Hello friends.  It's been a long time since I've put an update on this here website of mine.  I suppose that's because I had a really busy summer writing and taking pictures.  And, Jules and I were planning an event for our August-month visit to the States - if you don't know what it was, write me and I'll fill you in.

So, rather than try to catch up on everything that's happened in the last four months, I thought I'd do a photo essay, this time, about a recent trip Jules and I took to the mountains in the north of Pakistan.  Her office was closed for the week of Eid - the Muslim holiday at the end of the fasting month of Ramadan - so we flew up to the town of Skardu, central to the mountainous Baltistan region.

I hope the pictures below make you a bit jealous, and make you want to come visit!  Despite the recent news from Pakistan -  things like the Marriott bombing, which admittedly did freak us out a bit - we still feel safe here.  And the mountains are gorgeous and peaceful!  You gotta see them for yourselves sometime.



On Saturday, October 27, we caught a PIA flight to the town of Skardu, getting some absolutely marvelous views of mountains along the way.  Nanga Parbat, the eighth highest peak in the world, was, like, right there!

We settled in for a night at the Mashabrum Hotel in Skardu, with this view from our hotel room.

 We visited a mountain lake nearby.

Then we drove to the Shigar River valley...

...where we had mountain views like this...

...and stayed at a pretty cool place called Shigar Fort.

Shigar Fort Residence is a wonderfully restored, seventeenth century, Balti valley fort now run as a luxury guest house.  It would be a treasure anywhere, but especially rewarding to find in this relatively out-of-the-way part of Pakistan.

 We enjoyed the well-preserved, original wood-and-stone building... 

...relaxed in quiet gardens...

...and went on a great hike up the adjacent stream canyon.

On the hike, we watched an adventurous goat herd chase his charges around on a cliff, running after them in his sandals on a thin path a deadly height above the stream...

 ...enjoyed snowcapped peaks popping out above the canyon-sides as we climbed higher and higher...

...and thought about building a stream-side hut here to retire to when we get old enough for that sort of thing.

After two night of pampering in the fine fort-turned-hotel, we headed out to take part in the region's most famous activity - trekking in the unbelievably rugged Karakoram mountains.

We hired a car to the town of Khaplu, two hours from Skardu, through the famed Indus River canyon. 

October is harvest time in Baltistan, and villages were hives of activity as farmers took their winter stores from terraced fields full of fall color.

In Khaplu, we hit the gravel road to the pretty remote town of Hushe, gateway for trekkers heading toward K2.  A rickety yet trusty cargo Jeep was our conveyance, Jules and I joining about a dozen Pakistani men sitting on top of huge sacks of grain and hanging off its rear and sides.

It was one of the more beautiful rides of our lives, enjoying the open air (while trying not to get squished as everyone jostled over bumps), the Hushe River valley falling away below us...

...as views of 7,000-meter-plus Mashebrum Peak (here wreathed in clouds) opened up ahead of us.

Reaching the village of Hushe after a three hour ride, we stayed a night in a very basic hotel - but who cares how basic if you have views like this out your window?

Next morning we woke early (for us, which means about 7:30...), packed up our backpacks with tent, sleeping bags, and enough food to last two days, and hit the trail for our planned overnight hike to Humbrok Meadows high above Hushe village.

Still wiping sleep out of our eyes, we walked through village fields...

...over crystal-blue, glacier-fed mountain streams...

...past staring sheep...

...up and up into the steep stream canyon... 

..until views like this wiped all thought of last night's dreams from our minds.

After three hours, we reached the three-thousand-meter-plus Humbrok "Meadow."  We found only a little grass, and a lot of rocks.

Here's the glacier at the head of the valley, a surprisingly black hunk of ice surrounded by all the rocks it has crushed over thousands of years.

I confess, I touched the glacier.

We marveled all afternoon at the view of these mountains in the distance, convinced there must be an ice princess in an ice castle living somewhere on those peaks.

After exploring the "meadows" and glacier in the afternoon, we set up tent on one of the little bits of grass...

...ate our biscuits and cheese, and spent a very cold night.  Here's the ice that had formed on the moving stream the next morning - 'nuff said.

We had planned to get up early and climb a nearby ridge to get views of K2 and the other high mountains surrounding our little valley, but it was just too cold.  We lingered in the tent till nearly 10, when the sun finally came to warm us, then packed up for the walk down.  Here's me, all ready to go, with the backpack I've had for more than six years but have just for the first time used for an overnight tenting trip.

 Then it was back down the way we had come, on a path high above the boisterous stream, the slopes studded with fall color...

...the Hushe valley floor slowly, slowly getting closer.

Approaching the village, first the fields and the shepherd's huts...

...back over the streams...

...and finally to the houses of the town proper. 

After another night in our basic hotel with the killer view, eating simple but good food cooked up by our host Hassan, we said goodbye to Hushe and rode a cargo jeep back to Khaplu, taking time to gaze at sheep this time instead of submitting ourselves to their stare.

And then back to Skardu...

...and back on a PIA flight (after arguing our way on) to Islamabad.

Since then we've been back in Quetta, most of the time.  Jules has been wrapping up the fiscal year in her office, and I've been concentrating on my usual - photos and writing.

Hope you all come to see Skardu, and us, sometime!