Dushanbe to Khorog

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The trip south into the Pamirs was the real definitation of a road journey. The total trip, virtually non-stop was 20 hours along very scenic but often quite frightening mountain scenary. My day started early leaving the Adventureer's Inn at 6am following by a taxi ride across town towards the airport and shared taxi stop for the Pamirs. I met a guy who looked like a 'good' driver and we decided on 170 somoni for a seat in his land crusier. The custom is that drivers car rent out single seats to whoever wants to make the trip. After sitting around for a couple of hours waiting for the other seats to fill I was getting a little concerned that he wasn't being very persistent with his attempts to lure more passengers. However, I ended up being changed into another car (under the auspices of my driver) and when a well Pamir with encellent english asked me to join their car I was in. It was all very foutunate as Jamilla was from Khorog and with her two cousins was returning after spending a small holiday in Dushanbe. It was near perfect situation with a car full of friendly people and a departure time of about 10am. The road took us east through Karategin along in parts what I think was the Surkhob river. The road then heads south up over the Sagirdasht pass (3252m) to Kal-i-khum. At a 'truck' stop by the pass we had boiled salted mutton and bread and onion which was quite tasty and certinaly better than the soup from the previous stop 4 hours before. I've never ever been really that found of hard boiled meat before......

The drive along the Panj which adventually becomes the Syr Darya (Oxus) was fantastic. If not for the near full moon it would have been a very long dark ride but instead views of massive mountains and cliffs on the Afghan side of it river filled my window. Its still a very long way from there thorugh Darvaz and Rushan before reaching Shugnan the 'province' of the GBAO with Khorog its capital. The driver announced a couple of times he was stopping for a wee nap so we just lay about in the car. My personal opinion is that these guys do extremely well, it was a long drive and never once did I really feel in danger. I was very glad he was taking his time and didn't feel as hurried as the other drivers who occassionally spead past. We arrived into Khorog at about 4am and then I ended up sleeping in the lounge room of Jamilla and her family. My mission and real hope is that I meet some other travellers and can organise a shared car to take us through the Wakham Valley and up onto the Pamir highway and onto Murghab.

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