Category: PENNY TO HELSINKI

Today trip started out continuing along the Pamir Highway with out any improvement in condition from yesterdays wavy tar seal that has not aged as well as desired. At the 126k mark we had to turned left on a road to what is known as The Wakhan Corridor. This is a strip of Afghanistan that extends off the main body of the country up between Tajikistan and Pakistan to the Chinese border.

This road was not much more then a track that had been dozed through the boulder fields over the mountain pass at 4377metres.  As we crossed the pass we descended to a police checkpoint before following the Pamir River down stream. This was also the point that we began traveling along the Afghan border. For the rest of the day we followed the river that from the border between Tajikistan and Afghanistan. This will also be our route for the next 3 days.

Were we came into the Pamir valley it was a wide shallow rounded glacier valley. As we progressed downstream the valley just got narrower with ever increasingly steeper sides. As we didn’t have a long drive for the day we where able to take our time and look around enjoying the scenery and getting some good photos.

We ended the day in the small valley village of Langer at another Home-stay. These home stays are really fantastic places to stay with great atmosphere. All of them include dinner and breakfast. Last night dinner was a goat and vegetable soup followed by a plate of homemade potato fries with desert being some biscuits and sweets on the table.

On arrival in town we when to the service station for some fuel to ensure we had ample for tomorrow. On past trips I have purchased fuel out of 20 litre plastic drums. But in remote Tajikistan it is decanted from a large tank that sits on the ground in a shed into a 10 litre steel can with a spout. This can is held in the hole dug under the tap till it’s close to the 10 litre mark. It’s then poured into you car with a funnel.

We woke early at our wonderful home stay too a brilliant clear day. There was very light snow cover higher on the hills around town. The mountian range across the valley from us looked brilliant with the sun rising on the brilliant white peaks and glaciers. This range also happened to be our border crossing too Tajikistan for our 230k drive today.

Breakfast of the nicest rice porridge was equally as good as the dinner the night before so we all had a good start for the days drive.

We headed off down the Pamir Highway, that term is used fairly loosely as it was soon a badly potholed and uneven tar sealed road that charged into a gravel track over the two 4500+ metre passes for the day. The road that was most likely upgraded way back in the Soviet era ready for their move into Afghanistan back in the very late 70’s. Since then it has seen a multitude of harsh winters with what appears to be the only upkeep since the collapse of the Soviet Union being the landslides and washouts get fixed with a Dozer so as to keep the road clear.

The quality of the road was very much out weighted by the vista of the drive. It was difficult for me to keep my eyes on the road looking for potholes when everything around was so brilliant to look at. Luckily enough there were good bits of road where I could steal a look.

Our exit from Kyrgyzstan was equally as painless as our entry with it being one of the simplest borders I’ve ever crossed in that region.

Tajikistan however was a slightly different event. For us it was not a long process just a complicated process with us needing to buy 3 different permits totally $100.00 US before we could proceed. We were through the place in about an hour, unlike Reg And Mitchel who got away 2 hours behind us after arriving at the border just behind us. Each little office we went too to purchase a permit was also the house for the border guards. Not where I would choose to want to work as the border post was at 4200 metres and on a brilliant sunny day in mid September it was only 1C at midday. Of course as normal our border crossing involved a photo shoot for all the staff before paperwork can begin.

The rest of the day was spent at similarly high elevation in what is best decided as mountain desert. We drove past a brilliant turquoise lake the previous day had hosted a roof of the world sailing regatta the previous day. This regatta was a three boat event held by some crazy sailors on a lake at 3975 metres because they can I guess.

Up in the mountains the wind never seems to stop blowing during the day. Some time we are fighting heads winds that almost require us too change down a gear then a bit further up the valley around the corner the tail wind is great assistants.

The day finished with our arrival in Murgrad at the Pamir Hotel. Tonight’s booking was all sorted and easy to arrange as the 16 year old daughter of the owner had taught herself excellent English from books and the Internet.

We gave Penny a grease and check over as the springs had been working over time today. 

Today we departed China after 25 days and approx 7000 kilometres along what has been one the most spectacular drives this trip I think.  More about that later and some photos which I hope will show the beauty of the area.

We left Kashgar for the immigration post to wait for a hour before it opened only to spend another hour getting processed. After processing we drove the 140k to the border control post to find that it had just closed for lunch for 2.5 hours. This blog post is being written while we wait patiently for the border guards to finish lunch. The town we are waiting in is probably the biggest dump of a town we have seen this trip. But low and below amongst the hovel we found a really nice noodle and vegetable lunch with a couple bits of meat sprinkled through. The true test of the lunch will be in an hour or so’s time.

Now back to today’s drive after the customs clearance. We have been traveling through desert valleys of eroded sedimentary rock with many different colours and shade of colour. Well not much of it is hard enough to be rock so it has eroded in to wonderful shapes.

There is a lot of thing I could write about this trip and China but political comment is best not on a blog while traveling in China.

It still half on hour before we can move so I’ll continue the rest of this after we arrive in Sary Tash in Kyrgyzstan for a one night stop before proceeding to Tajikistan.

We have arrive in Sary Tash, which is a quant little high altitude Old Russian town at 3000+ metres. On the drive in to town across the high flat grass plains we passed many nomadic goat and horse herders.

The scenery this afternoon has been equally special as we have had high mountain range on the left covered with snow and large glaciers.

When we arrived in Town we had a lot trouble finding our booked accommodation to the extent that when an hour later when we found the one we had booked they had no record of our booking and were booked out. So off around town to find another home stay.  We found a place with 11 beds for us with dinner and breakfast for $25.00 each. We don’t have showers and the toilet is up the back yard and a long drop. The great thing is that we are warm in the house as it was 11C when we arrived and it getting very cold as the sun sets. Some of the local are saying that it might snow tonight, It’s certainly cold enough to now with plenty of the right clouds coming of the mountains.

The house is very warm inside so let’s hope it stays that way all a night. The only down side to the place is there is no shower. When I asked the host about a shower she said “Shower in City”

We have just finished the dinner that was provided by our host with 2 hours notice. Everyone was so happy with the dinner and with nothing else’s to do everyone has gone to bed early ready for the trip too Tajikistan tomorrow.

Tomorrow we leave China for Kyrgyzstan for one day then into Tajikistan for about 6 days. During this time we are not expecting much if any Internet for blog posting. I will be however writing a post every day as we go along which I will post as soon as we get Internet. At times I may only be able to publish the post and not get it emailed out to you all so if you have not heard from me just click on the blog and see if I’ve posted some new stuff and photos. Until the Internet returns this is the Kashgar report.

Day I

Kashgar is a very busy town for international tourist as it’s the cross roads of the northern and southern Silk route.

We have a 2 day stop here as we had made up a lot of time crossing the desert in that past few days. Yesterday morning was car service morning for the other cars and Alim took us to the service centre for the BYD dealership. BYD stands for Build Your Dream. As Peter is a excellent Radiologist and a not so good mechanics I went with him to help service the Peugeot. When we got it on the hoist we changed the oil and checked out all the underside of the car. We found that he had a slight crack in his fuel tank so we drained that and fixed it with quick metal putty and all seem to fine now. Garry’s Landcruiser needed some welding on the exhaust and Frank’s Willies needed some brake-fluid but nothing major for any of the cars.  We left there after a couple hour working with the local Mechanics with no common language, a car wash and a bill for about $40.00 each.

After lunch the rest of the group when out looking around the town. I how ever was feeling unwell and tired so decided to retire to my room for a rest. I must have got something really bad in the morning because the rest of the day was spent with the worst tummy bug I’ve had since Kathmandu in 1976.

Day 2

Today is market day in Kashgar so the first stop for the morning was at the animal market just out side town. This is the market to buy and sell you animals from sheep to Camels plus purchase any supplementary food for them as well. After the animal market, taxis were a bit thin on the ground out there so we headed back in town in the back of little 3 wheel electric carts things.

Once in town we headed to the town market or what would be best described as a Bazar. The range of produce at this market was as diverse as any Bazar around the world. Alim said your can buy anything at this market other then Roosters Milk! I guess that a Chinese expression.