The road tracklog 
from Peshawar to Islamabad
from 09/07 to 13/07/2007 

I visited Peshawar the 09/07 alone and on foot. A long half-day was sufficient. At the time of my trip in the old city I never shake as much hands of happy people to meet a foreigner. Moreover it was not rare that a consumer offered to me my drink at the time of my departure, Pakistani hospitality. In addition I never visited in Pakistan a city as much polluted by exhaust fumes of vehicles, by fumes of barbecues in street and by refuses. Randomly streets in various bazaars, I saw many women hidden under their burkas.

The passion of the tourists to visit Khyber Pass is due to the myth attached to the great conquerors who passed there Achaemenians, Alexander the Great, then the Afghans and finally the founders of the Mughal dynasty. Of course I sacrificed to the myth while going there the 10/07 with a small Suzuki car and its driver, a guide and the essential armed guard placed gracefully at the disposal by the Pakistani government for safety of tourists crossing the Tribal areas.
The pass does not have anything dramatic; it is at approximately 1200 meters high. The landscape is not particularly spectacular. Lonely Planet quotes seven sightseeing to see doing way. From Michni checkpoint one sees the border post in Torkham as well as Durand Line, marked by figures painted in white big character on the mountains, of the name of British which fixed the border between the future Pakistan and Afghanistan after the second Afghan war.
We put nearly three hours to reach Michni checkpoint at 58 kilometres from Peshawar. The return took the same time have regard to a traffic jam created by the private cars overtaking trucks on several lanes. The police proved particularly ineffective to stop such a phenomenon.

The 11/07 I left the furnace of Peshawar to go to put to me at green in Swat Valley in Malam Jabba at approximately 47 kilometres from Mingora. The winter sports resort is located at 2500 meters high with a single chairlift. Up to Dargai there is no signpost. I should inform me several times. En route the Malakand pass is a dirt track with an important traffic of trucks. Then the road up to Mingora has a good surface quality. The junction in the village of Manglaur is clearly shown. The rise to Malam Jabba is splendid in a landscape of medium mountains. The winter sports resort is managed by the PTDC Motel. The manager did not accept that I stayed on the carpark without taking a room allegedly for security reasons. I must recall that I had been driven back at the Shangla pass to some hundred meters as the crow flies.

The day of the 12/07 was announced gloomy. It was it. The rain fell at the beginning in the afternoon and did not cease until the night. Consequently I had a rest before finding heat when arriving in Islamabad. The news is not good following the attack by the Pakistani army against Lal Mosque which made 66 dead. The embassy of the United States required of its nationals to leave the country.

The 13/07 I gave up my holiday in Malam Jabba as of early dawn and under the rain. I thought naively that the day would be fresh. Que nenni as of the crossing over the Malakand Pass whose roadway was under repair and arriving in Dargai, in the plain, the sun appeared behind the clouds and the temperature climbed slowly and unrelentingly. After Dargai the road is with twice two lanes with some degraded parts. In Nowshera I took the Grand Trunk Road up to Islamabad which I reached around 14:00.
While arriving at Tourist Campsite I found it in a state of devastation, laid down trees at ground, breakages branches and decapitated pavilions. A violent storm the day before had made many damage. Of course there was neither water nor electricity. Only one camper was present on the compound occupied by German who informed me of the events as well political as climatic. I had placed my truck in the shade under trees, duly informed I hastened to move it and to put it far from the trees likely to damage it.
The city was peaceful after ten days of riot in LaL Masjid, 66 dead. The police was present in the entire city and the district of Aabpara, G6, opposite Tourist Campsite was buckled by the army with barbed iron wire. All shops were closed there, no possibility of making purchases and going to Internet. On bicycle I was going to explore the F6 district with the hope that it is not buckled. The majority of shops were open in this Friday 13 except the Internet cafés! I made my shopping in SuperMarket.

After the publication of the page about Peshawar of my website, I lunched at Club21, French restaurant located in the Diplomatic Enclave. Then I watched the military procession of July 14 on the Champs-Élysées on the television of the bar on TV5 Asia. At the end of the day a violent storm fell down on Islamabad and lasted all the night refreshing the atmosphere.

The 15/07 was one day of rest and completion of the page of the excursion to Malam Jabba in the view to publishing it.

The purpose of the followed week consisted in waiting the visa to India and carrying out the service of the truck.