The journey from Khorog to to village of Ishkashim took us only 3.5 hours to cover 120km as we had some good runs of reasonable asphalt. Ishkashim is in the Wakhan Valley so we started our detour off the Pamir Highway. The Wakhan Valley is split between Tajikistan and Afghanistan, the border marked by the Pyanj River. It’s narrow, finger-like shape provides a geographical reminder of the border battles during the Great Game when the Russian and British Empires strived for dominance. Originally Indian territory, it was given to Afghanistan to create a buffer zone between the two. Flanked by the Pamir Mountains on one side and the Hindu Kush on the other the Wakhan Valley, named after Wakhi people who inhabit the area, is a flat valley that sits at an average elevation of 2700m. ... read more

The are two options to head east from Dushanbe: "North" via the actual Pamir Highway is the more direct route, though the road condition is worse and it crosses a very high pass. Or "South" via Kulob (splitting from the Pamir Highway at Vahdat and rejoining at Kalaikhum). It picks up following the Afghanistan border earlier and while 200km longer is in better condition. Some also say the scenery is also better by a pip. This gave us a dilemma, we'd come to follow the Pamir Highway and in our minds were only going to part from the highway to explore the Wakhan Valley, but with the scenery supposedly a bit better on the South... We tried not to be swayed by the temptation to get to the Afghan border a couple of hours earlier, we'd ... read more

A key driver for this trip is our desire to traverse the Pamir mountains. With public transport infrequent hired drivers with 4WDs are the usual mode of travel. We depart Dushanbe with the driver we've found tomorrow for a 10 day Pamir adventure that will take us to Osh in Kyrgyzstan, via the Pamir Highway, with one detour off the highway to travel through the Tajikistan side of the Wakhan Valley. So why are we so excited about this? The Pamir mountains are fabled to be one of the most highest and beautiful ranges in the world. Occupying Tajikistan, China and small parts of Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan they lie between the Hindu Kush, Tien Shan and the Himalayas. Known in Persian as 'Bam-i-Dunya' or ‘Roof of the World’, they apparently form one of the most ... read more

Our flight to Tehran was delayed by nearly 2 hours which meant we didn’t arrive at the hotel until nearly 10pm. It was cold and raining and as we drove it turned to light snow. An hour after we arrived everywhere was blanketed. The last day in Tehran was taken up by Marie doing some work, Emma went shopping at the bazaar. Most people would bring home some handicrafts as a souvenir, or maybe a rug. Oh no not us we have 6 Iranian kebab skewers (which are not small) for the bargain price of about NZ$3. Ironically since work was paying we stayed in what should have been by far the best hotel but was by far the worst; rude service, appalling food and rubbish internet. Completely un-Iranian. You wonder when you’re here in Iran ... read more

Our driver was 10 mins late but given he lives in a different town we accepted it with good grace. We found this out when after our breakfast stop at a very nice café in Shahr-E Kurd 90 minutes after we’d been collected and Sadj (our driver) took us to his house 200m down the road so we could use his bathroom. Turns out he’d taken us to his local for breakfast. Our wheels were an old school Nissan Patrol. Complete with snorkel, expedition rack, ladder and really decent off road wheels including on the spare. Built in compartments in the back held tools and a tent and sleeping bag. We figured he knew what he was doing. Sadj asked us if we liked Iranian music. Of course we said. So up it was turned and ... read more