.

2008 K2 and Broad Peak Expedition

Dispatch Seventy-six: August 14th, 2008

Day Seventy-six: Chilas to Islamabad; Pakistan Independence Day

Today, we awoke in the Shangri-la Hotel in Chilas to a scenic morning. We went down to the lobby to have breakfast and then got going on the road. The beginning of the ride went smoothly, with us making good progress on the way to Besham. We stopped here at the Continental Hotel to have lunch, and ran into Essar Karim and some Chinese Trekkers. We got back on the road, and continued for around an hour, when we were forced to stop due to a problem with the brakes. It began as a small problem with a washer, and ended up with brake fluid spraying all over the place every time the driver hit the brakes. It took around two hours for the problem to be patched up temporarily. We then continued for around 30 minutes and stopped in a small town so that the problem could be fixed a bit better. Another two hours later, we were yet again on our way, but the driver was less than confident with the repair job and the remaining distance was covered at a much slower speed. It was also Pakistan Independence Day today, and upon our arrival in Islamabad, traffic and crowds of people provided even further delay. My plans to visit Al Shiffa Hospital for my foot tonight went down the drain, and after arriving, I went up to my room to work on transferring data between my computers and then agreed to meet with a reporter from Outside Magazine who was in Islamabad. I stayed up till 4:30am talking to him and then decided to finish packing Hugues belongings in a way where nothing would get broken in transit to France. I ended up staying up all night.

 

In Photos:

Left: Our Van being loaded with our baggage

Right: The Envoy Continental Hotel in Islamabad