Chapter 15 - Waiting for a Flight; we go Fishing at Satpara Lake

We gathered in Skardu one last time as a group before we were due to either fly or drive out. Our very tight schedule meant that if Rich, Tanya and Erin wanted to make their flight they would have to leave the following morning by plane or if the flight was cancelled by road. The rest of us didn't have that constraint. So after a wonderful evening, where the Master of Ceremonies, Matthew Ellinwood, handed out certificates that were simply hilarious (some you had to be on the trek to understand...but if you read everything here you would). The following morning we went to the airport to find the flight cancelled so we spent the day bumming around Satpara Lake, about an hour from Skardu. The following morning the weather was great and we not only got to fly back but Jeff and I were invited to sit in the cockpit jump seats for the flight back.

We gathered in the K2 Hotel in Skardu for our farewell gathering. The next day Khalil, Asif and Zahoor were leaving for their villages, so this was our chance to thank them for their hard work.
A secret society in our group(with some suggestion on my part) composed of Matthew, Jeff, and Meesha, prepared certificates for everyone. Here Murad gets his.
Matthew as head of the awards committee hands out the certificate to Ibrahim.
Asif, our college boy, gets a certificate. I have to get the awards recreated, so we can put them in actual format because the wording was hilarious.
You can zoom in and actually read Khalil's award which says"The Karakoram Fashion Plate Award presented to Khalil the Stylish, for the best use of ballcap, white stockings, trainersand glacier glasses to make the complete fashion statement for this season on the Baltoro Glacier"!!!
Ignacio gets recognized.
Iza gets the Baltistan Beauty Queen Award for "holding up the highest standards of personal hygene, appearance and decorum in harsh conditions".
Erin got the "Balti Cowgirl Award for "the most effective use of a rainbow umbrella while riding a pony in a time of crisis"
My personal favourite award, The Colonel Mustard Award for Meesha "for the best use of mustard and other condiments on bland or otherwise uninspired food stuffs"!! referring of course to the mustard dares between Jeff and Meesha.
Rich appropriately got the Bag of COurage Award "for the ability to attract large numbers of porters and give xemplary medical attention to all feet under harsh conditions and with limited supplies.
The Braldu Prize went t "Ayub the Magnificint" for "exemplary services to the Expedition 59 as guide and wise sage of wilderness expeditions"
I got the Mule-ish Persistence Award "for never giving up on Expedition 59 and for a decade of planning and persistance.
In turn we gave Matthew the "Maximum Weight Loss Award for losing the most combined weight in twenty pound increments in both dreams and reality and for dropping to the lowest belt notch and for maintaining the lowest blood pressure, healthy or otherwise"!!
We gather for a last group picture because the next day, if the flight did not work out, we would split the group to make it back to Islamabad on time for the flight to JFK.
We got Erin, Rich and Tanya in one jeep with Ayub. They would go to the airport and if the flight was cancelled, they would go on by Karakoram Highway to Chilas. There they would branch off towards the 13,700 ft Babusar Pass since the KKH was cut off in multiple places. The Babusar road is difficult in the best of conditions, so this would be "interesting" as Ayub put it.
We race through the streets of Skardu to get to the airport.
The main square.
Still racing at break-neck speed. It didn't matter though, the flight was cancelled..too many clouds.
Back in the hotel, the girls lounge around while we figure out a plan.
We decide to go to Satpara Lake for fishing..Adils favorite thing to do. Except we can't find a fishing pole, so we go the stores asking.
The girls are comfy.
We are finally directed to Haji's shop who apparently has everything that other people don't have. He had some lures that Adil bought, and we head off to the lake.
Passing a tractor .
This is the water channel from Satpara down to Skardu.
Breakers slow the water down.
Satpara lake. It is a natural lake but one end is being raised to increase the depth of the lake. Already a bunch of trees are partially submerged.
Anisa looks out over the lake.
We admire the scenery.
The sisters sharing a joke.
The colour of the lake was startling.
There used to be an island in the middle/ All you can see now is the top of a tree.
We didn't realize the Prado would not start. Here we are pushing but the car was an automatic, and I didn't see how it could be push started!
Matthew rests after his exertion.
We called those the drug dealer glasses!
We went to the rest house on the bottom left of the picture from where we took a motor boat to the far end of the lake (visible in the middle) where the best fishing is.
The submerged island at the top.
The PRDC Motel that is stuck in litigation because the hotel owners in Skardu don't want business to go to Satpara.
Dam construction going at a fast clip. The legend is that there was an earthquake and only three people were spared by the fairies who told them never to look back, but at the top of the pass, they couldn't resist and were turned into stone. Locals still point to those stones.
A motorcyclist with three passengers.
Our group take off in the launch.
Wild flowers.
They come back.
A bird that kept me entertained while I read a book.
They all come back with no fish!
The gate to the rest house where we got a fishing boat. The caretaker of the rest house was a big Musharraf fan and denounced Zardari in strong terms.
The water coming out of the spillway of the dam leading down towards Skardu.
Going towards Skardu. We were hoping to stop at a historic site which has a Buddha statue but our driver got lost even though Ibrahim kept trying to tell him which way to go.