Journey to Pakistan's Shandur Polo Festival with Fergal Nolan

Jan 10, 2019

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”

https://abeslogic.bandcamp.com/track/wars-ragin

 

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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