And then I was at the wildlife check post where they had a signboard referring to dedicated campsites in khunjerab national park. Now wildlife officer was back from the field and against the signboard and his inspector's advice of early in the afternoon, he gave the verdict that camping is not allowed in the park owing to unavailability of facilities and remoteness of area.
This was second failed attempt to camp on the trip.
Anyhow, as a matter of courtesy he shared tea with me and later escorted me to spot markhor (ibex)....thanks.
He said there are dozens and dozens on the mountains as mercury has started rising and that in winters they are in the valley. He was also surprised that I could not even spot a single markhor.
He started spoting for me "there there there....two of them are fighting....." but I could not see as they were high on the mountains and their color was blended with that of mountains. So I pulled out my monocular that I use for bird watching .....he was right...there were many.... you can't just spot while driving.
