As you can see, a long day.  When I got to Chilas I was planning to find a vehicle to take me and bicycle up Babusar pass, then cycle the long downhill. Instead I took advice and took a bus all the way to Manshera. Very cold at Babusar Top, as it is called. .

The other side of Babusar pass becomes the Kaghan Valley, another popular tourist destination for Pakistanis. Unlike the other, almost desert-like scenery on the northern side of Babusar, here it is full of pine forests and high pasture.
Saw a lone cycle tourist from the bus. How I wished I could have met him.
This type of bus is called a “coaster” for some reason and I was greatly relieved to find my bicycle totally undamaged and arriving in Manserha at 5 p.m. decided to cycle to Abbottabad so as to have a shorter ride the next day.
Although it was signposted as 17 kms. It turned out to be 24. It was dark by the time I arrived but found a nice hotel at 4,500 prs. and was finally able to have the famous shinwari cuisine. Btw, 4500 rupees here equals about 1300 rupees Indian.  That is what my hotel room here in the Islamabad Palace Guest House costs.

I had mentioned the tunnels in a previous post.  Today I took some GoPro video .

thought I would try to get my visa extended in Gilgit but didn’t want to do the 150 kms. in 1 day, so stopped at about 100 in Sikandarabad at the worst hotel.  On the other hand lunch was maybe the best I have had, under this apple tree. I don’t know if this was beef, mutton, or even yak but it was delicious and cheap.
I took this video of tandoori roti making, next to the restaurant in Nasirabad, the last village in Hunza before the beginning of Nagar district.

Along the I met the first cycle tourist so far, and that was Samir from Tunisia. This independent soul interviewed me, then I interviewed him (in French)

It was a rainy start this morning but it very soon cleared up. This again was about as beautiful cycling as is possible, very little traffic, great road surface, gorgeous scenery, and perfect temperature.

It was lucky that I had with me a front light as well as the rear one otherwise the ride would have to have been aborted and this is because of 2 very long dark tunnels- the longest by far of any tunnel I have cycled through.

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  This is as far north I will be going and it is cold. I guess fairly high altitude too.

What a beautiful hotel here. I am so glad because I have had tummy upset and have had another rest day to recover.

Karimabad is the center of the tourism industry in Hunza and is very popular with Pakistani tourists.  When I went to visit the Baltit fort this morning I followed along a group of Russian tourists. There was also a group of Slovenian tourists. I also met and chatted with a young Swiss couple on Honda dirt bikes who had come from Europe, through Russia, and China through the Khunjerab Pass to Hunza. Very nice couple.

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   This was a really wonderful cycling day. Long and hard as can be seen on the Strava, but with an excellent road and traffic not so bad it could not have been better.    Along the way there were stalls making this particular kind of pizza-like flatbread. It was delicious.