Another day of eating KMs. It is surprising how unexciting the interior has been recently; roads are relatively straight and waypoints are few. Once I start riding, I generally find myself not wanting to stop until there is a satisfying reason. Today is one of those days where I did not find a reason to stop, after ~500KMs!

Today’s route in blue

I started the day early-ish, leaving the Airbnb at 8AM, and hitting the road. I have been donning the N95 mask under my helmet for the third day now; it just feels prudent to try minimise inhalation of smoke/other particles that I feel are drifting around the hazy air.

Hazy agricultural lands. Most work seems to be done by hand

The highlight of today was probably the nice asphalt roads; hour after hour there were relatively fresh roads, jet black in colour. It made sense that they would take good care of the roads here; there was also probably more truck traffic than I’d seen this whole time. It was bumper to bumper in trucks in some places, so the day was spent weaving between trucks, motorcycles, and cars.

I noticed that generally, it seemed like the surrounds were getting poorer and poorer as I continue heading towards Karachi. There are a few signs:

• I see beggars at toll booths (which were uncommon/not seen north of Lahore)
• there are huge mounds of refuse on the roads, some of which are burning (another reason I need my N95 mask!)
• I have started to see some tent cities/informal accommodation (ie slums) spring up near towns and villages
• There are fewer and fewer air conditioned stores/restaurants, and almost no continental (ie non Pakistani) food available.

Livestock market (I think?)

Along the way I heard that Rahim Yar Khan was a city that was developed in part by the Royal Family of the UAE, so I took a 30KM detour to go and see it, and stop for lunch. It turned out to be a regular Pakistani city with perhaps better roads, but it was a far cry from my expectations of grand mosques and huge buildings. In fairness, they probably only developed a small section of the city, and I didn’t want to ride around the whole city trying to find it. I decided “I’ll look for a KFC that is air conditioned, and will have my lunch there”. I circled and circled around, trying to find a non-existent KFC entry on google maps. And then I looked a bit closer. “KFC Football” referred to a football field named KFC. Same went for “KFC Hockey”.

the famous KFC football pitch in Rahim Yar Khan

After realising this, I was a bit dejected and decided to continue on the route and only eat my lunch once I passed a satisfactory KFC or McDonalds (I wanted continental food) to stop at.

Hour after hour, there was nothing. The only reasons to stop were: I saw a tank on a trailer; so I doubled back to take some photos (and was stopped by someone that looked like they were Army) There was a big commotion with hundreds of people; I think it was a livestock market Fuel and bathroom stops

a single tank on the move

Before I knew it, 7 hours had passed and I was in the destination I had planned to be in; Sukkur.

The outskirts of Sukkur are interesting in the sense that it looked like it could have had historical things (strange mounds of sandstone / limestone/ protruding from the otherwise flat landscape, some structures that looked like ruins), but I was not in the mood to explore; the heat, the smoke/pollution, and the dust made me want to find the nearest acceptable hotel and take refuge there.

I had been planning to stay in Hyderabad tomorrow, but I feel like I may as well continue on to Karachi; Hyderabad in Pakistan is a city of only 2.5 million people, and does not seem like it would have many things to do/see or comfortable places to stay.

Tomorrow; Karachi!

Some stats:

• 505 KM travelled
• 28.2L fuel added
• 30g coffee consumed
• 0 unique interactions

Part 2 route progress

Complete route to date