Pakistan2023

HFF. Along a fence made of 20 km of juvenile trees, a ute( Australia) or pickup transports a giant load of produce along the Swat Expressway, in Khyber Pahktunhwa today. Such a lot on such a little vehicle! In Pakistan for the next 5 weeks. Happy weekend to everyone…Diana xxx

From a remote area of Pakistan where internet is very difficult. Today we came across the village practise polo match . This area is where polo originated. Every village up here has polo teams, and next month the huge Shandur Polo Festival is held over several days on the Shandur Pass at 4,200 meters. Today we will cross the Shandur Pass as this village is the closest to it! Best wishes to all..will visit when able, but it took me a day to be able to upload this photo! . Happy Friday and a fabulous weekend xxx

Gojal, Hunza. Far North Pakistan at altitude among the 6-7000 meter peaks of the jagged Karakoram Range. These are the pinnacles of the Passu Cathedrals, or Tupopdan in local Wakhi language. Just arrived home after 6+ weeks in very remote, sparsely populated, and stunning high altitude landscapes, mostly adjacent to the border with Afghanistan. Wishing everyone a top Friday and a fab weekend. Will try to get to visiting soon! Diana ❤️

Late spring in North Pakistan is the time to bring the large herds of yaks to their high altitude summer pastures. Yaks are the source of much income to owners and in subsistence communities their value cannot be underestimated. After a long winter of temperatures down to -40°C where the animals are kept in close proximity to homes to guard against predation by snow leopards, wolves and bears, they are taken up above the 4000 m level to the alpine pastures formed when snow and glaciers melt. Here on the Shandur Pass around 4500m high, thousands of yaks and their shepherds come to the summer meadows. As they have very long winter fur, they need to be shorn. We were lucky to find many groups of shearers clipping the wool off the big hairy yaks for summer. The wool is used for carpets and for thick linings for curtains to ward off the bitter winter cold. We spent some hours with the shearers ..in a light snowfall as they worked with their traditional yak clipping shears.

Locals walking along the road up to the 4300 meter Shandur Pass in the Hindu Kush, Pakistan. The locals in north Pakistan are used to walking long distances and scaling rocky paths on high mountains. This is actually a major Highway in quite good order at this point, though subject to flood, earthquake, landslide and all manner of natural events. There is no bitumen for about 150 km and it took us 8 hours in a 4WD to traverse that distance. Have a fab Friday and a super weekend…

Four little Kalash girls in their traditional dress/ school uniform, returning home after school. The village of Bumburate, in the remote mountainous Kafiristan region of Pakistan right on the Afghan border, is home to Kalash people.. They are a small, non Muslim ethnic minority of about 4000 people in this region of Pakistan. They are animists, and wear their traditional clothing every day, even for work in the fields. They are under pressure to convert to Islam, but sufficient of them are managing so far to resist. They also make the most extraordinarily pure 90% mulberry vodka type of spirit…which is delicious and occasions much singing and dancing!

HFF or stone wall Friday. A small home at the end of a torturous 6 hour high altitude track in the Chipurson Valley, North Pakistan. At 4000 meters in altitude, surrounded by 6-7000m peaks, it marks the end of a road, right at the Wakhan Corridor of Afghanistan where Tajikistan and Pakistan almost meet. It is uninhabited except for high altitude summer pastures for yak and goats, and for a Shia Sufi shrine which is visited on pilgrimages by inhabitants of North Pakistan. Locals also sometimes walk over the very high mountain passes into Afghanistan or Tajikistan to meet relatives and family members in the largely Ismaili communities on the other sides of the border. The mountains in the picture are Afghanistan Have a fabulous Friday and an exhilarating weekend. ❤️

A beautiful Wakhi woman making a cup of tea for us in the mud and stone house at the end of the road in Chipurson Valley, Gojal, Pakistan. On thé doorstep of Afghanistan’s Wakhan Corridor. She is related to my darling adopted Wakhi family from Gulmit. She and her husband live in this simple house for 6 months of the year as volunteer caretakers of the remote high altitude BabaGhundi Sufi pilgrimage shrine located here. Pilgrims bring in donations of food for them. In the winter it is -40° here and snowed in, so they return to their own village lower down the valleys.

HFF from one of the remotest corners of the planet. These are the stone corrals for livestock at 4000 meters, here in the Karakoram. No one lives here permanently, only shepherds temporarily for 3-4 months of the year. This is at the rear of the mudbrick homes near the BabaGhundi Sufi shrine high in the Chipurson Valley of Pakistan right in the Afghan border. It is a high altitude summer pasture with the rear mountains being Afghanistan, and the river flows from them. There is no further vehicle access after the long difficult track to get here. Foot passage only over precipitous passes gets you into the Wakhan Corridor of Afghanistan and Tajikistan. Have a fabulous Friday and a wonderful week ahead. Thanks for any visits…much appreciated