Our honeymoon on the Karakoram Highway

MahnoorAli

The KKH to Khunjerab

October 20268 nights

From Islamabad to the top of the road, 4,693 metres up.

Ali has wanted to drive the KKH since he was twelve. Mahnoor agreed on one condition: every stop gets a proper chai. Here is the road, stop by stop, in the order it climbed.

The road

Eight nights, all uphill

From the Margallas to the Chinese border, one road the whole way, and each stop a little higher than the last.

Day 1Islamabad540 m
Days 2–3Chilas and Fairy Meadows3,300 m
Day 4Rakaposhi view point2,100 m
Days 4–6Karimabad2,438 m
Day 7Passu2,500 m
Day 8Khunjerab Pass4,693 m

Open the whole route in Maps

Six stops, one road

Day 1
Islamabad
540 m
Full tank, full thermos
We left before Fajr with parathas wrapped in foil and a playlist Ali had been building since the mehndi. The road north starts a little past Hasan Abdal.
Open in Maps: Islamabad
NextChilas and Fairy Meadows
Days 2–3
Chilas and Fairy Meadows
3,300 m
Gilgit-Baltistan
Nanga Parbat, all of it
A jeep track that Mahnoor will not describe to her mother, then a walk up to the meadows. At sunrise the whole mountain turned pink and the camp went quiet.
Worth every bump. Almost.
Open in Maps: Chilas and Fairy Meadows
NextRakaposhi view point
Day 4
Rakaposhi view point
2,100 m
Nagar
Lunch under a glacier
A roadside stop with plastic chairs and the best daal of the trip, with Rakaposhi filling the whole sky behind the cook.
Open in Maps: Rakaposhi view point
NextKarimabad
Rest stop
- Chai from the thermos, somewhere past Chilas
Days 4–6
Karimabad
2,438 m
Hunza
Autumn in every direction
The poplars had gone gold the week we arrived. We climbed up to Baltit fort, got lost on the way down, and found a café that became ours for three days.
Walnut cake, twice a day.
Open in Maps: Karimabad
NextPassu
Day 7
Passu
2,500 m
Upper Hunza
The bridge
Ali crossed the Hussaini bridge like it was a pavement. Mahnoor crossed it holding the rope with both hands and talking the whole way. The cones watched both of us.
Open in Maps: Passu
NextKhunjerab Pass
Day 8
Khunjerab Pass
4,693 m
The border
The top of the road
Snow in October, a yak who did not care about us at all, and the highest paved border crossing in the world. We had our last chai of the trip in the car with the heater on.
4,693 m. We checked.
Open in Maps: Khunjerab Pass