High altitude cooking, a German-Australian Collaboration, and a farewell to Jemima

Three weeks into Pakistan, and the country I set foot into has turned on its head. The hot humid plains of the south have turned into magnificent snow capped peaks, beautiful valleys filled with fruit trees and terraced fields of wheat and corn. Its apple and apricot season ( just missed the peaches... bugger) and every village you pass has trees laden with fruit! Its totally awesome!





About a week ago I met Tom, the German in Gilgit just as I was leaving the guesthouse, and two hours, a bowl of porridge and a flat tyre (tom's not mine) later, I had a new cycling partner. Having said that, the past week we've been mainly off the bike, trekking in collaboration with a strong German contingent also making their way up the mountains.




We are now in the Hunza valley, definately the most beautiful section of the road so far. This is where the Hindukush, the Karakorum and the Himalaya mountain ranges all intersect toi create lanscape of ridiculously large mountains and amazing scenery. Tom and myself did a two day trek up to Rakaposhi base camp, next to the Minapin glacier, and then joined three other brave adventurous Germans to conquer Rush Peak over the last 5 days, smashing the 5100m peak to bits (more of a hill than a mountain around here) in a journey that saw us cross glaciers, mountain lakes, rain, snow, sunshine and really bloody steep tracks.



After careful consideration, we found our main points of learning to be:



-pasta just doesn't cook right above 4000m.
-porridge does, and still tastes great even when you've had it each morning for 5 days
-walking uphill hurts the same day, walking downhill hurts the next 2 days. alot.
-Germans in general have lots of cool camping gear, Australians don't
-Germans also have many varieties of interesting tea, never before heard of in Australia. Wondervoll!

On a very sad note, unfortunately after three long years of tireless service and countless hours of service to humanity, I left my ipod - Jemima - plugged into the wall in the hostel and after a week of hiking some no good backpacker took it... very un-pakistani.





After a week of bike-saddle free adventuring, the two rubber lined wheels of fate are calling, but not before a day of rest and continuous feeding in Karimabad.





Coming up soon, more cycling, and probably more walking!! stay tuned