After weeks of planning and tweaking the program to suit the prevailing on-the-ground conditions we assembled in front of the Faisal masjid Islamabad for a photo session and flag off. The time suggested was 4 am but by the time we rolled out of the parking lot it was almost 6. Instead of hitting the road we set about finding a tyre shop to inflate the tires of a car. ( an oversight most likely by the owner). It took us another hour to find a shop that was open and some other drivers realized that they had not filled up their cars so availed the opportunity on our various stops to the petrol stations in search of an open tyre shop.
We were finally driving towards the GT road in a formation heading for Hassanabdal from where we would turn towards Abbottabad. I had informed the group that we will stop in Haripur for a few minutes and buy ice for our coolers. The first sign of 'instructions be damned' came from one of the participants who stopped at Hassanabdal to buy ice without informing anyone. The rest of the group stopped past the toll plaza waiting for him. Mujeeb mufti had very efficiently drawn up, photocopied and distributed a list of all cars and the cell phones carried by their occupants which came in handy. We waited a good 20 minutes before the ice man appeared and we pushed on.
The first sign of mechanical trouble came from car #3 that seemed to be rattling uncontrollably on the good road between Haripur and Abbottabad and decided to stop in Havelian to get his wheels balanced as the rest of us drove on to Abbottabad and waited for him to join us. We lost more precious time but made it to Balakot without any trouble. Balakot has the last reliable petrol station so we tanked up preparing for the long run to our camp site. The group made several stops along the way to take pictures and it was dark by the time we arrived at the Jalkhad camp site. The camp site was actually a helipad right next to a gently flowing river so we pitched tents without having to worry about clearing rocks from under our tents. The support crew set out to prepare a Biryani and as we were all very hungry we devoured it with zest. The temperature had dropped significantly so we crawled into our sleeping bags and were out in no time.
