Take drink options, for example. At KAF there are juices, milk, and two ro maybe three soft drinks. (That Far East DFAC seems to only ever have Fanta and "Coke Light.")
After unloading and reloading our cargo, we set off for Tarin Kowt, the provincial capital of Uruzgan.
And let me tell you, when it comes to traveling the road to TK, Sprite is 100% wrong. Once the paved road ends, it's NO fun.
That said, the mountains are beautiful.
There are several villages along the way, all with simple housing.
There are a lot of kids, too. They'll wave and ask for candy and pens a lot. I threw some snacks to them. I think a couple got mad I didn't give anything to them -- some threw rocks at the trucks.
Apart from the villages, most of what you see is vast expanses of stark, beautiful desolation. Most rain comes during winter, and we got to see more than our fair share of dirt, rain, mud, and snow. I wish we could have stopped while we were in the snow; I'd have taken a picture, but the road was so bumpy I could get a good shot.
When the pavement ended, road washouts become more frequent, and the rain made the hills became more difficult to climb. We had a "host nation truck" with us, and it got stuck on this hill. We had to use our tow truck to haul it up.
It took us about eight full hours to make the trip, but we made it without any unpleasant incidents. The "getting there" might not have been any fun, but the arrival sure was.
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