08.06.10 - 21.06.10

We left the Guesthouse to make way to the mountains for our trek. We stopped at Ash's other house for a night so we could set off early the next day. It was made a fun experience as it seemed the locals had never seen a foreigner before and we were followed around and stared at by a group of around thirty people. Just in case we weren't feeling self-concious enough Ash thought it would be a fun idea to take us to a wedding, where we were given seats in the middle of a tent and several blokes continued to stare at us and even more young girls sung and danced around us. Tino loved every minute.
So we began our journey to the mountains, stopping briefly to pick up some chickens which were a bit lively so one of our guides tied all their legs together. Once we arrived and we gathered our ponies and belongings we made our way up. We had in mind a leisurely walk up a hill... we had a shock, it was bloody hard work. When we arrived at our camp we were all knackered, blistered and wet (well, just me, i fell in the river). It was all worth it though as our camp was at an amazing location: towering trees either side, a rushing river good for fishing and a snow peaked mountain in the horizon. Unfortunately the camera had run out of battery so i captured none of it. We setup the tents and got a night sleep. The chickens were a bit noisy so our guide put them in a box for the night.
A good few days were spent at our camp, the main activities included fishing, chopping wood and reading Jurassic Park to each other. Chopping wood turned out to be a bit dangerous as the axe-head kept coming off... i nearly lost my nose. After a couple of nights we began to get bored of our location when we were told we couldn't move on back down the mountain because heavy rain had flooded the rivers meaning we were stuck. A bit of a bummer as England were playing that night and we were hoping to watch it at Basecamp at the bottom of the mountain. We were not happy boys!
The day finally came when the rained stopped long enough for us to descend the mountain. There were only three pairs of wellies so i wore trainers, but five minutes in it started chucking it down and it got a tad slippy. I probably spent more time sliding down and than walking. All good fun though. We finally got to the bottom, all very wet and muddy, and we able to get our first taste of the World Cup. Happy boys! We spent a few days camping at the bottom until the weather improved enough to climb another part. Some fun was had, we managed to get a couple of bottles of whisky for my birthday (which was no easy task being an all Muslim area), they were no Glenfidditch: they came in a plastic bottle and smelled like rocket fuel. Hhmm. Our first drinks of the trip resulted in a pretty eventful night though... however i am not going in to detail.
The chickens were beginning to smell so they were decapitated and eaten. Not the luckiest birds in the World.
After four days of solid rain we made a decision to leave, as it didn't look like we were going to be climbing any more more mountains. In our time we had fun catching up with the football, playing cricket with the inbred gypsy children, and we made friends with a creepy vet who took an enfactious shine to Pete. He invited him back to his tent and commenced their friendship by removing his clothes. After this we decided to ignore the vet.
So at the moment we are back at the Guesthouse just chilling out for a few days before heading South to continue our adventure. It has been fun in Kashmir and we will miss our new friends.