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the Degree Confluence Project
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Pakistan : North-West Frontier Province

5.6 km (3.5 miles) ENE of Talokar, N.W.F.P., Pakistan
Approx. altitude: 772 m (2532 ft)
([?] maps: Google MapQuest OpenStreetMap ConfluenceNavigator)
Antipode: 34°S 107°W

Accuracy: 1.6 km (1701 yd)
Quality: good

Click on any of the images for the full-sized picture.

#2: View East #3: View South #4: View West #5: GPS registration #6: Local map showing the distance to the c.p. on the other side of a small river #7: From the Karakorum Highway #8: Road signs in English, Chinese, and Russian (why?)

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  34°N 73°E (visit #3) (incomplete) 

#1: View North. Confluence point somewhere on the slope

(visited by John Dag Hutchison)

25-Jun-2014 -- This was supposed to be an easy confluence point. Together with three friends I was on a 12-days tour up the Karakorum Highway (KKH) from Islāmābād to Khunjerāb Pass on the border of China and down again. The plan was to do this confluence point on the way back. But then security concerns became relevant. All the Western embassies in Islāmābād warned their citizens against traveling up the KKH and in the Gilgit-Baltistān region. Both anti-terrorist police and army units were seen at many places, especially between Gilgit and Abbottābād. Parts of the way we had a policeman sitting in the front seat with a sub machine gun on his lap, at other times a policecar escorting us. And during trekking in the Fairy Meadows hills up to 4000 m we had an armed police escorting us. That was the area where exactly one year earlier ten tourists/climbers and locals had been murdered.

While we were driving northwards, a couple of military vehicles had been blown up and some people were killed. When we were returning to Islāmābād, a police station along the road had been attacked and several people killed and injured. So by the time we approached 34N 73E it was made quite clear to me that leaving the KKH to reach the confluence point was out of the question. The same background was the reason for not allowing foreigners to go to 34N 72E.

The enclosed photo of trucks on the KKH is not representative for the quality of the KKH. The Chinese built road is on the whole of a much better quality, particularly from Rāikot Bridge and northwards.

So the main reason for this little report is to make foreigners aware that they, for the time being, cannot take a day's outing from Islāmābād to bag two easy confluence points...


 All pictures
#1: View North. Confluence point somewhere on the slope
#2: View East
#3: View South
#4: View West
#5: GPS registration
#6: Local map showing the distance to the c.p. on the other side of a small river
#7: From the Karakorum Highway
#8: Road signs in English, Chinese, and Russian (why?)
ALL: All pictures on one page