Despite being given time by London to get something good we were being hassled to feed back our story.
The plan, rather than to stay another night in the hills, was to film in the morning and then at lunch head all the way back to Islamabad, get back to the hotel and eat some good food - pre-pared meals again wearing thin - sleep, and edit and feed the next day.
We almost had everything we needed - and headed off to the local well which was 10 mins away we were told by the army. 10 mins if you were fit and a mountain gazelle. No one mentioned it being at least 750 feet below us either.
There used to be a reservoir a few km’s away that fed all the communities through a network of water pipes - standard 1 inch diameter. They had all shattered in the quake and now the only point for about 10 sq kms was one well. Everyday during daylight hours there was a constant stream on people - mainly women - carrying water buckets on their heads - heading to and fro. This was not your dash to Tescos and back to the car - this was 10 - 15 litre open containers balanced on their heads going up and down and up and down again steep hill sides.
I’m sat halfway between the well and the camp - on the way back up thoroughly exhausted - but just haven eaten the last Mars bar. Ashish had his for breakfast - the fool.
Meanwhile back at the camp people waited in the warming sun for their daily distribution. As soon as the sun went down though the temperature fell dramatically.
I thought we had travelled a fare way in our time on the hills but the urchin on the right turned up wherever we went. How? And in flip flops!
It wouldn’t be complete with out a picture of our Army hosts, Major Tariq and Lieutenant Imtiaz. Both very nice, who looked after us splendidly and didn’t want us to leave.
Ashish and I both had head torches when wondering around at night - which keeps both hands free. These were very much the envy of the Army guys and lots of the soldiers asked Ashish for his. I had a spare though which I gave to the Major in thanks, and to make sure next time we meet he looks after us again.
As you can see, yet again, I am hard at work packing everything for the journey back to Islamabad and Rostrum is just standing there next to his newly cleaned set off wheels. Arrhhh.
As we left, there were many families still packing up their belongings to head down to safer and warmer ground.
