Roof of the world

Jens Funk is a German national who is connected for the Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise. Although I've seen him in a few bike races, we finally were introduced a few months back during the organizational meeting of his baby, Bike4U. Bike4U (www.bike4u.org) is non-profit organization that collects used bikes in Europe, bring it here and give it to young kids and adults in the hope that it'll make a difference in their lives. This trip to Pakistan and China is to create awareness of the organization and at the same time raise funds for the organization. To say that Funk is an outdoorsman is to say that fish can swim. He told me that the only continent he hasn't been to is Australia. He has mugged while backpacking in Venezuela and ate fried ants in the same continent. He also co-wrote the first and only bicycling book, "Cycling Philippines", about the bike trails in the country. (It's available in your local bike shops) When he told me that he and a friend were going to bike the Karakoram Highway, I thought he was nuts. I didn't even know where on earth that highway was.

This is his story.

Packed with 35kg of weight each (incl. the bike) we left Manila on direction to Islamabad, Pakistan. Our intention was to cycle from Gilgit (Gilgit) to Kashgar (China) via the Karakoram Highway (KKH), the highest paved international road in the world. It connects Pakistan to China through the Khunjerab Pass, at an altitude of 15,397 feet, by far the highest international border crossing in the world. After 2 days of acclimatization, we started our tour Tuesday, 5 of September.

The 1st 3 days we cycled along snow peaked mountains from which the 7788m high M.Rakaposhi was by far the most impressive one. Even though we felt in a good shape we had to stop every now and then because every truck driver wanted to have a chat with us and were eager that we took a photo from him and his trucks.

The friendliness of the Pakistanis is just amazing and sometimes we had to refuse the offer for a tea, otherwise we would have never accomplished our goal to cycle an average of 85 km a day. Starting in Gilgit at an altitude of 1300m we climbed up to Sost, the last Pakistan settlement before China located at 2800m above sea level. 250km of amazingly nice cycling through the Hunza Valley had been done.

Our plan was to cycle all the way to Kashgar in China, which was another 370km away. After taking with locals about our idea, cycling into China we had to learn, that this was impossible. Nobody knows why, but the Chinese do not allow to enter there country with your private vehicle.

Flexible as we are, we decided to take a bus all the way to Kashgar and cycle our way back from China into Pakistan. Two days later, we started early in the morning with fully packed bikes heading from Kashgar west to the border. 360 km of cycling in an amazing less populated and deserted area awaited us. Fortunately we brought our tent because to expect a hotel or just a pension house in this area is just a wishfull dream.

Passing wild living camels, Jac herds and amazingly nice countryside we had our last camp at 3600m high Karakul Lake, before we crossed the 4700m high Kunjerab pass, 5 days after we had left Kashgar. As we crossed the pass, it started snowing and after taking some pictures we were looking forward of the 50 km downhill, which would bring us back into warmer climate. Arriving in Islamabad 3 weeks after we started we had cycled 1082 km. Knowing the fact, that we sold every kilometer of our tour to friends and sponsors gave us a good feeling. The earned amount of over 60,000 PHP will be fully donated to the Cebu based Bike4U Foundation which has the aim to give bikes to the less privileged kids and young adults.