The road the other side to Besham was not in a good state and progress was slow.  The journey cannot have been more than 100 Km, but it took over 5 hours. We passed through many small villages and towns which were off the beaten track.

We lunched at Besham next to the Indus river.  The food was good and the scenery spectacular.  The Indus was wide, fast flowing and very silty.  We were now into the Himalayas and after lunch we set off up the Karakorum Highway (KKH).  I could run out of adjectives for the journey up to Chilas: stunning, beautiful, amazing, bumpy, scary and above all long.

The KKH follows the Indus River.  It is hewn out of the rock sides of the river valley.  The road is never more than 2 carriageways wide and sometimes there is so much rubble on it that it is single track.  the road frequently has a sheer drop of several hundred feet down to the river and there are often no barriers.

The mountains started off being well cultivated.  The sides being covered in terraces growing maize.  Although how they get the crops down and provisions up is a mystery since the cliff faces are nearly sheer in places.

We met some herds of goats on the road.  They are being brought down at the moment since winter is approaching.