Tajikistan – new twist

From all the “istan” countries, entering Tajikistan was by far the easiest. At the Customs I did not had to tell them how much USD I have on me to buy drugs from the Afghan. All what happened was that the Customs Officer, with a slight movement followed by a "velkamtotadzikistan", opened the gates for me.

On the very first kilometre my road was blocked; by a child, literally from head to toe covered in mud. The youngsters were bathing in the channel next to the road. They were quite photogenic and didn’t allow me to leave before I would take pictures of them. From here on to the Capital, Dushanbe, was only 70km. “Only” 70... this first track clearly showed that in Tajikistan, in regards to the road surface, I should not expect anything good.

Thanks to Ági, though the Internet, on Couchsurfing, we were able to find an accommodation in Dushanbe. My host were Ervin, who comes from Transylvania, and his French wife Helen. At the day of my arrival they had guests and the table was full of delicious food. But I had to restrict myself as the 40 day long ramazan – as the locals are saying it – still lasted. Of course I am just kidding. I was on diet because I spent the last night in the hospital in Sariosiyo due to a strong diarrhea.

In the previous weeks I talked a lot with my wife about the terror acts committed against mountain climbers in Pakistan. According the news 10 innocent foreigners, including two Slovaks, were killed in cold blood in the province I would have to cross. It is understandable that the Slovak Ministry of Foreign Affairs strongly advises against tourists not to visit Gilgit–Baltistan. The dangers of terror acts became much more valid. After long consideration I made the choice. I will not go to Pakistan in 2013. I had to give up on a dream of mine; on the other side I find solace in the fact that I can spend more time in Pamir, which is also marvellous.

You can get to Pamir on two routes from the Capital. I choose the northern route, which lead me through a 3000 high pass. Right at the beginning of the route I met three Swiss cyclists. I was told about them also by the customs officer. Two weeks ago they had a day lead on me.  On the first day we still cycled separated, but on the following days we met quite often and started to cycle together. Following the Vakhsh River the landscape was getting more and more raw, but the temperature was still around 50 degrees under the Sun, which made cycling before 5pm impossible. The road became also worst. You could just seldom find a paved surface; the road was turning into bumpy gravel. But I was not pushed by time at all.

My GBAO license was checked before Kalajchusajn, and then I could enter to the Badakhshan Autonomous Province which means mostly the Pamir Mountains. The road has increased steadily. At about 2800 meters above sea level has begun narrow the field of view and I could concentrate only on the ride. For a simple look around I had to put on the brakes, put down my feet, take breath a few times and subsequently I could look around. During cycling there was only 2x1m lane in front of the wheel for me. The heat which was above 30 degrees and the very bad quality road bothered me. It was about 5pm when I reached at the expense of great suffering the highest pass in my life by bicycle.  It lasted two and a half hours to descend to 1250 meters above see level, but I could not drive faster than 15 km/h because of the bad road moreover a full set of break rubber wore out. With this 285kms long ride till Qalaikhum I completed the first stage of the route to the Pamir and reached the Panj River, which forms a natural border between Tajikistan and Afghanistan.

The next section from Qalaikhum till Khorog was 250 km. I followed the romantic valley of the wildly torrentian Panj river. Across the river, sometimes it was only a stone's throw I watched the life in Afghanistan.