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. 
