Pamir Highway (1)

Riding a yak is much slower going than riding a horse, and much harder to arrange, but it's undeniably more dramatic.

It's day three of our adventure along the world's second-highest road, the Pamir Highway, which stretches through the mountain state of Tajikistan. This area is known as the 'roof of the world', with altitudes ranging between 3,000-4,500m, and mountain peaks reaching as high as 7,650m. The Pamirs are the third-highest mountain range in the world, after the Himalayas and nearby Karakoram ranges. Needless to say, it's very cold up here and very different to the bustling Asian megacities that have dominated our year so far.

We're in a rare bubble of internet coverage this evening (which might also be the last one for a week), so here's an update on what we've been doing so far.

Day 1: We left Osh along with our driver Salih and two fellow tour-mates, Dima from Ukraine and Marco from Italy. Driving south, we stayed the first night at the base camp of Mount Lenin—the second tallest mountain in both Kyrgyzstan AND Tajikistan (7,134m). We hiked to a viewpoint in the valley and back, before settling in our yurt for a bitterly cold night.

Day 2: In the morning we drove to the Kyzylart Pass to cross into Tajikistan. Cigarettes and dollars exchanged hands and we didn’t even have to get out of the car. We’ve passed a few pitiable souls hitchhiking in brutal conditions— but the 4x4 is rammed, with each of us taking turns in the cramped middle seat and the coveted front. We spent the afternoon at Qarokul lake, at which point our driver Salih told us he would be going ahead to the next village since they were having a celebration for his son. Another driver would bring us to catch him up the next morning. This person also turned out to be the proprietor of not one but two inns, and local business man, Risvai. A man of many hats (or rather, one very tall hat, see photo). In any case, Risvai’s establishments are actual buildings with flush toilets and he even puts on hot water and electricity (though only between 7-9pm). Pure luxury. Chelsea has accrued favour with by curing his ‘gripe’ with LemSip, and we scored a space heater in return.

Day 3: Risvai took us over the Ak-Baital Pass, the highest point of the entire Pamir Highway at 4,655m. This was truly alien territory. No trees grow here, only a scattered kindling of dry grasses, stubbornly scraping out a survival between bitter frosts and droughts. There is no green, only rust and ochre, huge scooped-out glacial valleys and dusty stone towers. It's a beautiful, barren scrapyard at the roof of the world.

Descending the pass, we stopped in the small town of Murghab for supplies. It's hard to imagine how and why people have towns up here—when Chelsea asked Risvai what the people do for work, he said they work in the hospital or the school. We suspect more of them are in the agricultural sector than he let on. After Murghab, we continued to a yak enclosure, where we took our chance for a very sedate, 5-minute plod on yakback. This was a slightly unexciting novelty, but the pictures, backdrop and exclusivity more than make up for it.

Lastly, we arrived in Alichur, the village where our original driver Salih lives. Here we were invited to join his family celebrations, with a huge spread set out on the floor. Per Central Asian tradition, he gifted each of us with a huge chunk of roughly-chopped lamb meat to take away in a plastic bag. We smiled and accepted... we now have to find a way to dispose of the meat discretely, despite our benefactor also spending every day with us for the next week.

Hopefully we'll have another update in 3-4 days, if we can find signal or WiFi (unlikely on both counts). If not, expect a bumper update when we reach the Tajik capital on Saturday.Baca lagi