Crossing of the pakistani border after Amritsar  ...

We enter in a new world !!!

Right away, we appreciate Pakistan ...

So many people adviced us to avoid this country ...

It is true that Pakistan lives in a crisis and an unstable situation for the moment ... that is the reason why we wait so long in India. Waiting for the elections and a return to a more 'normal situation' ...

However, the muslim hospitality is so great that we forget quickly all those inconveniences!

Right now, the big problem is due to the danish caricature of the prophet ...

Typical truck...

The usual way in Pakistan for the overlanders crossing the country is from Lahore then Bahawalpur, Sukkur and Quetta before to follow the afghan border to Iran ...  We decide another way from Lahore, Multan, Loralai and then Quetta before to join Taftan, the Iran border. We will cross the splendid Balouchistan in the middle of the mountains and the so welcoming pashtuns ...

The landscapes become more and more beautiful ...

The tracks are really bad ... a new road is under construction but not yet available !

That's perhaps the reason why so few overlanders use this way.

However, with the Defender, it is not at all a problem ...

Loralai. We look for a place to sleep but the adress we have doesn't exist anymore ... People want to help ...

At the end, the police arrives and takes us in the parking of their big building.

It is OK for one night !

We are amazed noticing that a lot of policemen are just dressed as civilians ... impossible to know !

Whereas we could travel freely up to now, the police starts to ask us a lot of questions ... What the hell are you doing here?  And finally, they decide to escort us. That is just what we didn't want ! Let's stay zen !

First escort, two policemen on a motorbike... after some minutes, first stop for the tea. That's normal, it is the hopitality!

A little bit later, change of the escort. Now we have to follow a pick-up ...of course when we reach the end of the area of responsability of those policemen, they offer us the tea before we switch to the next escort ...

That's also the time to compare the kalachnikov AK 47 with the semi-automatic G3 ...

Great time for Sacha!

Oh yes, we should not forget the tortoise ...

The policemen want to offer to our children a nice tortoise they have found.

They kept the tortoise in order to prepare a good soup ... but, now, they are ready to abandon the soup for the happiness of our children !

We explain them that we have no space available for the tortoise ... and that in our country, we do not like so much the 'tortoise soup' ... of course our children are disappointed !

We start again with the new escort without forgetting to thank the previous one for the great tea and the proposal for the tortoise ... It is the intention that matters, isn't it ?

Next escort, still so nice, brings us to a small checkpoint ... for the tea of course !

Later one, we have no more escort ... we are free. They explain us that we will find a new escort on the way ... We are happy to be alone and frankly, we can not drink anymore tea ! Now we take the time to admire the mountains and the fabulous landscapes ! On the top of the mountains, they have still some snow ... winter must be difficult here !