Pakistan - 11 - Fairy Meadows Camp

Fairy Meadows Camp – Nanga Parbat

26th October 2008

After an outrageous drive in a jeep climbing 1500m up the side of a cliff over a distance of 15km, and a 2hr walk up a further 700m we finally reached Fairy Meadows, a magical place perched high on the lateral moraine above the Nanga Parbat glacier with views to the North of the Karakorum range and to the South of the 'Naked Mountain' Nanga Parbat and it's twin pinnacles. At 3400m and in late October it was bitterly cold at night but still beautiful! Fairy Meadows exists as a trekking destination, because of the incredible forestry road that was built to remove scarce Cedar and Pine from the high mountains many years ago. Down on the Indus river there are very few trees and all life relies on irrigation, so no wood is available for building. There are 5 'hotels' there and another four 8km up the valley and one final one at the 4000m Nanga Parbat Base Camp.

We spent one day just sitting around and chatting about the world and it's problems...Isa started dancing. We also laughed at Stan for having a 5.2Kg palace rather than a tent.