📷 The Land of High Mountains: Pakistan. Day 1. Trekking to Fairy Meadows

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So, let's take a last look at the gallant jeeps, their drivers and other local guys, and turn in the other direction. Onward and up the trail!

Oops, less than an hour, as I think — and it seems that @kibela has heatstroke. Every stone in the shade is a halt. The cap, which she soaks in the streams whenever possible, relieves the condition a little, but it dries out too quickly under the scorching sun. We lagged far behind the group, and Dima, our organizer and leader of the group, waited for us and put her on a horse. The horse was led by a young Pakistani, and so, step by step, they began to move forward. I tried to go behind them and walk, keeping their pace...

... and then I realized that I didn't feel well either. Three flights and a small amount of sleep affected, as well as this very intense heat. As a result, I walked at the very end of the group, often resting. Every hillock — and I get short of breath and it darkens in my eyes. I'm going slower and slower!

Soon the snow-covered peak of Nanga Parbat appeared. The mountain seems to be so close, but still very far away.

To be honest, I am getting scared. And how can @kibela and I go through all the planned trekking, if already here, along a not very difficult path, it is so hard for us?

Well at least on the way we met a restaurant where we can rest! :)

We already passed one similar cafe, but it looked closed.

And here is the owner of the restaurant who prepares black tea with milk for our group — the most frequently consumed drink in Pakistan.

There are no spices in tea, this is not Indian masala, only sugar is optional, but it still very tones up.

We are little by little getting closer to our goal. But damn it, how hard it is to go! Yeah, it's been a while since I went hiking on really big heights in the mountains.

Soon the trail goes into the shade, it gets cooler and easier to walk. I am even more or less catching up with the group. The stones are still warm, it is very pleasant to touch them. Natasha hugs everyone :)

When I finally reached the Broad View base at an altitude of 3280m above sea level, where we will be living for the next few days, it turned out that the group had already settled on pink chairs on the lawn overlooking Nanga Parbat and were drinking tea. I am glad to see that in the shade and after riding a horse, even @kibela has noticeably cheered up. I always drink tea without sugar, but then I added three tablespoons, and that was great — I spent too much energy today.

Here our passport data was rewritten by a local policeman who lives somewhere nearby. In general, documents are often checked there, there are also some road posts, as we will see later. Having prepared for this in advance, to speed up the process, we grabbed a large packet of photocopies of our passports from home.

This house on the left is the kitchen. And the one on the hill is one of ours, intended for tourists. It's strange to say that, but it was unexpected for me to find out that there is a shower, light and toilet inside. Still, the height is great and there are no roads. At the same time, lying on the bed and looking out the window to the top of an eight-thousander is worth a lot!

A small snowfield closer to the peaks.

View of the sunset Nanga Parbat, or "naked mountain", from the territory of our base in a fabulous location on Fairy Meadows.

Nanga Parbat is the Himalayas. A little walk in the other direction, and you will see the wall of the Karakorum. Fatigue does not go away. It's hard to breathe, if I try to move quickly, then I start to be out of breath.

The sun went down, the sky turned dark blue, and the snow continued to "glow". It's even more beautiful than the sunset!

We had a great dinner, it cost 1000 rupees per person. Chicken soup, meat, rice, dal (pea sauce), some kind of pickled herb, chapatis, tea and melon for dessert.

I really want to sleep, but there are stars in the sky. I could not miss the moment when the milky way will emerge from the top of the killer mountain.

And Dima could not miss the stars in which he knows a lot. He jokingly points up and says: "And this is Jupiter! And over there is a huge constellation of Cancer, And over there ..."

... and over there, on the left, from behind the mountain came the warlike Mars — a huge orange planet. We listened to Dima's stories and slowly drifted away into the distance.

At night I slept without hind legs. In all senses. What will happen tomorrow?

To be continued...

Parts of the journey:

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