Escaping Kashmir

It had been so easy to get to Kashmir and Lake Dal yet leaving was going to be somewhat trickier.With local protests against the military growing and the death toll rising the only option was to be smuggled out in the middle of the night.In true style during our last day on the boat we were still waiting for our train tickets and hotel vouchers and weren't entirely sure of the plan until the last minute.For our last supper we were delighted to be served roast lamb, roast potatoes and cabbage (along with the usual paneer!) and sat with Tom and Sarah contemplating the unknown journey ahead.The allusive Ali arrived to inform us that a Dutch couple would be joining us on our quest for Jammu station where we would all be boarding trains in the evening however despite the late trains, to escape Srinagar we would be leaving at 1am.

Being close to the Himalayas and the border of Pakistan, Afghanistan and China, Srinagar has been under military rule for about 40 years and seemingly most of these had been peaceful apart from a few strikes by locals (it seems they don't enjoy this control over them!).In recent weeks however with increased striking, a curfew has been set - unlike usual curfews this one is during the day and stops locals trading and getting in and around the area.This is why we would need to leave in the middle of the night - it's the only way we would be able to get far enough away before the curfew came back into place in the morning (plus the protestors who were throwing rocks and getting shot were around during the day).

So, in the dead of night the 6 of us scrambled into a rowboat with Javi our driver, Ali for protection (!) and Bashir the cook, rowing the boat.The lake was so still and no one was else around but quite typically it started to pour with rain so we were all huddled in waterproofs in the boat.At the shore we piled into the jeep and rode to the bus station - here it wasn't nearly as quiet as anyone that needs to travel out of the area has to do it in the middle of the night.Ali and his team left us for a minute to find us transport - we hoped this wouldn't be the local bus as they were already rammed.Minutes later we were in another jeep with two drivers who would be driving us all the way to Jammu.Feeling slightly more relieved and keen to get out of this area of trouble we bid farewell to our escorts and hit the road.

My initial fears were that protestors would be around or the military would stop us at checkpoints however neither of these materialised.The thing that was actually scary was the sheer number of petrol tankers and trucks that were speeding their way in and out of the area.In between these were a few buses and jeeps.Our driver, like all of the others on the road, wanted to get to his destination quickly so overtook frequently and we had several near miss head-on collisions.Finally we must have escaped the heavy traffic as we all fell asleep leaving the driver to continue the journey with his Bollywood tunes for company.Our journey was rather eventful with the driver not only dodging traffic but also boulders, trees and burned out cars left by the protestors in the middle of the road as well as the occasional dead dog!

It was far from a comfortable sleep (especially for Sam who was in the middle seat and had no head rest) but we slept for a while and woke up as it was getting light realising we were high in the hills.No traffic here and we were out of the curfewed area so could enjoy spotting monkeys and even a camel crossing the road.

Eventually at around 10am we arrived in Jammu station.The poor driver who had gone through the night was stopped 5 minutes before the end of his journey and given some sort of ticket - we're not sure what for but he wasn't too happy.

We however, were all happy to be in Jammu and set about finding ways to spend the day.

Liz