And so to the start of the more mountainous country and moving towards the more challenging part of our journey. We started with a camp at Iskanderkul lake a beautiful lake high up fed from melting snow. Our stay was in an old Soviet style camp. Very primitive arrangement with a shower sort of balanced above the ground.
I decided to brave the lake. It was so cold it felt like it was biting. Second attempt I managed to swim a few yards. I wouldn’t have wanted to go out of my depth due to the cold.
The down side was the biting black flies that take a lump our of you. They only attacked certain people, and I was a favourite. The bites go red and spread out and then after a few days develop lumps and get itchy ooch!
93% of Tajikistan is mountain. The official language Tagine is close to Persian. Dushanbe only became the capital in 1925 when the Soviets decided a capital was needed, before this the area was ruled from Bukhara. The name means Monday after the Bazaar day. There was a fort nearby but no great cultural history for the country.
The region has been through a mix of religions due to its place on the silk road. The original religion was Zoroastrians, then Buddhism came along until the Arabs invaded with Islam.
Tajikistan has been part of a whole series of empires over the years. King Cyrus made it to this area and many other emires followed. Timor Amir was also one of the empires.
The museum opened 10 years after independence in 2001. Its most important exhibit is the sleeping Buddha shown below. Rescued from where it was buried, in sections and restored.
Most of the city is either Soviet or very modern. Tajikistan has a lot of money from gold and aluminium mining which is being invested in the owns around the country. It also has a lot of Chinese investment in its infrastructure.
A tour of the city took us to the Ismail Somoni statue. Credited as the founder of Tajikistan and after who the currency is named. it was opened in 1999 1,100 years after his uniting the state. He has an open book for knowledge and the crown which is now part of the flag with seven stars to represent perfection and happiness.
There was a civil war after independence as some wanted an Islamic state, however the country is still secular.
We went through many parks with fountains and tended flowers. Much use is made of the plentiful water from the Pamir mountains for irrigation. Much of the centre is very new with recent sky scrapers all lit up with LEDs at night. There are statues to the hero’s of the past including King Cyrus and a monument to the poet Rudaki the father of new Persian poetry and of Tajik literature.
I finally found a camping shop here to replace our camping mat which was still leaking despite my best efforts at a repair. that led me to the Irish pub next door. Irish but not as you’d know it. No Guinness and offering Sushi!! Another phenomenon of this city was the sheer numbers of taxis. Even in our backwater road we just had to walk to the corner and stand for a few minutes to get two taxies. I think over half the cars must have been taxies.
After the high life of Dushanbe we set off for the isolated mountains and the Pamir highway or military road M41. This road built as part of Russia’s empire building is now in very poor condition along most of its length. It connects central Asia to through towards China and is the second highest highway in the world at a maximum of 4,600 metres.
This is where we started on our altitude sickness tablets to prepare us for the hights. The first section was actually in good condition as repair work has been gradually progressing over the last few years. This unfortunately means that there has also been a section closed 7am to 7pm for the same length of time for work. The road ran along the banks of the Panji river for the first few days. This is the border with Afghanistan separating the Pamir and the Hindu Kush mountains.
We saw occasional settlements on both sides of the river and a border crossing over the river.
The plan was to stop for a bush camp the first night with a 4am start the next morning to get through the closed section before 7am. So much for plans! We found a flat deserted spot and started setting up camp. In no time we had an audience on the other side of the river – where did they come from?
Shortly afterwards three soldiers turned up on our side to move us on. They felt we were at risk camping there. At this point I was halfway through cooking dinner for everyone and most of the tents were up. One of the our very chatty young women kept the soldiers talking ( and had an offer of marriage), while the tents were very slowly dismantled and I carried on cooking – no pressure! We got the tent dismantling to coincide with the meal being finished. I dished up and everyone got on the truck with their bowl. the kitchen dismantling happened to coincide and we departed very smartly. We finally found a place to sleep the other side of the road works about midnight and I just kipped in the open in my mat and in my bag.
After this and even before in places the road deteriorated.as we weaved around pot holes and bounced up and down.
We won an extra day which we used to explore a section of road that the truck couldn’t do. Hot springs again just for a change.
We also saw a fort see me with Afghanistan in the background.
We saw some magnificent scenery but the road got worse.
and a rare cloud structure
We then moved on to the hights – a statue of a Marco Polo goat and the remote villages on top of the world. A place where the local shopping mall is inside shipping containers. We found that the rooms inside the houses are a odds with the outside appearance being quite luxurious inside.
We made it to Erkin home stay a place where it was still snowing just as we were about to move into June! I left my shoes outside as we were expected too. Somehow everyone else’s got moved inside and mine were full of snow in the morning. Luckily it shook out easily!
We saw bricks being made by the same method as in the village in Iran and piles stored for the summer building programme. We had wonderful meals and were entertained by our host’s little girl dancing for us.
So on to Kyrgyzstan. A sleepy border to leave Tajikistan – the guards were settled in their office with watching movies as all the trucks seem to stop at the last town. We had a long delay several requests for cigarettes sorry only two light smokers so two part packets and finally into no man’s land 20k of switchback dirt track down to the checkpoint for Kyrgyzstan. This was where the truck got stuck in the mud!
We had a team building exercise digging, collecting and placing stones and then with all of us off to reduce weight the truck went for it and we moved on to the border.
