Tadzjikistan

the promised land

Hello again, here I am finally with a new blogpost about Tadjikistan and the Pamirs.

The Mekka for all bicycle travellers.

I’m not even sure where the Pamirs got this reputations from. Some places are just iconic for travelling on a bike. There is the carretera Austral in Chile, routa 40 in Argentina, the unavoidable Alaska Highway for those who travel north, and there is the Pamirs in Central Asia.




But first things first, before getting there you have to cycle from Uzbekistan to Dushanbe, and that’s where you get the first warm up for the legs, with a mountain pass from about 3000m altitude.





And then you arrive in the big city.

A meeting place for everyone who is going to or coming from the Pamirs. Travellers of all kinds: bikes, motorbikes, jeeps and big trucks. Each person more weird than the other, but all of us in some way a bit out of the hook.

In Auchan in Dushanbe I found the only food I really miss: 'pain au chocolat'!

At the same time, it is also what connects us: The eagerness to step out of the routine of every day life and go to explore the unpredictable.





And unpredictable it was, the road starting from Dushanbe.

Still many minefields in Tadzjikistan. I wanted to go for a hike on this mountain pass but I quickly changed my mind after seeing this. 

There is the north road and the south road to get out of the town.

I chose the north option, because it goes higher (and I like mountain passes more then following rivers), but the road is also a lot more difficult. The days before it had been raining a lot so I was literally up to my knees in mud, several times. Carrying my bike and panniers seperately to the other side. Luckily I got help from some very friendly locals for that.

Cars get stuck in the mud, people are trying to push them out.

How people live here. 

By the way, help from locals comes in many ways: sometimes a place to sleep, other times they help you fixing your bike (and they don't let you go until the problem is solved!!) Or you just get help by a guy on a donkey who takes over some of you paniers on a very steep detour!

traditional Pamir houses: they look very 'primitive' from the outside. 

But they look beautiful on the inside and have everything.

trying to fix my bike...

this guy offered my some help by carrying 2 panniers up the hill with his donkey. 

Once in Qalai Khumb (after a crazy 34 km downhill) the northern and southern road joined each other, and from there you keep following the Afghan border and the Panj river that defines this border.

Afghanistan on the right, Tadzjikstan on the left. 

It feels kind of strange to watch Afghan people on the other side, seeing them play football and sometimes waving at us. They are exactly the same as these very friendly Tadjik people, but they just have another name and they are on the other side of the river. So they are unreachable and supposed to be dangerous. The world is a strange place sometimes. There are also many military patrollers walking along the border. And it is forbidden to camp on the nice grassy land in between the road and the river. As soon as you do those soldiers would make you go somewhere else, no matter how peaceful the place looks like.

camping along the Panj-river

This all feels very strange, coming from Europe, where we hardly know the meaning of a border. One part of you thinks it is exaggerated, wants to go to the other side and just have a chat with the Afghan people. But on the other side, every cyclist remembers the tragedy of last year where 4 bicycle travellers out of a group of 7 were killed by some Afghans crossing the border.
However I know there are crazy people in every part of the world, from Zaventem to Nice. I have met tourists who went to Afghanistan and had a great time. But everyone has to decide for themselves 'how far' you want to go.

Monument in Qalai Khumb for the victims of the terrorist attack last year. 

For me, it is clear. I am a blond woman with blue eyes, so I kept putting my tent on the right side of the road and I just wave back to the Afghan kids playing football. And hopefully, one day things will change.





Since Qalai Khumb I teamed up with the 'Pamir-Peloton'.








There are the Belgian tandem: Jasper and Naomi; 2 Frenchies: Dany and Yassine and there is Nathan, a solo English-Welsh cyclist. Somewhere on the road they all met each other and now we make this one big group together. It's nice for me to have some company, especially in the evenings. I am quite good at being alone, but after some time even I can have enough of it!

Dany, Japser, Naomi and Yassine

Jasper the bike-mechanic repaired everyone's bike.  Thx man!!  I miss you ;-) 

6 people is a big group, so our pamir peloton sometimes splits up for some time, but in the end we always get together again and we share our stories and crazy experiences.

coffee break on the road.

One after the other gets ill and in the end I'm the only one surviving Tadjikistan without even having diarrhea!! And yes, we talk about all the shit as if it is the most normal thing to share!

everyone is camping with MSR. except for me.. :-)

From Korough you have to decide again which valley you're going to cycle. There are 3 big options: The Bartang valley in the north, the M41 or official Pamir Highway in the middle, and then there is the very famous Wakhan valley in the south.





I didn't choose any of them. Together with Nathan I took the Rashquala road, which is something in between, and impossible for cars to drive because of a difficult river crossing. Even for motorbikes I'm not sure if it is possible .

















It was an experience... halfway the road gets extremely heavy and difficult and I was very happy to have Nathan around. He was the one that stayed completely patient and fixed my frontrack when everything broke apart on that road.

Nathan just finished the river-crossing 

first mountain pass above 4000m

After 3 hard and long days with Nathan, we got back to the M41 and our old-time Pamir-Peloton friends. The road was way easier after and the valley was wider, but from then on it was the altitude that made things complicated.

We were constantly between 3600 and 4660m altitude, without really having shorter days, after a while you can feel the tiredness building up in you body.

camping on the second pass at +- 4200m

breakfast with a view!

On day 3 at altitude it was as if somebody pushed the 'game-over' button for me. At once I felt dizzy and I couldn't give any power on the pedals without breathing like a horse.

I concentrated on staying on the back wheel of the tandem and at a slower pace we continued our way to Murghab.

reaching a village on the Pamir sometimes feels like reaching the Promised Land.

Murghab is not a big deal, it is a little village, so don't expect too much if you're travelling that way. But... they have ice-cream, Finally!!





So we stuffed ourselves with ice-cream before attacking the highest pass of the Pamirs: Ak-Baital, 4655m high





Luckily I felt better again and we even slept at the top, with a nice white snow carpet in the morning as a reward.






Together with Dany, we made things even more complicated and hiked up another mountain nearby the Ak Baital Pass.

This is the mountain we climbed, we reached the 'plateau' on the right side, 5300m. Dany walked up to the little peak in the middle, 5400m. 

Dany is this kind of crazy young guy, on a rest day when everybody is completely exhausted, he is looking around to see which hill he can go running up. So he was the only one motivated to come with me for this unprepared hike.

The valley we walked in was just amazing. Some yaks were grazing in the fields, we heard a pack of wolves howling in the evening and we had the most beautiful sunset and ever on 5300m high.

building the platform for our tent

sunrise

The next morning however I had to wake up Dany, my headaches were too strong and I wanted to
go down as fast as possible.

We walk back on a frozen river

The big adventure continued all the way to Karakol and despite the strong headwinds, that almost drove me crazy, we made it in one day from Karakol to Sary Tash in Kirgistan.

Coming into Kirgistan is impressive. It’s like stepping into a different world. But I'll save that for later. Firstly, some ice-cream and endless sleep...

meeting other cyclists on the Pamir highway