Quote:
Originally Posted by Kevnool
Here was a fellow worker who had been told to take his 140H through this mess.
His boss told him it would be ok.
Expensive recovery.
This happened on 12/05/11 near the Menindee lakes.
Cheers Kev
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Hi Kev,
Once the mud dried, it could be of future archaeological interest.
Here's a snapshot from the archives, taken way back in April 1988.
It was actually taken by a friend but yours truly appears in the left of
frame also snapping a shot with a Minolta SLR.
It was kindly scanned for me by a family member using a Nikon transparency scanner.
The Karakoram Highway (KKH) runs for approximately 1300km and joins the north
of Pakistan with south-west China. It is one of the world's highest highways
and by the time you get up to the Khunjerab Pass on the border, you are at
4,700m ( 15,400').
Jointly built by the Pakistanis and Chinese, work on it began in 1959 and it was
opened 27 years later in 1986. 900 workers were reported to be killed during its
construction and it crosses some of the highest, roughest, most inhospitable
and avalanche prone terrain in the world - the Karakoram Mountains - which are the
westerly extension of the Himalayas. At times it passes along stretches of the
Indus River and alongside some of the world's highest peaks, such as the
infamous 8,126m Nanga Parabat. Historically this route was a branch of
the Silk Road caravan trail.
Traveling along the KKH is not without peril and it is common to see trucks that
have gone off a cliff down into a ravine, or buses that have toppled off bridges,
or avalanches sweeping away the road whilst you watch. It is a hairy road. For example,
last year, a landslide dammed the Hunza River which formed a lake and engulfed
a 5km stretch of the KKH. Maintaining the KKH is a nightmare and unfortunately
workers also get killed in rock falls, mud slides or other accidents now and then.
Add into the mix the occasional 'dacoit' (bandit) and these days the occasional
terrorist shooting and the headache from being at altitude quickly becomes the
least of one's worries.
The highway crosses glacial rivers countless times and one becomes bogged
with monotonous regularity.
During the month of April 1988, it was also the holy month of Ramadan and of
course people don't eat or drink during the day. Driver's lose concentration,
become more impatient and mistakes and accidents increase even more.
There is a Wikipedia article on the KKH here -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karakoram_Highway
segment from a documentary on traveling the KKH here -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nq8_txPcZR4
The snapshot was taken on the KKH somewhere south of
Gilgit.
