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The pavement ends again before the road rises up to the second pass and the washboard combined with the gale force winds made for a challenge for about 10 km.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4328/...7f04c821_b.jpgTajikistan Sary-Tash-11 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4327/...6c8e73a9_b.jpgTajik Pamir-233 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr Finally the road heads up again and the mud surface is smoother and firm. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4321/...c68e11e6_b.jpgTajik Pamir by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4320/...32ed3e9b_b.jpgTajik Kyrgy Border-6 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4306/...d25cc05e_b.jpgTajik Kyrgy Border-2 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4324/...45b13979_b.jpgTajik Kyrgy Border-5 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
The approach to the Tajikistan border is huge mud ruts from trucks. It would be a nightmare here in the rain. You stop at the first gate and hand your customs declaration to the agent and then “you can go”. We figured we needed an exit passport stamp so we kept going past the construction site to a small office to get it. Then they raise the gate to “no man’s land”.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4308/...d704c41f_b.jpgTajikistan Sary-Tash-13 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4318/...ea074108_b.jpgTajikistan Sary-Tash-12 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4291/...5bfe01b2_b.jpgTajik Kyrgy Border-9 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
The road here is hard packed mud and rises to the next summit at 4285 M. It is very windy here as well.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4325/...60c71ed4_b.jpgTajik Kyrgy Border by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4298/...04f2dfbb_b.jpgTajik Kyrgy Border-11 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4291/...d8d31711_b.jpgTajik Kyrgy Border-13 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4311/...e4ae1a82_b.jpgTajik Kyrgy Border-12 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4295/...6154a213_b.jpgTajik Kyrgy Border-4 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4323/...324ce4ed_b.jpgTajik Kyrgy Border-10 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
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The clay/mud road is firm if a bit rough. There are a number of switchback as well. You go about 20 km to the next border for Krygyzstan. We saw about 15 bikes on a Polish tour headed up the hill at 330 pm. Not sure where they expect to get to this late in the day.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4322/...163c2786_b.jpgTajikistan Sary-Tash-14 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4294/...534c6659_b.jpgTajik Kyrgy Border-14 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4319/...af90c170_b.jpgTajikistan Sary-Tash-15 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4323/...467841cb_b.jpgTajik Kyrgy Border-8 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4301/...31e631c4_b.jpgTajik Kyrgy Border-7 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4299/...93405c37_b.jpgTajikistan Sary-Tash-16 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4316/...79e2e27d_b.jpgTajikistan Sary-Tash-17 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
Here you stop at passport control and the agent asks for your passport and registration. Very friendly and professional. After this you go 200 m to customs. Here they want the same info and 10$ for customs clearance. Krygyzstan , Kazakstan, and Russia are a customs zone and we are now cleared for all 3 and we have 2 months.
The road from the border is paved is a bit pot holed and we have just 25 km to Sary-Tash. Some kids had blocked the road with donkeys and clearly wanted a toll to pass, but there were one donkey short of a barricade. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4313/...134d80fe_b.jpgTajikistan Sary-Tash-18 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4291/...c5726031_b.jpgKyrgy_ by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
We rolled into the “town” at about 5 and there arrived to the one hotel in the GPS.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4305/...71256749_b.jpgKyrgy_-10 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4311/...d506b85f_b.jpgKyrgy_-9 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4327/...be3b700b_b.jpgKyrgy_-8 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr Hotel is a loose term it is one room with a dais and you supply your own bedding. There is an outhouse and no shower. While Trevor was inside checking it out a couple walked up and asked if he was travelling with Dan and Sara! This is Graham and Katrina Perkins who we have been following as they came west across Asia on their Africa twin. There had seen the bikes come into town from their hostel nearby. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4330/...78c7e2d5_b.jpgTajikistan Sary-Tash-19 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4324/...ebc8ed0c_b.jpgKyrgy_-6 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4308/...dc048e3d_b.jpgKyrgy_-5 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr We were not keen on either of these 2 options. A guy rolled up in a car and said he was a tour operator and had a house for rent. We followed him out of town, across a cow field to a house with no running water, an outhouse and a single room again. Ah NO. We then wound our way father thru the fields and the village back roads to the main highway where we had seen a restaurant and hotel. Very nice family. There had room with no beds, but they sleep on several layers of mats and gave us pillows and duvets. There is of course only outhouses, but they have running water. The owner is the chef and his wife the manager and she speaks English. She arranged for me to have a shower at a friends house about 150 m away. This was a hot steamy tiled room with a cement floor and a drain. There is a huge boiler at one side and a barrel of cold water to mix in for the best pour over shower ever! The price was right too. 15$ each for room, dinner, and breakfast. They also had wifi at least to check in after 4 days off line. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4330/...de97071e_b.jpgKyrgy_-7 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4307/...78636380_b.jpgKyrgy_-4 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4312/...77bee6e5_b.jpgKyrgy_-3 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4301/...289137da_b.jpgKyrgy_-2 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
The total SPOT of the Pamir and Wakhan Valley route! The dots are 15 minute intervals!
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4309/...748f3dc5_b.jpgScreen Shot 2017-07-17 at 16.51.12 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
July 17 Sary-Tash to Osh July 17-19
Despite sleeping on mats on the floor we actually all did well. We were up about 9 and after breakfast packed to go by 11. Our host (and chef) and his son. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4322/...99221c33_b.jpgKyrgy_-13 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr We had a short 185 km to Osh on a silky paved road. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4311/...5e9bfd7a_z.jpgScreen Shot 2017-07-17 at 17.32.22 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr We are still at 3600 m and cross one more pass to 4200 and then its down down down! Finally adequate O2. At the top of the pass there were a few kids selling milk and this one 12 year old boy spoke and read English perfectly. Drivers here are courteous and there is little traffic. We had no issues with the police despite what we had been told. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4302/...1c6bd949_b.jpgKyrgy_-20 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4305/...90cd4f8f_b.jpgKyrgy_-19 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4318/...6b31eae9_b.jpgKyrgy_-11 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4328/...330136e6_b.jpgKyrgy_-12 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
We passed thru quite a few villages in lush valleys.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4310/...fa7a8dde_b.jpgKyrgyzstan Osh by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4296/...f675f059_b.jpgKyrgy_-14 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4296/...a148c344_b.jpgKyrgy_-15 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4318/...b569a9e9_b.jpgKyrgy_-16 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4324/...328fbeac_b.jpgKyrgy_-17 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4304/...436df1e6_b.jpgKyrgy_-18 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4304/...293c167c_b.jpgKyrgyzstan Osh-2 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4308/...0654ef8a_b.jpgKyrgyzstan Osh-3 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
It did start to rain mid way and we took shelter and made coffee in a bus top. This drew quite a crowd of curious kids.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4324/...9cd31d84_b.jpgKyrgyzstan Osh-4 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4308/...9d905c1c_b.jpgKyrgy_-21 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4315/...bf4a7571_b.jpgKyrgy_-22 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
Arriving to the city it was 28 degrees and there was some traffic to deal with, but the hotel was easy access off the 41.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4326/...743f6618_b.jpgKyrgyzstan Osh-5 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4324/...4628188a_b.jpgKyrgy_-24 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr We had booked into a 4* hotel for 2 nights to really relax and get caught up on bike maintenance and RR. To be honest we wanted good wifi and a big TV so we could watch the first episode of Game of Thrones!!! https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4305/...9f793082_b.jpgKyrgyzstan Osh-6 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4316/...56cbec1e_b.jpgKyrgy Osh by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
Dan pulled the wheel off the 650 and took it around the corner to the tire shop for proper patching. We also noted earlier in the week that there was a small oil leak from the stator gasket and when we checked the oil it was fine, but when we checked today it was down. Orvar luckily has a later of oil and we topped up. We also sealed the leak with some high temp sealant, but we will keep an eye on the stator for a failure in the near future.
We had been in contact with Janet and Charlie Russel since we were in South America and now we find we are finally in the same spot. They delayed their departure to meet with us and exchange info on our respective routes. They are deciding how they will get to Dushanbe after hearing the lower route is now blocked. We had the opportunity to hear about their experience in Russia and Mongolia. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4311/...29d58c31_b.jpgKyrgy Osh-2 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
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