The Khyber Pass by Train
One of the Great Railway Journeys of the World in Afghanistan
I have an old travel writing pal who has vast experience of tramping round obscure and forgotten places and writing about them.
For years he deliberately headed for any country that the Foreign Office advised people to stay away from. As a result he gained the distinction of being the travel writer who had been locked up in more foreign jails than any other. Once he was sentenced to 104 years for illegally entering a country and he has been the unwelcome guest of many despots and dictators including Idi Amin.
His name is Christopher Portway and he’s one of the last of the ‘Boy’s Own’ style of adventurer. He’s 83, still going strong and still traveling.
I met him years ago when I joined the British Guild of Travel Writers. Since then he’s told me many stories about his adventures including one about a bizarre railway trip he once made up the KhyberPass. I emailed him a few weeks ago to ask if he would mind sharing it here.
When I got no reply I thought he must be traveling. Then a few days ago a parcel arrived from his publisher. “Christopher asked me to send you these” was all it said on the compliments slip. It was a selection of his books and in one of them,‘The World Commuter, Great journeys by Train’, I found the story I was looking for.
He describes a journey through Afghanistan, having his bare legs fondled as he traveled on the roof of a local bus. “never wear shorts in Afghanistan” he writes. Eventually he reached Jalalabad and from there proceeded by bus and jeep to the Pakistan border and Lindikotal at the head of the KhyberPass.
From there the Pakistan Government ran a free, weekly train to Peshwar and that was a journey he wanted to make. As luck would have it he arrived as the train was due to depart.
Unfortunately it was full but undaunted he “took up residence on the left hand front buffer of the Sheffield Vulcan Foundry-made 1923 steam locomotive, sharing it with a jovial Pakistani since the right-hand buffer was similarly occupied. And my 40 mile ride that followed was a high spot of many years of train travel as we wound down the famous pass.”
You can read more of this ‘eccentric Englishman’s’ travels in this and his other books from Summersdale Publishing.
