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cooler and we had already passed a few places where the snow was still lingering , it being June , winter was slow to recede on the South facing hills and in the shadows .
As we continued to climb , the heat of Islamabad was totally forgotten , the cool chill of mountain air meant we needed to stop to put on more layers . The normal was drifts of snow two metres high in places along the road , particularly on bends , with the roads cutting through them like a mini slot canyon . Wherever there was snow , there was also flowing water across the road , sometimes a little , sometimes a lot , not so much that it threatened to wash the bikes away , but enough to give us a little challenge as winter had often washed the smooth road surface away . At each point a traffic jam formed , not only did we need to navigate the hidden rocks and holes under the water , but the cars and vans also attempted to slowly navigate these obstacles without too much damage to their vehicles . My waterproof Forma boots had given up the ghost months ago in Iraq , I was now wearing some cheap army boots , they were anything but waterproof and my feet were now thoroughly wet and freezing cold from the snow run off .
The temperature was hovering around zero degrees Celsius , I was cold , my feet were wet , yet I was in a great mood . My mind was beginning to change about this country , but not just because of the roads and scenery . At these bottlenecks and elsewhere , the people of Pakistan had all been a genuinely positive encounter , everyone was helped by everyone else , everyone , without exception , was so generous of spirit , I was slowly falling in love with this country .
To this point my bike had generally been reliable , even though it is of KTM heritage , it started out life as a brand-new Husqvarna 701 that I had personally built into a long-range travel bike for solo travels in the remote Australian outback . By the time I entered Pakistan , the bike , was five years old , although two of those years it had been stuck in Malaysia during the Covid
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