Wakham Valley to Murghab

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My search for a travel buddy to share costs to rent a car and driver for the Wakham valley turned out well meeting Nathaniel a French guy doing a silk road trip from Instanbul to Kasgar. Time was pretty short so we organised the 4x4 through one of the agencies paying $US500 for the full trip from Khorog on the western boundary of Tajikistanian Pamirs to Murghab in the middle of the Eastern Pamirs. Leaving the next morning after spending a last night staying with Jama and her Pamiri family we sent off south towards Iskamshim. The whole route from Khorog to Khargush borders the Panj and then Pamir river and therefore the border with Afghanistan. The first stop was to sample tthe 'mineral' water which is meant to give special powers of battling evil. Well at least that is what I think (imagined) our driver said. Further south we drove past one of the few briges connecting Tajikistan with Afghanistan. On saturdays there is a special market held on a little island in the middle of the river. Sadely we missed it as it would have been pretty cool to buy something from some afghani merchants.

One round in the Wakham proper our first stop was the Khakha Fortress which is indeed occupied by the Tajik military. We gave the very young solider a couple of somoni (~50c) to walk a bit further up and then to snap his photo. Its certainly the first time I've bribed a teenager with a machine gun.

Further along in a small village the locals where 'drafting' the sheep in the main street. After a fury of photo taking of sheep with their delightfully friendly pamiri owners we continued along to 12th century Yamchun Fort high above the valley floor. The commanding strategic position is spectacular with views east and west and south towards the stunningly high hindu kush. Its very easy to see how the wakham was such a important trade route and therefore its control so critical.

We next stopped in Yamg and had lunch (potato and onion bake with delicious tomatos and onion) with Aydar Malikmadov after he showed us the reconstructed house of his grandfather who was a sufi mystic. Next was Vrang with its Buddhist stupas which were shown to us my a entrepeaneurian 5 year old. Along the entire valley so many of the sights are so worthwhile due to the stunning views. We spent the night in a home stay (Khalifa I think) in Langar. For dinner we ate boiled noodles with a meat sauce washed down with lots of green tea and supplemented with dried apricots, mulberries and raisons.

The first half of the morning was spent climbing up above Langar to search out the petroglyphs of marco polo sheep and lots of other animals etched into the rock. They are pretty well graffittied by cyrillic, arabic and roman scripts. Finding them is pretty simple if you just keep going up keeping the gorge to your left. Its a decent climb and took us about 45mins to find them.

From Langar the drive up onto the Pamir highway takes about 5 hours through some extremely isolated and harsh landscapes. Its easy to see how hitchhiking through along that route would be very difficult. We did meet a couple of flemish women who had found a truck but had to spend the night in the back with potatos when the radiator leaked. You can just imagine how cold a september night is at 3000m. Once onto the highway near Alichuir we stopped for fried fish caught in local springs and then continued through to Murghab.

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Photos

DT dressed as Pamiri
...maybe i was in the Basmachi in a past life

Afghanistan
The land on the right hand side is Afghanistan