A former Scotland and Aberdeen footballer has finally returned home after spending 49 days in lockdown in war-ravaged Kashmir.
David Robertson has described the gruelling trip his family made to get back to the north-east – including a hazardous 16-hour journey on what he called one of the “most horrendous roads in the world.”
The 51-year-old former Aberdeen and Rangers star, who also played three times for his country, has been the manager of I-League club Real Kashmir for the last two seasons and has grown used to working in one of the sport’s most dangerous environments; a place where opponents sometimes refuse to travel because of fears over terrorism.
However, he and wife Kym, and son Mason were stranded after the imposition of the lockdown in March and only received the necessary visas and paperwork last week after the intervention of the British High Commission in the region.
Mr Robertson said: “It has been a very difficult time and I am very grateful to the authorities who stepped in to help us, because I was getting increasingly anxious about my parents, Leslie and Muriel, who are not in great health in Scotland.
”Even once we had gained the permits and travel documents, it took us three days to get home. It started out with a 16-hour trip from Srinagar to Amritsar which is an terrible route, full of cows and goats, through mountains and terrifying sheer drops with hundreds of miles of single-track road.
“It’s absolutely terrifying, but there wasn’t any other way of catching our flight.
”We eventually got the plane to London, which took another 10 hours and, as you can imagine, we were shattered by the time we reached Britain. Then we arranged a minibus which took us up to Aberdeen. It wasn’t the best journey, but I am mightily relieved we are back and we are safe.”
Prior to their departure, they spent seven weeks in a hotel owned by Real Kashmir owner, Sandeep Chattoo, and Mr Robertson was sufficiently wary about the military tensions in the area, allied to the Covid-19 pandemic, not to leave the complex.
He added: “We didn’t venture outside the gates even once and it did feel as if we were in detention, but I know many others are in worse situations at the moment. The hardest part was not being able to see my parents and that became pretty horrendous, because we began to think we were stuck there indefinitely.
”We forgot about football and didn’t even talk about the game. The situation changed our perspective on things and I think everybody will be more appreciative of life and the people who are working to help others after we all get out of this.
“I have no idea when I will be able to return to Kashmir – it could be as far away as December or January next year – but football isn’t my main priority just now.”
Mr Robertson will focus on his family in the weeks ahead, but he has confirmed that plans are progressing for a Bollywood movie about his “Snow Leopards” in Srinagar, who have swiftly progressed from little-league status to championship contenders.
He said: “The producers came to see us and gathered material about the club to turn it into story lines. And next, they are going to cast the film.”
David Robertson features in Return to Real Kashmir on BBC Scotland tomorrow night at 10pm.
