Above: Lake Karakol and the mountains in the background.
Long break at Murghab
We departed Alichur at 0900 headed towards Murghab, hometown of Altynbek, our driver. It is where we rejoin the M41 Pamir Highway, and also the largest town on the highway.
The scenery had changed from desert to grassland in parts. And the roads were sealed in parts too.
At a checkpoint we changed the right rear tire before arriving into Murghab around 1140.
All of us had too many TJS left based on the advice of our trip organiser, Mr Sali. He had asked us to allow USD30 per night for accommodation and USD15 per night for water, lunch and incidentals.
Altynbek took us to the bank at Murghab where I converted my TJS to USD at a great rate, leaving only enough for tonight’s accommodation and a little extra.
Next, he dropped us at the bazaar to kill 3h and grab lunch, while he went home to see his family. The bazaar was a small collection of shipping containers! Walking around, there were some buildings and we went into one for some lunch.
Afterwards, we walked around to the Lenin statue. There was a museum of sorts around which the Germans wanted to go to. With nothing else to do, we went along with it but when the distance became too large in the heat, Marco and I retreated to a café for an hour. When we met up at the café, the Germans reported that the museum was closed.
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- Blue Lake on the way.
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- Lenin in Murghab.
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- With Lenin in Murghab.
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- Murghab, including container bazaar.
Onwards to Karakol
We got picked up at 1440 and continued to Tajikistan’s Lake Karakol (as opposed to the ones in Kyrgyzstan,Kazakhstan or Russia). The journey took us over the 4655m high Akbaital Pass, which represented the highest point on our road trip, excluding the Panorama Ridge hike.
The Chinese border was to the right of us as we approached the lake. We stopped on the shore for photos before arriving at our somewhat lakeside homestay around 1700.
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- Scenery along the way.
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- Scenery along the way.
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- Lake Karakol and the mountains in the background.
With a few other guests around, unlike last night, the banya was ready for us. It was a new experience having a co-ed wash with the Germans.
People are ethnic Kyrgyz and use Osh/Bishkek time instead of Dushabe time, so we had to be careful when enquiring about dinner, departure etc times.
Here, I had a good chat to Chuck on another trip, which I nearly signed up to. He had had trouble with the runs so I gave him so loperamide.
Approaching the end of the trip, I was keen not to get sick with the salad served at dinner. I was wary of the water they might have used to wash it, but I realised too late that we’re by Lake Karakol, a large freshwater lake at 4000m above sea level.
For the first time, all four of us shared a room. Tonight was our highest night at 3960m and it would be by second night taking a sleeping pill to overcome the problems sleeping due to altitude. I’ve read that it’s not ideal to take sleeping pill for altitude problems but WTH since I wasn’t having any other symptoms.
Not as bad as expected
Tonight is our first night with a long-drop toilet. In fact, there were two toilets, one squatting and one with a plastic toilet add-on on top.
The warning given in the trip information sheet suggested three nights of long-drops, no showers and two nights of no power.
It failed to clarify that where we had no showers, we had banyas. But in one case, we had a shower available but there was no hot water.
And so far, we’ve had power every night. And phone signal at least for part of every day.