Pamir Highway

Blending in

I might skip a few weeks, just because we didn’t do much cycling and a blog about us finding coffee in Uzbekistan isn’t really that interesting - and we weren’t that successful in finding decent coffee in central Asia anyway.

After the hot desert of Uzbekistan we crossed the border to Tajikistan. The landscape changed from boring flat roads full of potholes to smooth asphalt and being surrounded by mountains again. With 50% of Tajikistan being over 3000m, a lot of climbing had to be done. As the route from Panjakent to Dushanbe was built by the Chinese, the road surface was the best we had in these last few weeks. After Uzbekistan we didn’t have to zig-zag between potholes but we could just cycle and enjoy the views as the kms rolled by. From the border the easy climb towards the Anzob tunnel started. The Anzob tunnel, famous and known as the tunnel of death, lies at an altitude of 2720m, is 5 km long, lacks proper ventilation and lighting and prohibits cyclists to go through. Luckily it is a tunnel frequently used by truck drivers who are used to picking up cyclists to go through the tunnel. After the tunnel it is just an easy downhill towards the capital, Dushanbe. Or it should have been. We were facing a head wind in the downhill, we had to push hard to reach 20km/h. With daylight fading and still 60km to go, we decided to stop and pitch our tent at the next best spot, which isn’t hard to find here.

Campsite just next to the road

Reaching Dushanbe the next day just before midday, we were just in time to see some cycling friends before they left to tackle the pamir highway. Dushanbe itself is like all old soviet cities: not really attractive, unless you like empty fountains, big empty squares and a lot of big statues. The only good things in Dushanbe is the green house hostel, a cyclist hub, and the Auchan, were we could stock up on foot before heading out to the Pamirs. After a few days and stocked with 1,5kg of coffee and peanut butter, we left Dushanbe, finally. The part of the trip that I looked forward to the most. We left together with a Belgian/NZ couple and a crazy French on a recumbent bike (yes, some people are more crazy than us).

Fresh for the Pamir

The first day after leaving Dushanbe were nothing like I expected. Good roads, a lot of towns with shops and still very warm, but as soon as we saw the first sign towards Khorogh, everything changed. We were now really in the mountains on unpaved roads and jurassic park scenery. We managed to cycle only 11km over 3hours. This was going to be hard… To make it worse, that night I broke the water filter trying to filter some water from the river.

Along the way we met up with a few others and were now a full touring peloton of 7, all heading towards the first big mountain pass at 3252m: the Sagirdasht pass. It was a steady climb towards the top and an unrewarding downhill towards Kalai-Khum but it was beautiful. The views of being surrounded by snowy peaks well above 5000m took our breath away, possibly also the effect of the altitude. It was another 5 days ride towards Khorog following the Panj river, the natural border between Tajikistan and Afghanistan. Being so close to Afghanistan, a country we only knew from the news when another attack happens, was a strange feeling. We could see the farmers farming on their fields, children going to school and playing with each other. A version of Afghanistan we never see…

Day 2 on the Pamir

a group of cyclists having lunch, spot the Tajik kid spying behind us (the whole meal)

Just before the road turned into gravel

In Khorog it was time to rest and stock up on foot again for the next part. We chose to follow the Afghanistan border a little bit longer and left Khorogh after 3 days for the Wakhan border. For a change the roads were a little bit better, at least for 100km, until they changed again to loose gravel, washboards and potholes. But with views over the Hindu Kush you sometimes forget how hard it is.

Finding a place to sleep in this remote area wasn’t hard and every campsite probably will fit in the top 10 scenic campspots, at least the ones where the military didn’t sent us away because Afghanistan was too close: ‘Afghanistan, taliban, bang bang bang’. The further we went in the Wakhan the more remote it was. Living here is a hard life, people live from what they can grow on their fields or produce themselves. Shops with food were harder to find and we switched for the first time to instant noodles. From Khorogh it took us 4 days to reach the last town in the valley. From there it is a 3 days climb to the first 4000m pass. Leaving Langhar, the road starts to climb immediately. With percentages of over 15% we were back to pushing our bike and making slow progress. We soon reached an altitude of 3000m and started to feel the effect of it. We called it a day early, pitched our tent, made a campfire to warm us and were in our sleeping bags when there still was light. With gaining altitude it got colder and colder and we could finally use our winter gear we had been carrying with us for the past 4 months. 2 days later we reached the top of the Khargush pass, at an altitude of 4344m, both excited and impressed with ourselves to reach such an altitude, by bicycle! The downhill was a hard one, we also saw that Eef’s tire was tearing. So with the fear of breaking completely we slowly descended towards the high plateau of the pamir and towards the city of Murghab. The last few days didn’t only break Eef’s tire, but also herself. She was empty and the next day she took a cab to Murghab while I went by bike.

Climbing out of Langhar was hard

Reaching 8000km

First 4000m pass

Going down?

Murghab: a town with more Kirghiz influences then Tajik, a bazaar in old containers and a homestay full of cyclists. Some old friends, some new friends. On our 2nd day, it started snowing. The surrounding peaks were now covered in snow. We left Murghab as a group of 4 towards our highest peak, the Ak Baital pass. With its pass at 4655m we really felt the altitude, cycling 300m and taking a 5min break to recover. But we made it. Now it was downhill, and some more washboards (which we are pretty used to by now). After a midday of headwind we made it to the little town of Karakul tired but relieved we didn’t have to pitch our tent in freezing temperatures.

Ak Baytal pass

Sometimes we push

Our last day in Tajikistan. Cycling from Karakol to no man’s land. In theory it should have been an easy day, but the recent snowfall made our last 4000m pass not so easy after all. With my brakes frozen it became hard to cycle. A 6km climb towards the border turned out to be a hard event. Pushing my bike over the pass and sliding down on the icy downhill made this the hardest day of the trip so far.

After one month of cycling the remote pamir, we arrived in Osh. Having spent the last few days dreaming about good food. the four of us went for a real pizza, some ice cream and coffee. A perfect end of our pamir experience.