Departed Islamabad

We departed Islamabad on Saturday afternoon at 6:30, just a couple of hours after sending some e-mails and picking up the computer hardware that we needed. In Islamabad we went to a computer store in the blue zone and found the cable we required plus some additional flash memory drives. All our equipment is working fine at the moment, although Andy the Mac man still getting used to working with a PC.   The first leg of our journey lasted 8 hours which put us in Besham Village at 2:00 am. We didn't eat dinner, and with the heat, we were a bit fried by that time in the morning.

Upon arrival in Skardu, we had difficulties with the sat phone. The computer was not recognizing the phone, so we went to a computer shop to figure it out. Chuck had a favor re-paid with assistance from a local friend who reconfigured the phone and the laptop to work properly. He has done this for other expeditions before, so it was lucky to have a local tech wizard onsite.   Our biggest hassle at this point is Andy's missing barrel. We will wait one more day for it to arrive, then we head off to the mountains. Our loads are all packed, about thirty-five of them, and the food was moved to barrels that we purchased after the one hundred plus degrees did a proper job liquefying our Parmesan cheese, and the chocolate inside our expedition duffels.

The photo is of (L-R) Dan, Dave and Andy standing in front of the Canteen.

Tuesday, June 17, 2008