Pakistan tuk-tuk frontier

Skardu to Gilgit, then north through Hunza to the Chinese border at over 4,000 metres, and back south again.

Because the mountains are ridiculous — you might have heard of one of them, it's called K2. Because the roads are legendary; the Karakoram Highway has been called the eighth wonder of the world, and tops out at over 4,000 metres on the Khunjerab Pass. Because the hospitality is real. Centuries of Silk Road trade and hard mountain winters made hospitality a survival system in these valleys. Welcoming travellers is treated as a sacred duty rather than a business transaction. Because proper adventure travel still exists here: huge peaks, remote valleys, high passes, colourful trucks, roadside chai, wild roads and a proper sense of expedition.

This is a self-drive Tuk-Tuk adventure through Gilgit-Baltistan. Skardu to Gilgit, Hunza to Sost and over the high frontier of Khunjerab Pass. The route covers cold deserts, mountain highways, turquoise rivers, Silk Road valleys and one of the most dramatic border roads on Earth.

This is a supported self-drive challenge. Each team gets its own Tuk-Tuk for the duration, with training, safety briefing, navigation sheets, route support, daily challenges, tracking, support vehicles, mechanics, luggage back-up and an on-ground team travelling alongside the group.

Each day starts with a route briefing from the expedition team, covering checkpoints, road conditions, safety notes and potential risks. The route is broken into driving legs, with challenges built into the journey across cultural, language, physical, culinary and photography themes.

Speed is never the priority. The point is teamwork, discovery, problem-solving.

We start in Skardu, deep in the mountains of northern Pakistan. The next morning we head to the Sarfaranga Cold Desert to begin Tuk-Tuk training — huge skies, sand, mountains.

Day three is flag-off. We hit the road towards Gilgit, with route briefing, checkpoints and challenges along the way, reaching Gilgit, the gateway to the Himalayas.

Photographs from a previous similar tuk-tuk recce in India.

From Gilgit, we continue into Hunza, which borders both China and Afghanistan and was its own kingdom until 1947. The Hunza Valley cuts through mountain valleys from 2,000–5,000 metres.

Day five takes us onwards to Sost, just south of the Khunjerab Pass, the highest paved international border crossing in the world, and the last major settlement before the Pakistan–China border.

We ascend the Karakoram Highway to Khunjerab Pass at over 4,000 metres on the Pakistan–China border. At the top, we can see into China past the border gate covered in prayer flags, and return to Sost for the night.

After the border run, we head back towards Hunza, with a rest day: Karimabad, Baltit Fort, the Eagle's Nest Viewpoint and the 1,000-year-old Ganish Village. We then drive back to Gilgit.

Every trip is supported by experienced local teams who understand the roads, communities, terrain and conditions. Routes may change to reflect weather, road access, local advice or safety considerations. Flexibility is part of the experience, but good judgement always comes first.