Day 69 Passu 5th Sep 09

We woke up about 0345hrs to have our Sahur, hunza bread with peanut butter or cheese and Tea… Seems the cooker is working fine as the water boiled quite nicely quickly. Might be the power at Karimabad wasn’t strong enough.. We plan to for hiking later in the morning if the weather is good as the past 3 days it has been raining and gloomy.

A clear blue day

We awoke again about 0800hrs and were very happy to see the clear blue sky again. And so we got up and got ready to go for our walk to find the 2 suspension bridge around Passu. We started walking about 0930hrs from Passu Inn and headed north towards Sheesper Inn to look for the bridge as per the instructions on the Trail Blazer book on the Silk road. Along the way we met some locals and they led us to the suspension bridge as they were going the same way.

The Glacier nearby

Half way to the bridge

If we didn’t meet anyone along the way we would have miss the trail to the bridge as it is hidden down the hills off the main road. We had to walk thru small paths thru the small hills about 45mins to be able to see the bridge. And for the locals they went ahead of us and they can really walk fast… We took our time to take in the majestic view of the snow capped mountains around the Hunza River. By the time we got to the suspension bridge I got worried and cold feet.. The bridge is strung up with metal cables and the pathway is just made up of small wooden branches or planks spread far apart where you really have to stretch your legs to get to the other branch.. This is really scary and it doesn’t help that the bridge looks like 1000km long but actually only about 200m long.

rickety bridge

First view of the bridge

Holding on to dear life

Safely across and below

I asked Ramli to get to the bridge first so I could take some photos for him as I don’t think I will be able to take any for him later when I’m on the bridge. So after finishing snapping pictures for him I took in a real deep breath said Bismillah Hirahman Nir Rahim and took my first step on the bridge. It’s really scary but slowly slowly I took my time to cross over.. Phew finally after 15 mins I got across safely all in tact..

We continued south west crossing the valleys and getting closer to the mountains. And after we somehow got lost a little but found our way again following some markers that someone had left behind.. The hot day drained me out, I was breathing so hard and had to stop so many times and seems like is Nepal trekking all over again and I hate this feeling.. Ramli knew that I am having a hard time, he held my hand and we walked together hand in hand.. At that very moment he held my hand, I wanted to cry cause somehow I just felt so touched and warm… Wahahahah don’t know why I was so emotional all of a sudden. We walked about 15mins and had to split our hands as we were sweating on each others palms…

The 2nd crossing

Wheat fields

Further on we saw wheat fields and some plantations with women working in their fields, we asked for directions to the next suspension bridge and was pointed the way. It took us about 3.5 hours to get to the 2^nd bridge and again this bridge looks all flimsy and unsafe but still we got across safely and arrived at Hussaini Village after 4 hours. And by now we are all exhausted and decided we would break our fast for today .. We saw some kids at the village and asked if there is any shop we could go to buy drinks. A young lady washing clothes invited us to her house but rejected as we didn’t want to trouble her since she is not even half way thru her washing. She asked her little brother to lead us to the shop nearby. We followed him and soon there was 3 kids leading us to the shop. When we arrived at the main road we pass a family who was ploughing their land and asked where we were heading to and we told them the same to get some drinks. The boy kept telling us the shop is close but the young boys kept asking us to go.. Hmmm we are confused but later decided to just follow the boys since they are going the way back to Passu.

After about 30mins we arrived at a closed shop, one of the boys asked us to rest first under the shed while he ran down shouting for someone. After about 2 mins he came back with a young boy with the key to the shop. He opened the small shop and asked what we wanted to buy, we got our selves our drinks and bought juice for the 3 boys we led us here. They were standing around us for awhile and left after a man came and asked them to go.. Hmmm we read in the books that in this area the villagers doesn’t like to have any foreign influence on their village thus we guess the reason why the man asked the boys to go…

We rested for a while and decided to continue our walk to Borit Lake 2km upwards between the mountains. Slowly we climb up and was glad we came up. The view of the lake with the mountains surrounding it is so beautiful. We walked on to the Borit Lake hotel to check if it is open so we could order some food.

The view from the Borit Lake Hotel

Borit Lake

And yes the owner to the beautiful hotel was there, we ordered our food and sat down to enjoy the view. The wind was blowing and it was really really cold, our finger tips are all numb… About 30mins later the nice owner served our chicken Karahi with chapatti. It was really tasty, we finished and continued on our long journey back to Passu.

the apricot tree

We headed north and walked pass a small village and saw 1 young girl and a teenage girl drying apricots. I asked the teenage girl if they had dried apricots that we could buy but she only had fresh ones from the trees. So she led us to the tree and she pluck some for me to try…It was really nice to have fruits fresh from the tree. I gave her plastic bag to put in the apricots she filled it up almost half and I asked her to stopped but she continued till there was maybe about 60-70 apricots in the bag. At first she didn’t want to take the money but I insisted as it wasn’t nice to take so much for free.

Passu Glacier

Continued our walk passing thru the apricot tree filled village and headed upwards to the hills to cross over to the other side so we could go back to Passu Inn. On the way we strayed and went to view the Passu glacier even though it is already about 1715hrs and we still have about another 2 hours before we will arrive at Passu village. After we rush our way thru the hills and finally came upon the steep down slope which we had to get down before we could reach the main road. The way down was really scary, a wrong move will cause us to slip down the soft sand and maybe fall and injure ourselves real bad. Luckily I brought my trekking stick along to help me balance otherwise I think I would have fallen down the slope from the very beginning. Both of us slipped so many times and finally after about 40mins we arrived safe and sound at the bottom. We walked thru the field ahead which was covered with bushes of thorns.. Walked straight and climbed over short stone walls, walked back climbed over the stone walls again and walked left before we were back on the main road. The hike was quite difficult as there weren’t any signs on the way and the tracks wasn’t clear enough.. But thank God we got thru the days track safely and was on our way back to the guesthouse.

We could feel the ache on our legs and our feet but felt that it is all worth it. It is a beautiful day… till we got back to the inn. We cleaned up and headed to the dining hall to have some snacks even though we are still full of the chicken Karahi and chapatti. Cause we felt that we should help the owner make some money since he has only 3 guests this week. But when we asked if he has anymore food at about 2000hrs he told us no more food as we are too late.. ERmmm too late ? we weren’t informed there was a cut off time but we felt relief as we don’t have to eat anymore. So we thought we will just buy some water from him. And he just directed us to the General Store.. Alright fine than we tried to help you make some profit…

After getting the water we headed back to the room and took our rest…