Jhellum, Pakistan

28th June
The India/Pakistan border opens at 10am and we were there not long after that time. Having the vehicle we expected a long delay at both sides. However the Indian side was more involved with the camping details of the van than looking for anything while the bloke on the Paki side was efficient and dealt with the van very quickly. We were driving down the Great Trunk road heading for Lahore 1¾ hours after pulling up at the Indian immigration.
Lahore came as quite a shock. The traffic fumes, mainly from the auto rickshaws, were terrible with a pall of smog over lying the city. We decided to give it a miss and head north towards Islamabad.
It came as a very pleasant surprise to find once again a country that had a few road rules; that indicated before they pulled out to pass, that trucks kept to the left lane unless passing, that drivers looked before pulling out into the traffic, that breakdowns pulled off the road instead of just stopping in the middle of the road, there were no ox carts in the fast lane, that there was a better chance that traffic all flowed the same way where there were dual lanes. We had been told that the Paki drivers would be the worst but at this point haven't found that to be the case. We will see what the next few days bring
Our first hiccup on the trip became apparent when we turned on the tv in the room we are staying to hear of bad floods in Baluchistan, around the Quetta area where we need to go through to get to Iran. It looks bad with bridges washed away and roads destroyed. It's a couple of weeks before we were to be in that area but I doubt things will be repaired completely by then. We will have to find out more at Islamabad tomorrow. And may have to go via China, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan to get to Iran. That will mean more visas and holdups.