Four weeks after arriving in Pakistan, I set off on a 4 day drive up the Karakorum Highway and beyond - on dirt tracks, to as high as it would take us - then a week's walking up the huge Baltoro Glacier, which is indescribably spectacular. At the top of this glacier, is Concordia - a huge bowl of ice and rock, where 3 glaciers meet, and where 7 of the world's 20 highest mountains look down on you, including Masherbrum, Gasherbrum I,II and IV, Broad Peak, and of course, K2. It's quite a sight, as you can imagine.

Start of the Baltoro Glacier - the snow covered peaks of Gasherbrum IV, Broad Peak and K2 are visible on the horizon

This being the 50th anniversary of the climbing of K2, there were lots of Italian climbers and dignitaries around but the weather wasn't great, so not many got to the summit. As we left, 3 climbers were assumed dead near the summit - meaning a total of 12 people had died on the Baltoro and the surrounding mountains this summer.

K2 - on the 50th anniversary of it being climbed for the first time

Ed went on to K2 base camp while I turned back on the 4 mile walk. Concordia, despite its amazing scenery, is basically an open toilet at 4800 meters, a combination of altitude, dirty water, no fresh food (porters had to carry everything up there) and cold, wet weather means that illness is rife. I decided to rest, since the next day, we had to climb over 5000 metres on a 2 day walk to get through a high pass into the next valley.

Concordia Camp - the highest, coldest and most beautiful open toilet in the world

The Gondogoro La pass is around 5700 meters, and we set off at 1am to get to the pass before dawn, since it's so steep, that sunlight means a risk of avalanche and rock-fall. The top of the pass does boast "The greatest view on Earth", apparently - but predictably, it was a complete blizzard when we got there! After a long hard climb, we made it up and over, and safely down the other side. We then had a lovely 4 day walk down the Hushe valley, and from there, back to civilisation (well, sort of...).

The long, steep and not entirely safe climb down

The Pakistanis were amazingly friendly people. After our 2 weeks of knowing nothing of the outside world, we discovered that arrests had been made on lots of Al Qaeda cells in Pakistan (and Watford!), but we never encountered any problems - though one of our trekking group, an obstinate Bulgarian woman, who thought she was on a 1 woman mission to liberate the downtrodden women of rural Pakistan, had rocks thrown at her by local youths when she refused our requests to cover her bare arms and legs in a small village. Actually, the big cities in Pakistan are full of affluent, well dressed women out dining and shopping, but the villages are still quite traditional and conservative.

We met a climbing club from Quetta near the Afghan border and they echoed what we'd heard across Pakistan - that Osama and his mates were giving Islam a bad name, and they all wanted to distance themselves from such extremism. They did, however, suspect Osama is being paid by the CIA to represent Islam as a dangerous, extremist religion, and thus generate sympathy for Israel. Oh, and this is part of a global Zionist conspiracy financed by the Wall Street banks, and US oil interests. I quite liked the idea, but can't really say so at the moment, as I'm staying in a hostel that is 90% Israeli er...occupied, as it were!

We then set sail, or got on a bus to be more accurate, for India - via Lahore. Across the border then - and the border ceremony watched by 6000 people on both sides - cheering their own guards and booing the other country's, as they perform high kicking marches, and lots of pomp and ceremony - a great experience. Near the border on the Indian side is Amritsar - the home of the Golden Temple, the holy site of the Sikhs - this was quite spectacular, an incredibly peaceful and lovely place and a world away from the hustle and bustle of the surrounding streets where touts, rickshaw drivers, and just curious Indians all come and say hello. They think Ed and I are wrestlers - we keep getting comments like "nice biceps, man!" - (this is from the boys, unfortunately).

Golden Temple in Amritsar - obviously visually stunning but unlike some other over pious holy sites, its tranquil, peaceful and friendly atmosphere make it a real pleasure to visit

After a couple of days in Amritsar, we found that the trains were all up the spout due to floods in the north caused by monsoons - so we got a noisy, uncomfortable, and generally minging overnight bus to Delhi, where we have tapped into the mainstream travellers highway - lots of dreadlocks, tie-die t-shirts and fashion victim hippies who have been in India too long...as for myself, I've not shaved in a month (just to see what I look like, really, coz I've never even tried to grow facial hair). Anyway, as I suspected - it looks awful - I now have a sort of blondy, a bit gingery, patchy beard and moustache...I will visit the barber's this afternoon - he has promised me a cut throat shave, followed by a sandalwood oil facial, a face massage using a handheld hammer drill on a slow setting with a sort of sponge attachment, followed by a scrub with soap made with lemon juice, and finally an all over face rub with what smells like some kind of deep heat rub - should be interesting.

Delhi is incredibly busy, polluted, and noisy - but there are a few decent sites that we strolled round yesterday. There was one sort of mystic mindreader chap who stopped me on the street, and did a bit of a Derren Brown - he managed to guess my dad's name, my favourite colour, the fact that I was intelligent but lacked concentration and focus in my life, AND how long I'd live for, all from looking at my frown lines, and reading my palm. He even wrote down the answers to these questions, and put the piece of paper into my hand before he started examining me - I was well impressed, so I gave him 50 rupees. I'm supposed to come back to Delhi in 10 years time to find the 2 things I am truly looking for in life (he wouldn't tell me today) - oh, and there are 4 women in the world who were thinking of me at 11am this morning, Delhi time...which was a nice thought (for me - and them, I hope!)

This travelogue was originally published here