Tag: Pakistan

Grand sands (#11 in series: “River of Death”)

Published December 21, 2024 by Pelidoug

Grand sands (#11 in series: “River of Death”)

As in #10 in this series, you are looking at a photo which illustrates the power of the Shyok River.

By road, we were now 35 minutes further upstream, closer to Khaplu.

At 4.49 pm on 15 May 2024, the fast-flowing, largely glacier-fed river’s flow was relatively low.

The Shyok’s width, depth and flow-rate are hugely variable; the river transported and deposited all of the photograph’s silt, sand, gravel and rocks.

My telephoto lens zoomed in on just a very small portion of what my naked eyes could see in a single glance, with head still.

One translation of the Shyok’s name: river of death.

Its floods have killed many people, drowned trees and crops too, and destroyed/removed many formerly-arable fields, even some of the houses that had been built above and behind the fields, on what used to be “safe” ground.

Grand sands (#10: a glorious sandy shore, sans sea)

Published December 20, 2024 by Pelidoug

Grand sands (#10: a glorious sandy shore, sans sea)

“Rippled sand + moving water + rock” is one of my favourite natural “recipes”, especially when other humans and human-made structures are not part of the “mix”… or are only a tiny, discreet element.

“Remote” ocean beaches are not the only places that offer such delight.

The pictured location is much more than 1,000 kilometres straight-line-distant from any ocean shore – and there is absolutely no “straight line” (let alone “same-day”) transport route to one.

By definition, when a river flows through a valley that bears its name, that river’s bed is the lowest ground within the local landscape.

The pictured low spot – just a little upstream of where this river flows into one of the world’s most significant rivers – is more than 2,700 metres above sea level.

Triple K “expedition” (#35 in teaser series: heading for the border)

Published July 4, 2024 by Pelidoug

Triple K “expedition” (#35 in teaser series: heading for the border)

You are looking at the Passu Cones, aka “Passu Cathedral”, or Tupopdan.

These “cones” reach 6,106 metres ASL – a relatively modest altitude, by Karakoram peaks’ standards.

Nonetheless, the Passu Cones are among the more amazing mountains, anywhere.

I took the photo at 8.09 am on 23 May 2024; we had left the Hunza Valley one hour earlier, and were heading along the Karakoram Highway, bound for China.

At that moment the Pakistan/China border was less than 70 kilometres away, but a long way up; the border crossing sits atop the Khunjerab Pass.

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Triple K “expedition” (#34 in teaser series: Hoper Glacier)

Published July 3, 2024 by Pelidoug

Triple K “expedition” (#34 in teaser series: Hoper Glacier)

This post reveals the nature of what #33 in this series was also looking at – a glacier’s surface.

This post shows rather more of the same glacier, which is one of circa 7,000 in Pakistan.

Outside polar and near-polar regions, northernmost Pakistan is the most-glaciated place; the Karakoram has several of the world’s longest and biggest, non-polar “rivers of ice”.

You are looking at what is most commonly known as the Hoper Glacier, but sometimes rendered as “Hopper”, “Hopar” and “Hooper”.

It also has another name, altogether: Bualtar Glacier.

Its nickname: “the black glacier”.

Reportedly, the Hoper/Bualtar is currently the world’s second-fastest-moving glacier.

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Triple K “expedition” (#33 in teaser series: an artist’s creation?)

Published July 2, 2024 by Pelidoug

Triple K “expedition” (#33 in teaser series: an artist’s creation?)

…or is that very uneven surface a naturally-eroded rock face?

Did I take the photo through a microscope?

Was I merely a few centimetres away from what my camera “captured”?…or many metres distant?

All will be revealed in this series’ next chapter.

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Triple K “expedition” (#32 in teaser series: Hunza Valley)

Published July 2, 2024 by Pelidoug

Triple K “expedition” (#32 in teaser series: Hunza Valley)

Among “our” planet’s “settled” places, the Hunza Valley has very few peers in the “visual splendour” department!

It will get a deal of future attention, here.

However, this “teaser” series has just the one Hunza Valley image.

I took it from Eagle’s Nest which sits 2,850 metres ASL – around 500 metres higher than the (clearly-visible) Hunza River, on the valley floor.

Dominating the photo’s skyline is Rakaposhi; that huge mountain’s peak stands nearly five kilometres taller than the Eagle’s Nest.

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Triple K “expedition” (#31 in teaser series: Karakoram mountain meadows + musical bonus & concert tour alert)

Published June 30, 2024 by Pelidoug

Triple K “expedition” (#31 in teaser series: Karakoram mountain meadows + musical bonus & concert tour alert)

This post’s image does not at all resemble #30’s shot of a “Silk Road” remnant.

Its vantage point, however, was only a few footsteps distant from #30’s; #31’s photo was taken less than a minute later, from the same side of the Karakoram Highway, whilst en route from Gilgit to the Hunza Valley.

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Triple K “expedition” (#30 in teaser series: “Silk Road” remnant)

Published June 29, 2024 by Pelidoug

Triple K “expedition” (#30 in teaser series: “Silk Road” remnant)

Just a couple of minutes after our “welcome” to the “home” of an emblematic but “invisible” mammal (see immediately-previous post) we looked up from the Karakoram Highway, and over to the far side of the gorge through which we driving.

There, in plain but inconspicuous view: a section of a much older road.

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Triple K “expedition” (#29 in teaser series: emblematic, elusive)

Published June 28, 2024 by Pelidoug

Triple K “expedition” (#29 in teaser series: emblematic, elusive)

The Karakoram Highway is surely the most visually spectacular major road, anywhere.

On 20 May 2024, we were proceeding along part of it, en route from Gilgit to the Hunza Valley.

At 11.26 am – circa one hour out of Gilgit – the pictured sign welcomed us to the “home” of Pakistan’s national animal.

The markhor is often described as the world’s largest wild goat.

In terms of average body mass and length, that claim is probably incorrect.

However, an “average” male markhor’s shoulder height exceeds all other goats’ “average” shoulders

So, Capra falconeri probably is the world’s most imposing goat.

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Triple K “expedition” (#28 in teaser series: Gilgit, relatively “big smoke”)

Published June 27, 2024 by Pelidoug

Triple K “expedition” (#28 in teaser series: Gilgit, relatively “big smoke”)

Above, you are looking at “downtown” Gilgit.

“Official” statistics – and guesstimates – for anywhere in northern Pakistan are highly “rubbery”, contradictory, and often very out of date.

Almost certainly, Gilgit is the Karakoram region’s largest city, with a population of circa 200,000…ish.

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