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cooler than the previous week . It was great to be out of the city , I was feeling in good spirits , keen to be getting away from the traffic , the heat , the dust , and the sand that had been so much of a part of my life in Australia , and more recently in Iraq and Iran .
In Pakistan , unless you have four wheels , it is illegal to take the motorway , we had no choice but
to take the slower back roads , the one I picked to leave Islamabad was purely based on its name , the exotic sounding “ Kashmir Road ”, this turned out to be a wonderful , twisting road that worked its way northeast from Islamabad as it slowly ascended into lush low hills .
The traffic was still a mix of trucks , cars , motorcycles , and buses , all trying to overtake each other at every possible opportunity , on every bend with the slightest gap between vehicles . It was not unusual to find oneself on the outside of a right-hand bend , with no barrier to a sheer drop on your left , a cliff face on the right and an oncoming bus on your side of the road overtaking an equally large truck . If I had learnt one thing so far riding in Pakistan , it is if you want to get somewhere quick , tuck in behind
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