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Harry Jaggard Travel Wiki

Place

Karakoram Highway

The road between Islamabad and the Chinese border — twelve to fifteen hours of cliff edge, rockfall and armed escorts, and the only practical way into northern Pakistan.

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Karakoram Highway

The road running from Islamabad up through the mountains to Hunza Valley and on to the Chinese border at Khunjerab Pass. Harry travels its full length twice — north in January 2022 and south again eleven days later — and it is the subject of two videos in its own right rather than just the way between places.

His framing for it is the second deadliest road in the world; that is the video’s claim rather than anything a source in it states, and is recorded here as his (from video – unverified). What the footage actually shows is a road whose danger is specific and mundane: rock coming down onto it.

What the drive is like

  • Twelve hours quoted, in both directions. Northbound it took fifteen; the extra three hours were security stops. Southbound the estimate held.
  • The distance is short and the road is not. As the crow flies it is nothing; the route winds the whole way through valleys. There are flights from Islamabad, Harry is told, but very few.
  • Sheer cliff edges with a steep drop, and long stretches with no barrier.
  • The surface changes character. Modern tarmac and tunnels on the lower section — including a Chinese-built stretch with something like seven minutes of tunnel in it — and, higher up, ice, frozen meltwater above the carriageway, and loose rock lying across it.
  • Vehicles get swapped for the terrain. The 4x4 that does the rough sections is exchanged for an ordinary car once the route is highway again.
  • Almost no light pollution, so the night driving comes with stars.

Rockfall, blasting and closures

This is the actual hazard, and it is managed rather than avoided:

  • The road is deliberately blasted to bring loose rock down in controlled falls. Harry reaches one closure minutes before it starts and is told the wait would otherwise have been two hours minimum.
  • Landslides close it without warning too. A second stop on the same day cost five minutes; he had expected hours.
  • Fresh slides and stretches under fallen stone are visible throughout. Harry’s repeated conclusion is that a driver who knows which sections are bad is worth paying for, which is the most concrete argument for a guide in the whole cluster.

The escorts

Foreigners on the lower half of the route are escorted by armed police, handed over district by district — 19 escorts and 21 checkpoints on Harry’s northbound run. The reason is a Chinese-built hydropower dam on the road and an incident involving a worker there; the full account is on Hunza Valley. The escorts are the difference between the twelve-hour estimate and the fifteen-hour reality, and Harry hopes aloud on the way south that they won’t recur.

What is on it

  • Besham, in the lower valley, sheltered by mountains — a chai stop.
  • A viewpoint at Rakaposhi, with the second-longest zipline in Pakistan and a village that is very busy in summer.
  • The Passu cones and a glacier above them, near the top.
  • Hot springs at the roadside, used for joint pain — twenty minutes in the water, on an account Harry is careful to attribute to other people.
  • A point where three mountain ranges meet, pointed out by the guides.
  • Roadside stops that function as service stations: small shops, food and chai.
  • Convoys of decorated timber trucks on the lower section.

Harry’s tips

  • Take a guide or a driver who runs the route regularly — for the rockfall sections, and for getting through the checkpoints at all.
  • Budget more time than the estimate, and expect closures you cannot plan for.
  • His guide’s advice on timing: spring or autumn beats both summer and winter — decent weather and no crowds. See travel in the off season.
  • Expect to be uncomfortable. Harry’s back is in real pain by the end of the southbound run and he says so.

Source

Videos featuring Karakoram Highway

Video

Road Trip to HUNZA VALLEY🇵🇰 (Part 1)

The first half of the twelve-hour drive from Swat to Hunza — chai stops, timber trucks, and the point where routine checkpoints turn into armed police escorts handed over town by town.

Video

Travelling on the 2nd Most Deadly Road in the World

Twelve hours back down the Karakoram Highway from Hunza to Islamabad — controlled rock blasting, a landslide closure, and Harry and Mac picking their best moments of the whole trip.

Video

-20 Degrees at the China - Pakistan Border 🇵🇰

Two and a half hours up from Hunza to the Khunjerab Pass — $20 to get in, the world's highest ATM, a closed border with no traffic on it, and the coldest Harry has ever been.

Video

We Had 19 Police Escorts - Hunza Road Trip🇵🇰 (Part 2)

The second half of the drive to Hunza — 21 checkpoints and 19 armed escorts, explained at the end by a Chinese-built hydropower dam, and a fifteen-hour day ending in an unheatable hotel room.

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