Where the Indus is young

One winter, Dervla Murphy, the four-footed Hallam and her six-year-old daughter Rachel explored `Little Tibet' high up in the Karakoram Mountains in the frozen heart of the Western Himalayas - on the Pakistan side of the disputed border with Kashmir. For three months they traveled along the perilous Indus Gorge and into nearby valleys. Even when beset by crumbling tracks over bottomless chasms, an assault by a lascivious dashniri, the unnerving melancholy of the Balts - the heroic highland farmers who inhabit the area - and Rachel's continual probing questions, this formidable traveler retained her enthusiasm for her surroundings and her sense of humor. First published in 1977, Where the Indus is Young is pure Murphy.