, which are surprisingly big, and which move around a bit like a carpet fluttering along the ground. The ground is covered in small red, blue and yellow flowers.

Part of the track fords a stream, and then a couple of kilometres further on we got to the bridge that appears in all the photographs – yes, it is very photogenic.

 

 

 We met a group of lawyers from Lahore – all men – who were most keen to discover our views on Pakistan. It was their first trip to northern Pakistan too. In fact there were quite a lot of people by the bridge as it is a (longish) day trip from Skardu. We had been scheduled to camp there, and indeed there is a ‘permanent’ summer cooking tent there that was cooking lunches for people; we had vegetable soup, onion and tomato salad, fried chicken, chips and chapatti.  However, it was very windy and was clearly going to be very cold at night, so we unanimously decided to push on to Skardu. I think Ehsan was quite pleased.

 

A new fibre optic cable is being laid across the Deosi to link up Skardu and Astor. This involves digging a 3ft deep trench some 50km over the Deosi, through very rocky terrain. Now, in the UK we would get a JCB on the job, but it would still be quite a task. Here, the ditch is being entirely dug by hand, and each pickaxe-full or shovel-full will be largely rocks, which with a bit of luck will be loose rather than solid rock, all done at over 13,000 ft. You try it!!!

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 The road, well, unmade track, down from the Deosi to Skardu is seriously spectacular, and it clings to a cliff with the river far below. Towards the bottom the valley opens out with a lake and irrigated fields and then narrows again at a point where a large new hydro-electric dam is being built. All this work is being done by modern equipment. Some of the spillways are completed, but there is clearly a lot of work still to be done, and the dam is not due to be completed till 2011.

 

 Skardu is a decent sized town on the Indus, and our hotel – the Concordia Motel – overlooks the river. Rainfall here is low, but irrigation enables agriculture to flourish. Skardu is also the nearest town with a hospital to K2 and the serious climbing areas, and it was to here that the climbers were bought after the series of climbing accidents in spring 2008. In fact, in our hotel was a man who had had a climbing accident and had just been discharged from hospital; he had lots of stitches on his head, was very unsteady on his feet, and clearly did not look at all well. Ehsan said he had once been on a climbing trip to the point where the chap had had his accident, and had been certain he was going to die, so difficult and scary was it.