Journey to Pakistan's Shandur Polo Festival with Fergal Nolan

Genuinely Useful

Fergal recounts his epic journey to Pakistan’s Shandur Polo Festival at the world’s highest elevation Polo grounds. Along the 1500 mile route, he rode his trusty Suzuki GS150 motorcycle (nicknamed Bucephalus), met a Sufi mystic, and slept through an army shootout with Afghan Taliban goat rustlers.

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See Fergal’s Photos from His Motorcycle Journey to Shandur Top

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This episode's featured song - “Wars Ragin”

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Plot a Route: See the 1500 mile route: The Road To Shandur Top

The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries by W.Y. Evans Wentz (Author)

Leaving Islamabad and the Karakoram Highway

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pakistan

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamabad

Karakoram Highway

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karakoram_Highway

Abbottabad

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abbottabad

Kaghan Valley

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaghan_Valley

Babusar Pass

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babusar_Pass

19 pulled off buses, shot dead in sectarian hit

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chilas

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanga_Parbat

“A life is not measured by quantity, but by its quality,” says Hubert Wischnewski as he reminisces about his son Joel, who died while trying to climb the feared Nanga Parbat over two years ago

Nanga Parbat: 'Taliban mastermind' held over climber murders

The Princely States

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princely_states_of_Pakistan

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilgit-Baltistan

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deosai_National_Park

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khaplu ('Little Tibet')

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skardu

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karimabad,_Gilgit-Baltistan

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chitral_%28princely_state%29

Shandur Polo Festival

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nms_Z_gU7_0

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pashtuns

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pashtunwali

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afridi

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/military-obituaries/army-obituaries/7466601/Colonel-Khushwaqt-ul-Mulk.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durand_Line

Major Geoffrey Langlands, 94, leaves his post in Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province after 60 years (As of January 2019, Geoffrey Langlands is 101 and enjoying his well-earned retirement in Lahore)

Amongst the Kalashi

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalasha_Valleys

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalash_people

Kalash - Descendants of Alexander the Great Living in an Unstable Muslim Country

Afghan bandits snatch more goats in Chitral

Five suspected militants killed in Chitral's Kalash valley

Bucephalus (After whom, the trusty Suzuki GS150 was named)

Jordi Magraner, 35, the famous Spanish zoologist and cryptozoologist conducting field research for 12 years has been found assassinated in Pakistan

Militants set conditions for Greek engineer`s release

Coming full circle

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lowari_Pass

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swat_District

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takht-i-Bahi

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxila

Recommended reading and viewing

Full Tilt: Ireland to India with a Bicycle, Dervla Murphy

Pakistan: A Hard Country, Anatol Lieven

The Man Who Would be King, Rudyard Kipling

Himalaya with Michael Palin, Episode 1: North by Northwest. BBC (2004)

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