Time to get walking

3.30am and morning prayer calls out over the valley. Luckily we stay in bed until 5am but the chef's up getting breakfast ready. Today we start the walk, about 17km to Jula camp passing the end of the Latok group.

Some of the boys manage to scoff the breakfast so fast there is little left for some of the team and the Basque (who are 2 great guys and take it very well).

After the loads are dished out to the porters we set off walking along with the chef. The vista starts to get much more moutainous, many 5 and 6000m peaks pop up on the valley sides and the horizon. We get a small glimpse of the Latoks through the clouds. At our altitude of 3000m the peaks look miles above us, but we need to add another 2000m to those…

The karakoram is starting to feel a pretty out there, adventurous place. There are not many teams up here this year, I assume due to what they deem the "security issues" but so far all we have experienced is friendly and helpful people, all wanting to know our story. With care, Pakistan seems an amazing place to come. Life is harsh however, certainly here in the North, but the people are very relaxed and welcoming.

When we arrive at camp, Ackbar informs us he was a little late as he had to buy a cow, 2 goats and a number of chickens for us. I write this now looking at the cow chowing down on some grass, having walked itself to our camp. Tomorrow we have the 17km to walk into Paju at 3750m, so quite a jump in height, but everyone is coping fine so far with the altitude. Motivation is really high and it feels like the team's working well. We have rule where if someone has a paddy, or gets in a bad mood they have to pay $20 to tip the porters. This strategy seems to be working well for us so far, but not so well for the porters. We're looking forward to arriving in Paju and having our first proper rest day of the trip.