Day 3 - Thungol to Korophon

In the morning, Ayub and Khalil take charge of hiring porters to carry our things. With the flooding, and recent instability in Pakistan, treks have been fewer this year, so work in the area is scarce. Order begins to dissolve as desperate porters grab bags and run off with them, just to be assured they will be porters on our expedition and get some pay. Khalil tries to run them off with his pickax, but isn't entirely successful. Nothing is lost, but a couple of porters get their jobs this way.

In addition to porters, there are a number of donkeys, ponies, and mules that have been carrying cargo up the trail in recent years. We get ourselves three of these also.

We head out of Thungol towards Askoli as Ayub and Khalil keep working on the porters.

A home and a pony outside.

This first part of the trail is really part of the jeep trail. The jeeps are supposed to go from Skardu all the way to Askoli, but there were more landslides and floods that have knocked out the road between our campsite, Thungol, and Askoli. So jeeps can't cross, but we can walk.

The path follows the river for the first half, as you walk by a seriously raging river. The rapids throw spray twenty feet in the air, and as you're walking you can hear the boulders being dragged along the river-bottom by the current, a rumbling undertone like thunder.

Again, there is no sense of scale, up the Braldu River is here a crazy sight.

There are a number of flowers that line the path, including these weird ball things.

Ignacio and Dad walking up the trail.

Dad outfitted in his trekking gear. He bought a special camera bag and harness specifically for the hike so he could have quick and easy access to his camera at all times.

Adil and Erin hiking in the sun.

The path heading up the valley towards Askoli, the last village, the last piece of civilization, before heading into the wilderness of the Karakoram.

Iza and Misha investigate plants.

Mom trekking.

Rich, our mountain rescue expert and emergency medic, following the group up.

A number of small wooden bridges span the massive river. Here you can see one in the lower right corner that gives some sense of scale.

Romantic getaway.

The group takes shelter in the shade of a ravine.

We make our way across one of the three breaks in the jeep trail.

Ibrahim. one of our cooks, was always excited and full of energy. He would chat with us and encourage us along as he passed us, going at least twice as fast.

We climbed out of the river gorge up a switchback path meant for the jeeps, and this puts us up on a plateau where Askoli is. Still a little more walking before we get there though.

Across the river lies Korphe, the town where Greg Mortenson was rescued and subsequently started his school-building in the area after his failed K2 attempt. From Three Cups of Tea. You can just barely see the uprights of the suspension bridge he built across the river.

Along the road to Askoli, the weather was beautiful, but the sun meant it was quite warm. 80-90F. Starting out early in the morning helped too.

One of the locals, I believe a jeep driver, watched our progress.

The path is strewn with pea pods. Either they grow in the area, or someone was carrying them up the path in a leaky basket. The trail of pods continued a couple of miles.

As we near Askoli, we run into a couple of kids from the town. Anisa has brought along pens to hand out along the way, and has really been looking forward to this. Sure enough, as we pass, the kids ask "Pens? Pens?" And Anisa flies into action.

Tanya watches the pen handout.

Fields around Askoli seem to alternate between a wheat looking plant, and this flowery stuff. On the way up we asked the kids about it, but all they could tell us was that it is "food". On the way back down we find out that it is a variety of millet.

We continue up the jeep trail to Askoli.

More kids run in from the fields as we get into town. Anisa hands out more pens. We give the boys pens that they then take to their sisters, who are too timid to approach us.

An irrigation ditch in the Askoli fields. Flow of the water is controlled with the stone gates.

There seems to be a lot of new construction going on in Askoli. These bricks were set aside for use in the building in the background.

Across the road was the new school, looking very nice. One of the students studies outside.

The view up the valley from Askoli.

At Askoli, we stop in a little rest area. The gate to the place is flanked by two sets of ibex horns. The walk from Thungol to Askoli took about an hour and a half. We wait here for about another half an hour for Uncle Joji and the staff to catch up with us after their sorting out of porters back in Thungol.

We aren't quite sure where this umbrella came from, but it went with us all the way up to K2 and back. It was quite colorful, and the porters would often use it as a walking stick.

We then left Askoli for Korophon, our stop for the night. On our way out of town we see a group of brick makers. One guy would bring fresh mud down the hill in a wheelbarrow, and these two guys would level it into these brick moulds. Judging by all the construction around town, their business was probably doing pretty well.

Some of the rock formations along the trail were pretty amazing. At the top of this mountain you can see the banding of sedimentary layers hundreds of feet thick.

The path was littered with these severed hooves, in addition to the more picturesque pea pods. We're not sure exactly why, or even what poor creature they belonged to. But over the course of about 3 miles we found 3 severed hooves.

We cross a boulder field that looks like the remains of a rock slide. Probably not that recent.

Horses graze on the land outside Askoli.

The path crosses a waterfall and stream here.

Further outside of town, this guy was hitting a rock with a hammer. We weren't quite sure what he was doing, but he really liked posing for pictures. Apparently he was breaking rocks for use in building houses.

Our first harrowing ascent. This stone staircase clings to the rock along the cliff face, falling off precipitously towards the river on the right. It was a steep climb up one side, and then an equally steep descent down the other side. But at least the rock footing was solid.

Just past the stone staircase, we come to our first wooden bridge. Underneath, the flooded river flows at a pretty quick clip over large rapids. We cross one at a time to avoid upsetting the bridge. There are cable rails along each side, but only one side is high enough to reach, the other is too low. Anisa crosses.

Adil crosses at a much faster clip, practically strolling his way across.

On the other side of the bridge we ascend to another plateau with a great view. Another couple of expeditions are taking a break there, so we rest too. It's a great view, but it's out in the sun and heat.

More horses and mules carry gear for other expeditions.