Day 160 Saturday 24 February 2007 Dassu to Murree, Pakistan

Another bright, sunny morning and despite the kindness of our host we get away to an early start, retracing our drive back down the KKH. This involves several stops to retake photos already done on the upward journey but in less sunny conditions. These antics are bemusedly observed by the usual mix of the local inhabitants human and animal. They obviously find us a source of great amusement, particularly when I2 is driving – after all, who ever heard of a woman sitting in the front of a car, let alone driving? On the way we dodged falling cranes and donkeys which thought they were goats.

Everything looks a lot better in the sunshine, although the earthquake area around Batagram is just as depressing as before, especially as we now notice many cemeteries with shiny new marble graves in them, some distressingly small. However this sombre mood its broken by the juxtaposition of the Unicef earthquake relief agency field office above an opportunistic estate agents shop and a tiny hole-in-the-wall stall proclaiming itself “Abdullah’s Departmental Store and Emporium”.
We do a quick tour of Abbottabad and decide that we didn’t miss much when we came through in the dark and rain some days before. After asking a policeman the way, we set off on the road to Murree, yet another hill station left over from the British Empire.

The road which is steep and twisty, is pleasingly well-maintained and we make good progress as we climb up to about 2000 metres where we find ourselves surrounded by thick snow! Fortunately, the snow plough has been through and we enjoy the drive through pine trees and the unexpected white stuff as well as watching the locals slither around in their ubiquitous suzukis and corollas.

Murree turns out to be a typically faded hill station with ramshackle buildings all over the slopes and ridge with a warren of narrow lanes crowded today with day trippers from Islamabad 90km below. We initially try the Cecil Hotel but its been turned into a mass of apartment blocks and then check out another which the book suggests is a relic of the colonial past which it certainly is, hasn’t been painted or maintained since the Brits checked out in 1949. Finally we succumb to the touts in the main street and head for a monstrous new concrete monolithic eyesore on the top of the ridge. It too looks very grand at lobby level but the cosmetic job doesn’t extend to the second floor. However its reasonably clean if you don’t look at the carpet and they provide us with a one bar electric radiator with a broken bar but which somehow manages to work. Dinner is at the Red Onion, a pizza chain with surprisingly good 4-Seasons and chicken tikka pizzas, but no red wine.

Distance today 309km; Total distance 24,168km