This journey took 12 hours and we constantly overestimated the distance travelled, and underestimated the time to go. See the map in the Lonely Planet Guide for the whereabouts of the following places:

Udhampur - first town - lots of Indian soldiers. Already in the mountains, with a deep river valley on our right as we climbed.

Kud - 1738m altitude. Veggie restaurant.

Batote - 1560m. The veggie restaurant might have been here.

In between these spots there was another massive river valley, this time with a broad and fast-flowing river, a milky grey in colour.

"Reckless Drivers Kill and Die!
Leaving Kith and Kin to Cry."

"Life is Wonderful, Ponder and Think,
Why Cut It Short by Speed and Drink."

"I am Guarding You
Do Not Damage Me."

"This is not a Race or a Rally
Drive Safely and Enjoy Kashmir Valley."

Jawarhal Tunnel - 2½km long. 93km from Srinagar and 200km from Jammu. Banihal is 17km on the Indian side of the tunnel, and marks the border of the Kashmir region, but once out of the tunnel you immediately hit the lush, green Vale of Kashmir, with Western-style houses, rice paddy-fields, woods and stacks of roughly-shaped cricket bats (Kashmir is cricket-mad, and exports cricket bats all over the world).

Kashmir was independent and very poor in the 17th Century, and the King, Shah Jahan, visited neighbouring countries to look for ideas for a new industry to improve his people's lot. In Persia he decided that a carpet industry would be a good thing, because in Kashmir it was icy cold in the winter and for six months people liked to stay indoors.

The first stage in making a new carpet is the design. This is drafted out on graph paper and approved by the Government (to ensure that the designs are commercially attractive). Then the colours are chosen, and marked on the graph paper. The next stage is surprising - the design is translated into a list of stitches/colours, so the people doing the weaving don't know how the pattern will end up - they simply follow the symbols scribbled onto strips of brown paper.

The loom is set up with two sets of threads (either cotton or silk) running vertically - one set at the front, one at the back. The yarn is suspended from a string along the top, and each knot is tied by pulling down the appropriate colour, tying the knot, and cutting the yarn with a knife. It takes typically eighteen months for one carpet.

On completion the carpet is washed, and then trimmed with scissors to make sure all the knots are the same length, and the carpet is smooth to the touch.

There are four different qualities of carpet. The most expensive is silk on silk (the weavers often cut their fingers on the silk backing). Then comes silk on cotton (considered as "pure silk"). Then silk and wool mixed, and finally pure wool.

All this we learnt at a carpet-making factory/exhibition/sales centre a few kilometres from Srinagar. It is owned by a co-operative of 350 families (4½ thousand people) and run by a smooth crew who had no difficulty in parting us from money we didn't even have. They did it by showing us into a large room with beautiful carpets all round the walls and a plush green carpet on the floor. We were seated, and supplied with Kashmiri tea flavoured with honey, saffron, cinnamon and cardamom. The boss (a dashing man in white, with a natty beard and a spiky haircut) had his sidekicks lined up with carpets at the ready. As he explained the different types and sizes they moved into a well-rehearsed stage-show, throwing carpets on the floor with a flourish, and whirling them around to demonstrate the changes in colour as the light struck them at different angles. He started off with a mammoth 6' by 9' silk on silk "Qum" design, with squares each with a different design, and worked down through 6' x 4', 3' x 5' (£200-£800), 2½' x 4' (£110-£450) to the smallest, 2' x 3' (£50-£350).

At this point we were hooked, mesmerised, whatever analogy you care to think of. He proceeded to land his catch by asking us to pick out the ones we liked, and laying them out on the floor for us to examine more closely. More tea, and biscuits, helped here. At this point even I (with no background in carpets, or house furnishings of any kind) couldn't have got away without buying something. I was thinking we could get away with a £50 job as a souvenir. No chance. Cathy and I put down a deposit on two beautiful carpets, both silk, to a total value of £700. Yikes.

PS. I shouldn't mention the war, but apparently the Indians and Chinese have been fighting over a glacier for the past 15 days. This news doesn't get reported in the papers.

We're on a "water trek" down the river ?. We've been through the mediæval suburbs of Srinagar and we're now in a wide, slow-flowing stretch of water with trees either side. Behind the trees grows Maize, and under the trees (and pretty well everywhere else) grows marijuana ("Kashmiri tobacco"). Other natural history: two kinds of kingfisher, traditional gold and blue, and also a white one with black spots and patches. Lots of eagles. Geese, ducks, swans, dogs. Dead dogs, horses, cows and unidentifiable swollen things floating downstream, some with crows perched on them.

The Shikara looks like this:

11.23am. Our boatmen are now stoned out of their skulls over their hubble bubble pipe. There's a hubble bubble sound from the back of the boat, interspersed with singing and much hilarity. The boat is drifting from one side of the river to the other. I think our boatmen might be having a better time than we are.

This is where swallows go in the winter. I've just seen them perched on telephone wires over the river.

Walked up to Shankaracharya Jee Temple (5km walk - 1 hour) after a lazy morning sitting reading.