The Afghan Border

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.