Monday 31st May - Tuesday 1st June spent 2 nights back in Srinagar at the house of Mouneer our jeep driver. Planned on staying only one night but arrived late on the Monday evening after having spent 16 hours in a jeep from Leh, and really need 2 days to recover before heading back to Jammu. We left Leh at 5.30 a.m. The only road back to Srinagar had already been closed for 2 days whilst we were in Leh; due to landslides, and melting snow.

The road to Srinagar is not only one of the highest roads in the world, but also the most dangerous. Apart from the altitude to contend with is there is also the stream of overloaded lorries heading to Leh and beyond, and convoy after convoy of military vehicles. There are hardly any stretches of tarmacd road surface; the majority of the route being a pitted, water logged track. Leh being the coldest habitlal town in the world, with Kargil second. The mountain scenery is breath-taking, otherwise most of your concentraion is focused on how close your driver is to the precipise below. Several interesting points on route are Magnet Hill, and Tiger Hill. The latter being where the Pakistani army attacked India in 1999 - 2000; resulting in Indian losses of around 10,000. It's a little disconcerting when you spot road signs 'You are under enemy observation'. At Magnet Hill, however hard the driver puts his foot on the accelerater; he cannot accelerate due to the magnetism under the road surface. Basically, the whole region of Kashmir is a militarised zone, check points everywhere, and with check points comes corruption. Our driver although Kashmiri had to pay 50 to 100 rupees each time he was stopped at police check points......'.TII boss (This is India boss) my driver often said.

Later on the route to Jammu we were behind an army jeep (called a Gypsy) when we were waved down to stop. Mouneer our driver (22 years old) got out of the jeep, and with seconds one of the soldiers started beating him. What can you do? when that happens 3 metres infront of you. I jumped out and approached the officer (a captain) at speed, and told him in no uncertain terms what I thought of him.....basically that he was a disgrace to the Indian army; had no control of his subordinates, and he didn't deserve to hold a commissioned rank. That did the job, and the out of control soldier was grabed by another soldier and placed in the back of the Gypsy. Again, not a good experience, and even worse for Mouneer who like us was shocked. Everytime after that if Mouneer had to leave the vehicle, then I went with him. It's really sad, not only to witness such treatment, but worse to continually hear your driver say everytime there was a problem 'It's no problem boss', when it is a real problem and the guy is at the mercy of corrupt police officers, and renegade military.

Mouneer's family in Srinagar were very friendly, his elderly grandfather cooked the meals; as he has been a cook on a house boat for the past 45 years. Rather embarassing