The morning of 19.04. started interesting for us. The breakfast promised for 08 o’clock never reached us, fortunately we had nice room neighbors. A group of Pakistani border guards had spent the night in the same hotel and while one of them translated, they all took care that we got our breakfast after all. Meanwhile, the water supply in Ahmad’s room had given up the ghost and so he asked if he could take a shower with us – of course this was no problem. So we started the day with about 30 minutes delay.

On the way to the first stage destination, we stopped briefly at the roadside. Ahmad’s shoes were also not quite ready for use. After a stop of about 10 minutes, the cobbler at the roadside had professionally repaired the weak points.

After we arrived at the Raikot bridge, we quickly started to reload our luggage, to say goodbye to Mudassir and to board the vehicle for our next stage – a somewhat older 4×4 jeep. With these jeeps we should drive from the bridge, which is located at about 1400m altitude, to the village of Tato (at about 2300m altitude). Before we could start, however, we had to pick up our armed escort. A policeman of the SPU (Special Police Unit) should accompany us – armed with a Kalashnikov – on every step. This was again a measure of the Pakistani government to protect foreign tourists, after exactly here, where we were now, a Chinese-Ukrainian tour group had become the target of an attack of a religious-fanatic splinter group in 2013.

The drive on the very alpine “road” to the village should take about 90 minutes and was very bumpy. We were used to much through our vacations in Africa, but here we were surprised anew. The condition of the road and the altitude were a special experience for us. Even Andreas, who has no problems with heights, held on almost cramped in places and sent here and there a little prayer towards heaven. The dangerous and narrow gravel road from the bridge to the village is only accessible to locals (and drivers need a special permit to drive), who provide transportation for visitors. By the way, in 2013 the World Health Organization declared this road the second deadliest road in the world.

Hardly arrived in the village and got out of the jeep, there was once again a mix-up. The film “legend” Andreas was “recognized” by a policeman in camouflage uniform who was accompanying a group of French tourists (the French were here with their equipment for skiing). At first he was rock solidly convinced that he already knew Andreas and that Andreas was not here for the first time – the question about our nationality did not improve the situation. Later that day – still climbing the Fairy Tale Meadow – he asked again. This time among other things after the name. The situation became more and more confused and the policeman asked Andreas not to tease him. He knew a German, named Andi, who worked for the German embassy in Islamabad, looked exactly like Andreas, and both had been “one up” together before. Unfortunately, we were never able to resolve the situation conclusively and so we continued towards our destination for the day.

We had started the ascent to the fairy tale meadow shortly before 2 p.m., after having had some refreshments in the village. The question of whether we wanted to get to the top by horseback, we declined with thanks. Ahead of us was an approximately 5km long walk with an ascent of about 1000 meters in altitude. The landscape was once again breathtaking – it went up, down, always along the precipice, over small mountain streams (balancing over tree trunks) and through small forests, which looked as if we were in Germany.

Around 16:45 we reached our destination happy and a little exhausted. Melanie had in places no longer believed in an arrival, a little lacked the strength or motivation for a hike that day. Immediately after arrival we moved into our rustic but cozy wooden hut with thick, warm blankets and a small cast iron wood stove. This stove should still become our best friend in the next two days (or at least in the evenings).

The stove freshly heated, it was slowly pleasantly warm in our hut and we left this, apart from a few photos, only once for the rich dinner which we took, freshly prepared, to us in the wooden hut, which acted as a storage and kitchen. The food was delicious and at the end there was sweet tea – much to the delight of Andreas. In the meantime, very heavy rain had set in and so we fell into our beds already around half past nine.

Day 2: The killer mountain shows its true face and Montezuma’s revenge

The next morning started simply wonderful. Mel was already awake around half past five and could enjoy the sunrise over the Nanga Parbat. The sun laughed in our faces and so we had absolutely clear view of the killer mountain Nanga Parbat, while we had our breakfast. There was again Pakistani omelet, fresh chapati, tea, wonderful honey and jam.

Around 10:30 am – actually a little late again – we started our hike today to Beyal Basecamp. Melanie’s motivation dropped rapidly after the first clouds blocked the view of the mountain and she was a bit “spinning” due to the altitude. The scenery during the hike was beautiful. On the way we met a local group of riders who were taking care of their horses on the way back from Nanga Parbat Basecamp, we passed through an abandoned village and in the meantime it started to snow.

With many stops and complaining we arrived after about 1.5h in the camp – also Andreas special friend from Islamabad was again present. After a tea and coffee, an instant noodle soup was prepared for us, which Andreas wanted to give some refinement with a, not spicy, but strongly acidic tasting chili sauce (after the season last year, we were up here with the first guests) – a mistake, as it should still turn out.

After we had finished our lunch snack in the cozy kitchen, we met a German travel group from North Rhine-Westphalia and Saxony. After some small talk and the exchange of travel experiences, it was time to go back to the fairy meadow.

But suddenly: a strange, dull and grumbling sound made us all look in the direction of the killer mountain – a large snow avalanche was rolling down the Diamir flank and was making its way inexorably towards the valley. Although we were still about 15-20km away from the actual mountain, we were presented with an incredible and frightening picture – we were so impressed that the grab for the camera was delayed and we all hoped that no one was on the mountain at the moment to dare the climb.

Arriving back at our accommodation, we decided to take a short beauty sleep – by now the sky had also completely closed in. We enjoyed the comforts of our hut, which was cozily warmed by the stove.

Less than two hours later, Andreas felt very bad. After he refused dinner, the whole team (Ahmad, policeman and another guide) arrived at our hut. Everyone was worried and had their own explanation for Andreas’ sudden condition. Pain pills were also organized for him. So that at least Melanie would eat something, food was served to her directly in the hut. Awakened by the smell, Andreas disappeared just at that moment into the bathroom, where he remained for a long time. While Mel enjoyed the evening meal and unpleasant noises came from the bathroom, Ahmad organized wood from the neighboring huts, which were still under construction, and heated the stove again.

The outside temperature had dropped sharply in the meantime and felt to be somewhere around zero degrees Celsius. Since the bathroom was in a separate area of the hut and was not heated, the temperatures there were similar to the outdoor area.

Eventually, some peace returned. Since Mel can sleep anytime, anywhere, she quickly fell asleep – while Andreas spent the night in an unheated bathroom, spreading bodily fluids from all body orifices all over the room. At some point he was just functioning and managed to clean himself and the bathroom again despite the unconnected water supply at the sink, the toilet flush and shower and once again light a fire in the stove – but we would like to spare you further details here.

Day 3: Descent at the limit

After the nevertheless quite “adventurous” night, in which also still strong snowfall had begun, we were woken up by Ahmad early. We had to start the descent today and quite soon – otherwise we would have had to stay at least one more day at Fairy Meadows and our entire further tour plan would have been null and void.

By now there was snow outside and it was still snowing. Andreas did not feel much better, but knew that he had to grit his teeth for the descent. Once again, he gratefully declined the request to dare the descent with a horse. Before we started at 8:15 a.m. – after all, already an hour later than planned – we were handed some self-made walking sticks that Ahmad and the boys had built spontaneously, so that we could give ourselves some support during the now somewhat more dangerous descent.

So we gritted our teeth and started. The paths were snow-covered, muddy and in places very slippery. Especially when crossing the smaller streams over the already known tree trunks, the walking sticks were a good help. Leisurely but steadily we progressed towards the village, Andreas kept denying requests for a break and as we got lower, the snowfall changed to light drizzle. Completely finished, completely soaked from sweat and rain and freezing, we actually reached the village again after 1 hour and 10 minutes.

This is how you look when you were at the limit 😉

For the stamina there was praise from all, especially since we had needed 2 days earlier for the ascent a little more than 3 hours. Shortly before the jeeps (about 200m) it was once again briefly dicey, as the path loosened under Melanie’s feet and stones and debris slid down the slope, but Melanie fortunately found cat-like hold and preserved us. The jeep ride back to the bridge was already familiar to us, but today we froze terribly, permanently bumped our heads on the metal roll cage and witnessed a small spectacle that gave us a brief glimpse of why the path we were on is the second deadliest road in the world.

Back at the Raikot Bridge, we greeted Mudassir warmly with a hug. After learning how Andreas’ health was, Mudassir promised to include Andreas in his prayers – which, without giving too much away, should help.

After we had dropped off our police escort – by the way also a super symphatic person – we started to our next destination. This we reached after about 5 hours of driving. We were now in Skardu. For dinner Andreas got only certain light meals, while Mel could enjoy to the fullest. Andreas also went to bed early to relax, happy to be back in the warm and enjoy the benefits of a real bed.