Day 1: Dushanbe to Kalaikhum

Yesterday

Dushanbe isn’t exactly loaded with sights apart from museums.  In this heat, I didn’t feel like wandering around repeating exterior visits to various governmental buildings or white elephants.

I did walk around the Rudaki Ave area and beyond, quite early around 0800 to explore and try get rid of about USD5 of UZS.  If I hadn’t paid for one entrance ticket on card (thinking I would be short on cash), my balance would have been low enough to not worry.  Damn!

I spent the day largely indoors on the computer and internet doing things that not be possible for the next week on the Pamir Highway.

Deciding on the Pamir Highway trip

A few years ago, I had looked at doing the Pamir Highway but it was described as difficult because available vehicle seats may be hard to come by and one may be stuck for days.

Few months ago, I found www.visitalay.com which listed departure dates of their car and driver-sharing arrangements.  I naturally jumped at this opportunity when I found a date which suited me, with only one seat left.  That meant that as soon as I had committed with a deposit, everyone was confirmed!

Starting the adventure

The driver Altynbek along with fellow-travellers Marco, Lutz and Sandra arrived to pick me up around 0930.  Quite unexpectedly they had left the front seat free for me.  We agreed that we’d rotate the seating in a clockwise fashion daily.

Even though this is nominally the Pamir Highway road-trip, we depart from the official Highway M41 to follow the Afghan border closely.  We only remain on the M41:

• Leaving Dushanbe (Day 1 for a brief period).
• From Kalaikhum to Khorog (all of Day 2)
• After the Khargush Pass, around where we do the Panorama Ridge hike (second half of Day 4 and onwards till the end of the trip).

As some time is spent in the Wakhan Corridor and not part of the official M41, I may refer to this trip as the Pamir/Wakhan adventure instead.

We went to a mall where we had our permits and passports photocopied before setting off in earnest.  After about 90 mins we made a comfort stop near stalls selling dried fruit and nuts.  The journey took us through some very long tunnels which the driver explained was 4.4km and 2.2km, made with Chinese assistance.

We arrived at the 11^th Century Hulbuk Palace at 1220 to see visitors in another leaving and the guard locking up.  We weren’t allowed to enter but it seemed like no big loss as it didn’t look restored but completely brand new.

Hulbuk Palace.

Outside Kulob (Kulyab) at around 1300, we ate lunch in a courtyard restaurant of kebabs, salad and bread.  It was stinking hot as we hadn’t significantly gained much altitude.

When we made a fuel stop, I noticed that petrol was only TJS10.40 (USD0.98) per litre.

We continued at 1415 towards the valleys of the Shurobod Pass (1950m).  It was an 8% ascent and the driver took it a moderate pace as it was a very long stretch of ascent.

We stopped around 1600 and a road sign which showed the way to Afghanistan, which made for a good photo.  Unfortunately, it had been badly defaced by stickers.  I was so excited with photos that I forgot to pay more attention to the surrounding.  The others mentioned that there was a small guarded foot bridge across the river.

This is where we start following the Panj River, which separates this part of Tajikistan from Afghanistan, for over two days.  This is also where we get our first glimpse of Afghanistan until we diverge from the river.

The roads on the Tajik side are relatively good (so far) and sealed but on the Afghan side, they look like tracks made into the cliff side.  Likewise, the standard of homes differed.

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Kalaikhum overnight

At 1740 we arrived at the Roma Guesthouse at Kalaikhum.  Marco and I shared a room with a toilet shared with other rooms.  The Germans had private bathroom and aircon (which didn’t work well with weak power).

The guesthouse had a lovely seating area for dinner by the Obikhumbou River, which joined on to the Panj River.  We had a good meal of soup, plov and lots of fresh fruit.

At only 1300m elevation, it was an unpleasantly hot night and I didn’t need the blankets provided till around 0500.