Ollie, Seb and I set off from Langar late in the afternoon, with the intention of camping on a hill overlooking the town. It would take us about an hour but the views made up for it. It was also a chance for Ollie and I to practice our astrophotography. I only got a couple of good shots; something to add to my learning of photography.
Masha and Adam would join us in the morning after collecting some bread for us all, their guesthouse offered to make us bread. After they arrived we set off. It was going to take us about 2 days to get to Khargush Pass and 1 day to go over and down. There was little traffic, a bonus but also no life, no villages or shops. There was a possibility of a cafe about halfway.
Roads, burning and not the slow one for once!
A broken gravel track, marked with potholes and occasional bits of sand marked our path. The expanse of the valley was mainly orange with occasional reds in the cliffs or patches of green where the river met level ground. Many of the tributaries for the river were clear in the morning and dirty in the afternoon as the snow-capped mountains melted.
Occasionally, these tributaries would have trees, a welcome shade from the burning sun. Whilst at altitude it was cool; however, the Sun’s UV rays cut through clothes and an extra layer was required. My nose still got burnt despite the copious amounts of sun cream; I eventually went down the route of painting my nose with sun cream.
Oddly enough for once I didn’t find myself at the back between Ollie, Seb and I. Seb’s bike wasn’t built for these roads and mine was. Plus Adam and Masha were more at my pace. It was nice to have company as I cycled!
For the hope of a cafe
I had underprepared on the food front and was sort of hoping that the rumour of a cafe about halfway along was true. There was a building about 400m off the main road and we made our way there. We were welcomed by the security guard who informed us this was a hunting lodge and was closed for the summer. However, this didn’t stop him from inviting us in and making us tea. Luckily we had our food for lunch. He also gave us some fruit and bread.
We continued to Khargush village and were met at a military checkpoint by a soldier who was not expecting cyclists! After a radio call with his boss, he let us through and offered us a place to stay for 50 TJS in a tourist shelter. I say village in the loosest possible sense. Whilst there are several buildings about, no one lives here except for the soldiers on the military base.
Camp or shelter
The tourist shelter turned out to be a bit of a dive and makes me think the worst bothies (mountain huts) in Scotland are luxurious hotels. After a quick chat with the others, we headed up the pass to another shelter. At this point, I just wanted to camp but Seb and Ollie don’t like to pitch in the wind, let alone sleep in it.
The other shelter was another 1.6km up the pass but 200/300m of climb and after a long day fighting the wind, I didn’t want to go. But pushed myself up the hill anyway. Once there the shelter turned out to be just as bad, Seb decided to camp outside using the building to shelter from the wind. Ollie put his tent up inside the shelter! All that just to camp!
Adam and Masha managed to find a small paddock for our tents; originally it was used for animals but not for a long time from the look of it. At night we were joined by 20 to 30 cows; however, they didn’t seem to worry about us.
The Khargush pass and a temporary parting of ways
I set off before everyone, knowing I was slow on passes. I was powered by overnight oats! Much simpler than having to cook the oats in the morning. The road of the climb was much the same as the past few days and it was hard going. I’m pretty sure I had several conversations with myself involving many swear words. But I made it to the top. There were no indicators for the top bar a couple of piled stones. Perfect for the obligatory, ‘I’m at the top’ photo!
With a backdrop of snow-capped mountains, a lake and green grass. I came across a herdsman and his son and several hundred sheep and goats. We didn’t have a shared language but we did manage to communicate. He lives up here with his son during the summer months with his herd. He invited me for tea but I couldn’t see where he was pointing and worried it would take an hour to get there so I politely declined whilst giving his son some chocolates.
The way down was even tougher, there was more washboard and about 2km of deep sand which throws you sideways. I eventually decided to reduce the pressure in my tyres and was able to cycle on this road at a reasonable pace. Why I didn’t do this before I don’t know!
We finally joined the main road. Both Ollie and I got there around the same time and kissed the smooth asphalt road. No more washboard, potholes, sand and general pain! However, Ollie and Seb went west towards Lake Yashikul; I joined Adam and Masha and headed towards Alichur to resupply with food.
Kind people and poor regions
There were only 40km left to Alichur but I only had the first 8 gears and it became irritating that I would hit my highest gear and ‘spin out.’ Whilst I could pedal faster, I couldn’t get the power to the wheels without higher gears. I guess spinning is winning!
Alichur is a town that time has forgotten. The only modern building is the new Police station. All others are based on the original mud brick design favoured for decades. We made it to the shop; we were expecting maybe a small amount of vegetables, no fruit. We were pleasantly surprised, stocked with root vegetables, tomatoes and cucumbers. Plus even some fruit, just apples but they had fruit! Tins of beans, peas, sweet corn and tomato paste. Everything a cyclist needs. They even had clothes.
We were also hoping for bread and maybe even butter. Masha, who speaks Russian, asked about butter and bread. As usual, someone was dispatched for bread and wanted nothing in return. As for the butter, the shop owner popped into her home next door and came back with over 1kg of butter, which she had churned by hand. Once again, despite our offering they would not take our money.
We decided on a camp just on the edge of the town next to a building under construction. After putting up our tent and starting to cook dinner, the owner came over. He was living across the road with his parents. We initially thought we might get moved on but he was happy with us camping there. He invited us for breakfast the next morning. The possibility of breakfast in a nice warm house was not going to get turned down!
You can have too much luck with the weather
Up to now, we had no bad weather in the Pamirs, this is unusual. Well, luck would not stay with us. The sun rose and we noticed on the horizon what might be the starting of a storm but we went for breakfast anyway. It was a bit of an odd breakfast, chunks of hard bread placed in a bowl of tea. After eating the tea-soaked bread you drink the tea. No wasting anything.
After a quick visit to the shop and the water pump. The children had come to fill the buckets of water for their homes. They then decided to help us fill our water bottles, enthusiastically pushing on the pump and flooding us with water until the bottles were overflowing! Masha and Adam had stickers ready to hand out to the children. Much healthier than the chocolate I was handing out!
We eventually set off and kept an eye on the storm chasing us from behind. Once again the lack of gears was getting irritating and I started falling behind. The storm would hit me soon. Luckily it was only a small spray.
We stopped for lunch in the only place we could see on the road, which happened to be the home of a lovely old man who invited us in. His daughter-in-law and her three children were also staying with him. We shared our food with them but the daughter-in-law was serving us with bread and tea and never joined us. You got a feeling that she wasn’t allowed.
We continued to Murghab passing through an amazing valley with mountains, gorges and more valleys coming off it in all directions. Unfortunately, whilst we were enjoying ourselves on this road there was a bigger storm just around the corner and it hit us. For 20 minutes we had to battle an oncoming wind and hard rain. Despite waterproofs we still got wet!
As opposed to camping on the edge of Murghab we decided to head straight in and find a guesthouse. It didn’t take too long and we found Guesthouse Aruf who let us stay for 100 TJS (~£7) for breakfast, board and dinner. An amazing deal.
Next, to explore Murghab and head over to Ak-Baital pass.