Our speedo’s battery started dying when we were coming into Dushanbe. We changed it when we arrived, at 14,000km, but that reset our overall trip counter. So unfortunately we haven’t got the total distance on there anymore, so any future distance photos will be +14,000km!
Firstly, what a place! I don’t really know where to start. Tajikistan is the poorest of the ‘stans and it was visibly obvious. It doesn’t help that the country is so mountainous, making it hard to access and also hard to grow crops and keep animals. We were in the Pamirs during the short season when it’s warm enough to be comfortable and enjoyable to cycle through, we can’t imagine what it’s like in the harsh winter (ok maybe Andy can with his love of skiing and scoping out where would be amazing to ski). With the high peaks brought incredible scenery, like nowhere we have seen before. Fifty percent of the country is over 3,000m. It was breathtaking and constantly changing. It was tough going and some of the most challenging cycling we have ever done, and somewhere we will always look back upon and be proud we managed to cycle it.
With 2 weeks until our Uzbek visas started we had some time on our hands. Tim and Claire had already mentioned they were planning a trip to the Fan mountains, so we invited ourselves along. Once at Vero’s, she helped look at the numerous options for a 4 day trip.With this information we decided to head for Alauddin lake. We left early (ish) Sunday to head to the taxi area on the outskirts of town. The main road was closed off as next week was the celebrations for 25 years of independence, they were practising for the parade. We managed to get into a shared taxi which took us out to the main bus/taxi place. Even before getting out of the car a 4×4 taxi driver was at the window asking where we wanted to go. We negotiated a price to get to Alauddin lake and we were on our way. Much quicker and easier than we had expected.
After a couple of days off in Khorog we were ready to tackle the final leg to Dushanbe. This stretch, although technically part of the Pamir Highway, doesn’t have the high altitude passes and we didn’t really know too much about the road ahead. We’d heard there is a northern route and a southern route to Dushanbe, the northern being shorter but tougher. Riding out of Khorog a road sign told us Dushanbe was 608km away. Presumably this is on the southern route, as we took the north route and covered 524km. Initially the road was similar to the ride in to Khorog from the Wakhan Valley. The surface was good and it followed the Panj river with Afghanistan just over the water to our left. We’d left quite late after a lie in then a trip to the supermarket and petrol station to stock up our supplies. Through the afternoon we met a few cyclists coming the other way, full of questions for us about our ride from Osh. Suddenly we’d become the experienced veterans who’d finished the Pamir Highway proper.
Pedalling West 