We made a day-trip in a hired jeep with driver to the Shimshal Valley; one hour up the Karakoram Highway from Baltit and then 2.5-3 hours on a small gravel road along the Shimshal River.
It was a brilliant morning! View from hotel – if we could only take this view home with us as a souvenir from Hunza! 
As usual we met large herds of animals on the highway – only this time they were giant yaks!!! Very impressive, all traffic stopped.
We enjoyed very nice early morning views over the Karakoram Highway, the mountains, the glaciers and the Hunza River. 
Passu Glacier 
Passu Cones (6106 m)
We crossed the Hunza River to follow the smaller Shimshal River up to the remote village of Shimshal – approximately 3 hours drive. 
The road is in some places practically hanging on the super-steep mountain sides on man-made terraces. 
The terraces are very well made. The only problem is that the road is sometimes very narrow and there is quite a drop almost vertically down to the river below. Marco just stuck the camera out of the window of the car while driving to take this picture but it doesn’t really do justice to the experience. 
The valley opened up as we arrived to Shimshal village 
We went to see the school and the teacher asked Marco to tell the kids about geography….it took a loooong while for the young boys to locate Pakistan on the map 😉
We had to drive back after just a short visit. We had a long way to go. The afternoon light was warm and photo-friendly.
Happy to have just passed one of the very narrow and steep sections without meeting any cars coming the other way…
Back on the highway, we enjoyed the Passu cones in the late afternoon light. 
Go to Necropolis of Makli and Shah Jahan Mosque
Go to our drive from Islamabad to Gilgit
Hikes to Rakaposhi Base Camp and Rakaposhi View Point
Day-trip to Khunjerab Pass & Pakistan-Chinese Border
whereistheyak
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