China

The road into China was spectacular. We set off bright and early from Sary Tash in Kyrgyzstan, and rode in convoy with the China crossing group through snowy mountain passes and picturesque valleys. The border crossing was a long-winded process and we didn't arrive in Kashgar until just before dark. As stupid as it may sound, we were surprised at how "Chinese" everything was. We had expected the Central Asian influence to be more apparent, and although it was still there, the people, food, systems, etc were all clearly Chinese.

We spent a day exploring Kashgar on foot, and a day trip out to Shipton's Arch, the highest natural arch in the world.

From Kashgar, we commenced the ride South down the infamous Karakoram Highway. Once we reached he mountains, the first 30-40kms of road were pretty treacherous with loose gravel, fast moving trucks and extremely thick dust. Once through that section, the road plateaued out and turned to smooth bitumen, and we weaved our way through six and seven thousand metre mountains to our yurt camp for the night at 3600m. The camp sat at the base of a mountain, which towered above us reaching 7500m. The weather was unbelievably kind to us and we had panoramic views of the surrounding mountains.

The beginning of the Karakoram Highway

These mountain camels are so cool! They have floppy humps!

The China Crew

We were very lucky to have clear weather

Our camp for the night - absolutely amazing!

The next day we continued our high altitude ride and stopped off at a glacier, where we managed to coerce Tez and our own lungs to carry us to 4600m. We then pressed on to Tashkurgan, where we spent two nights in a hotel at the base of the Karakoram range which leads into K2.

We were up bright and early with the mini van packed to take us to our bikes which spent the night in the Chinese customs compound. We were under the impression that we would go through immigration and customs and then make our way to the Pakistan border. Wrong. Our guide left us to go sort out some paperwork and 3.5 hours later he returned to inform us that immigration was now closed for lunch so we had to wait another 3 hours. Normally, this wouldn't bother us too much as we have come to expect delays from time to time. However, our Pakistan visas were due to expire that day and we needed to enter Pakistan before midnight. Still confident that we could make it, we went and had lunch and waited for immigration to open. Finally we were back at the customs compound and excited to jump on the bikes and head off but once again, there was 'problem'. Our guide left us again to 'sort things out' and returned 1.5 hours later. In this time, we were shitting bricks as we were watching the weather coming in knowing that the reality of leaving China that day was slim to none. We decided on the very latest time we could leave without it becoming dangerous when crossing the 4,600m pass. That time came and went. It turns out that we didn't have an option anyway as when the guide came back, we were told that immigration wouldn't process us by the end of the day. So back to the hotel in the mini van we went - not too much smiling and nodding happening. After conceding defeat back at the hotel, we were then told that immigration would miraculously process us that night and we needed to leave (this was after we told them we weren't paying for the hotel rooms). It was 6pm at this stage and we were by no means prepared to ride 5 hours and over the mountain pass in the dark. For some unknown reason, the tour company were really pushing us to leave. We were a little surprised that they were willing to send 9 tourists into the mountains on a very dangerous road in the dark in sub zero temperatures. We stood our ground and settled in with a few beers and wine to help reduce the stress and get a good night sleep before dealing with the kafuffle the next day. The next morning proved slightly more successful, and we were stamped out of China and on the road by 11. The ride over the Khunjerab Pass was spectacular, although Tez struggled severely in the high altitude. There is now a theory that we may have ridden the whole day with the choke on, which exemplifies Tez's true perseverance and my true stupidity. I'm still using the expired Pakistan Visas as an excuse for the oversight.

This is the 'border' between China and Pakistan - the highest international border crossing in the world at 4,600m

At the Pakistani border we handed our passports over hoping that they would not check the visa dates too closely. Unfortunately they were clearly tipped off and waiting for us with our expired visas, due to a phone all we had made from China the day before trying to tee up under the table deals via a truck driver that was the cousin of an immigration official, which fell through. We were whisked off to a private office where we were told that we had to go back to China. This wasn't an option for us as we had used our single entry visas and they would most certainly impound the bike. We kept calm and stayed as friendly as possible with all the officials, and they became friendlier with us as the day passed, but despite calls to the Australian embassy in Islamabad we were unable to sort our a way in by the end of the day. We were shown to a so-called hotel nearby, although I'm sure we would've been more comfortable in prison. Later that evening, we answered a knock on our door to find Kim from our China tour with a Pakistani motorcycle tour guide. Kim was 50k's south of the border and was staying with the guide. He had told him of our crisis and the guide immediately drove himself and Kim to the border to attempt to work out a way to get us into Pakistan. Unfortunately he was unable to help, and had to then turn around for the hour long journey home. Despite numerous attempts, we could not even pay for his petrol to drive up and try to help. We were a little overwhelmed by the gesture - unbelievable kindness. The guide also told us that we were staying in "the biggest shithole in Sost", so we arranged with the immigration officials to relocate to somewhere a little nicer. A few hours later we got another knock on the door. It was the immigration officer with another guide on the phone. This guide told us he was getting in his car immediately (9pm) to make the 5 hour journey to us to help. It turned out that the road was blocked and he got stuck halfway, so the whole journey took him over 12 hours. He arrived the next morning, and as he walked into the immigration office greeting all the local officials with hugs we knew we were onto a winner. He sorted us with new visas as we drank tea with the border guards, and one hour and a few hundred dollars later we were in Pakistan!