Leaving Khorog to continue the Pamir Highway, remote dirt track through the Himalayas. We climbed up to Jelandy where we got a room at a health spa, comfortable quarters in this harsh landscape. The Lonely Planet refers to this place as a sanatorium, because people come here to fix their ailments, no evidence of loonies, but then who are we to talk. Lucky to get beer from a group of German voluntary workers, who'd had their accountant ship it in from the capital. The effects of higher altitude now and I can feel the heart pumping hard when trying to sleep, we've gained 1500m today, sleeping high at 3800 metres. Bodies adjust to altitude given time.
Koitezek 4272m
It's great doing all these passes, bagging another at 4272 metres carrying 10 litres of water, hard work but easier than before. Had been going uphill most of the day, it finally opened onto a wide plane at the top, yak herds with clanging bells and basic farmhouse. Dramatic but not in that glacier peaked way you sometimes expect. It was more like high altitude desert, the effects of height noticeable. 10 minutes of gentle downhill we came to a stream and celebrated by cooking a bowl of noodles. As we rolled on the mountains charcoal/brown/sandy/red hills as if worn by the effects of ageing, ice and glaciers we can see higher up. And onto the Pamir Plateau.
For anyone who wonders what's on the bike:- 2 smaller front bags containing clothes/toiletries, 1 rear bag crammed with food, the other with guides/cooking equipment/misc, and 1 big big on the rear rack containing sleeping bag & tent, etc... On top of all that there's room for up to 12 litres of water tied all around the place. In the mountains we collect water from fresh side streams, however, it's not always available, some of run off water is muddy. So, it comes as an extra chore, to climb these passes with a safety net of a couple of days water. When the area ahead looks good, I chuck it away! The huge food bag contains several packets of noodles which don't require much fuel to cook, whilst pasta/rice is good, this has to be simmered using up valuable fuel. Glad I spent a whole rest day fixing the cooker, taking it apart and turning a broken component up-side-down. Burns petrol/diesel/spirit and we fill up the fuel bottles at petrol stations, or anything going. Did a book swap with a fellow cyclist, and ended up with war&peace, a huge novel, which has been carried since Turkey.
And along the plateau, it was dry and barren, until we came to Alichur, where received an invitation to stay with a family in extremely basic accommodation. We cycled 10km tents, and found a wide grassy plain to pitch the tents, we pushed the bikes for 2km to find a fresh river/pond. That was the best night's camping, so big and desolate, fringed by mountains. The bizarre highlight for me, was leaving the tent for a midnight wee, the landscape lit by moon and gentle sound of duck quacking. Next time bring a gun and for roast duck.
Brunch at the Yurt
Look, that must one of the yurts ahead, lets have a look, and so we were kinda invited to go inside. A "yurt" is a big wooden framed tent used by Kyrgyzstan people. This family were rearing yaks up here for the summer. Wow, friendly and it's all yak yak tak, everything is made from yak; yak milk/yoghurt/butter, yak coats/tent-skin, a yak central heating system(dried yak dung), and the yurt's skin. It's a magical place inside the yurt.
Ethnically this family were Kyrgyz, come up to rear yak on the plateau during the summer months, they had a car outside the tent, and stone out buildings, but obviously preferred their yurt. Healthy outdoor life. For brunch I had the lot, fresh dairy produce, bread+butter, yoghurt, washed down with tea, the best cream tea I've ever had.
And then onto to Murgab for a rest day and get our visas stamped at the next check-point. A basic market for supplies and beer. You can't imagine how interesting shopping becomes when you have little. It's a settlement in middle of nowhere, unflattering in appearance, the saving grace was the guest house. Shame, was too early in the day to stay at the yurt.
Akbaital 4655m
We've been sleeping high, up to 4000m altitude, and the biggest pass at 4655 metres started out easy, then the road deteriorated and the wind picked up. There was a viscous sand-storm at the top of pass, the kind that sandpapers your skin, so didn't spend long celebrating, just enough time for photo of us in the maelstrom. Coming down the other side, the road was in very bad condition, somewhat slowing our retreat down into pastures greener. There weren't many places suitable for tents, and we grabbed the chance to stay in a very basic abandoned building, but well sheltered from the wind and the worsening weather. Was easy, just picked a room, used the tent as a ground mat and curled into the sleeping bag.
Karakul Lake
Had a few good camping spots, one by lake Karakul (3951m), one of the highest lakes in the world & formed by a meteor impact. Pitched our tents on a vast sandy dessert area nearby. The tent worked wonderfully in the high winds. Another camp-site at the end of long day, walking across a semi-dessert plain for 2km to a river we'd seen in the distance, and that was cool, a vast wide area, just us and the river + a few ducks I interrupted answering the call of nature one full-moon night, beautiful, quack, quack. Cooked a tin of stewed beef I'd been saving for a treat, a bit of outdoor life heightens all those food pleasure areas of the body, so something sounding ordinary, just tastes completely gorgeous. Cold beer (or milkshake) is glorious like being in heaven.
Customs 4200m
The last big 4200m pass was hard, the weather slowly worsened, until we were battling horizontal ice/snow wind up the pass. Snow was beginning to settle, mother nature throwing the elements at us, and then we reached Tajikistan customs just before the top, a bare-bones hut with bunk-bed and a nice heater yum yum. The border-guard armed with AK47 dutifully filled out his paper spreadsheet with our passport details and we repeated the whole process 50 metres on, all a bit bewildering in the wild mountains, Edmund Hilary and Sherpa Tenzing didn't have to do this on the summit of Everest. Then we crawled downhill balancing carefully driving through snow until things gradually improved and we sailed into Kyrgyzstan customs, and that's the next blog....
We mostly had blue sky hot sunny days cycling through the Pamirs and the scenery stunning!