The Wakhan Corridor Journey - Afghanistan to Pakistan
The Journey: On ... Off ...On
- Getting There From Here
- The Journey: On ... Off ...On
- The Flight to Kabul, Then Faizabad
- Faizabad to Sarhad and the End of the Road in the Wakhan
- Wakhan: Trekking from Sarhad to Kashch Goz
- The Descent Into Little Pamir
- Little Pamir: Kashch Goz Up the Wakhjir Valley
- Stalled By Snow
- The Source of the Oxus River: Is There an Ice-Cave?
- Kamansu: The Way to Dilisang
- To the Base of the Dilisang Pass
- Across Dilisang Pass to Misgar
Mid-July found us in Islamabad packed and as ready as we’d ever be to get on a flight to Kabul. But with 72 hours left before our flight, we still had no permission for our expedition. Our formal written requests had gone unanswered. Three bureaucracy-filled days later, after calls to the office of the renowned Pakistani mountaineer Nazir Sabir; trips to the Ministry for Tourism and Ministry of Interior; meetings with the Federal Minister for Tourism, the Additional Secretary for Political Affairs, the Deputy Secretary, and the Section Officer; countless conferencing between government officials; and lengthy debate on the wording of the required letter, we had the document we needed!
That evening, after dining on kabobs and nan, we bought food supplies — coffee, macaroni, tea, milk powder, porridge — all dry food that would sustain us through Wakhan. Very little besides MREs (meals-ready-to-eat) was available in Kabul, we’d been told. We quickly settled our bill at the guest house and headed to the Islamabad airport.