Yesterday, after fueling-up all morning with tea, kabob and Salwar Kameez repairs (the tailor made a few mistakes on the pockets) I blasted off up the mountain behind Dale's guesthouse intent of reaching the top. False peak after false peak – always something blocking the panorama to the North – I persisted (I wanted to see the great 7000 meter plus Tirich Meer massif and a 360 degree panorama!). After five hours of solid climbing – one way, backtracking hand over hand on the sometimes loose rock outcroppings I finally was at the peak about 45 minutes before sunset with Ayon village far below to my right and a Rombur valley down to my left which did not look that inhabited from my vantage point (if it was Rombur).

This morning I learned that it was Dale's birthday and so trudged up to Brikal village to the house of the white-bearded 83-year-old Baba Hajii Abdul Morat, so generous – not a word exchanged and he went and had a wonderful breakfast of tea, eggs and Kalash bread brought for me. Sitting there with him calmly looking over the ever-unfinished project of his lovely farmland I thought about living on an organic farm of my own, writing and taking occasional solo remote work for a living. To do this I would have to go around and work at some of the world's most successful organic farms first. The kind old gentleman sent me away with one kilo of wonderful grapes from the farm as a birthday gift for Dale. The venerable Baba would not let me take his photo – I walked back to the road with his son Murat Baba who told that his father moved to Bomboret valley from upper Chitral so he only speaks Persian and Chitrali (called "Khowar").