Pamir Highway trip Day 8 - Zong to Langar

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July 19 - Pamir Highway trip Day 8 - Zong to Langar

I woke up every hour from 2:30 to 6:30am, but overall I would say I slept pretty well. And I didn't feel any insects on me, so that was a win. I read a little, until Anna got up at 7:30, and then we all met for breakfast at 8am. Afterwards, we headed out for our morning hike. Dish, our driver, drove us back to Zong, a nearby village. From there, we had a one hour hike straight up, basically. We asked people for directions to the fort, and one man walked us part of the way up. We passed several donkeys along the way. Close to the fort, I took out my camera, but dropped my lens cap. I watched it roll back down the hill while holding my breath. It felt like it rolled forever. But it stopped in a place that was still possible to get to, so I put my bag and camera down and went to retrieve it.

We stayed up by the fort ruins for a while, relaxing and taking in the views. So beautiful. And so peaceful. Around 10:50 we started out walk back to Langar from the fort. It took two hours in total, and it was beginning to feel warm, as the breeze had died down. But it was still pretty good overall. Sometimes I wonder what I'm doing, walking all this way in the sun. But the views were always worth it.

We could finally see our homestay and started to scramble down the hill to get back. When we did, Dish drove us to a small shop in the village, which had almost nothing for sale. Anna bought pickles and ate them for lunch. Gio and Tommy bought some noodles and tuna. I decided to just eat some of the pecans and dried mangoes I had brought from home. Afterwards I washed my towel a bit, to try to get rid of the some of the dirt from yesterday. Then a bit of relaxing.

Just before 4pm I washed my green pants, hoping they would actually be a normal color again, instead of sun bleached/dusty and that they would be dry when we got back from the next fort, but no luck on either count. We left shortly afterwards and Dish drove us to the Ramt fort. Well, close by, and then we hiked the rest of the way. We had a local boy show us the way. We paid him about 50 cents and he was happy. The views, again, were great. This time we could see a river in a canyon. Very nice.

Back at the homestay, I had a shower and then we had dinner, much the same as last night, but this time with a small salad that Gio had requested. My stomach started to feel a little funny today - hoping it's just a little bloated.

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Comments

[D MJ Binkley]

World Traveler
Amazing scenery.