While doing a week of volunteering in Dushanbe I tried to work out what to do with five additional days I had tagged onto the trip to go and explore the country. I was equipped with a slightly dated Lonely Planet for Central Asia, which dedicated a scant 46 pages to travelling in Tajikistan, 33 of which were about Dushanbe (which I had been exploring already), the Pamirs (too far afield for the time available), or Afghanistan (unfortunately not allowed on my single entry visa…). So there wasn’t much to go on. From what little information there was I decided to head to Iskanderkul, a lake in the Fann mountains, and Sarytag, a small village just beyond it which I hoped would offer some hiking opportunities, although the blistering 40 degree heatwave and my perpetual tendinitis
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