The Pamir Highway Part 2: Fuel, disaster, people and views, views, views (August, September 2024)

In the Bartang Valley other travelers reported that the road from Dushanbe into the Pamir area were pretty much under construction and that there were hours of waiting times to be expected. So we decided that we would take a loop and return to Kyrgyzstan.
From the western exit of the Bartang Valley, we continued our journey on the Pamir Highway and the valleys of that region.
Diesel in good quality became a rarity and so we took some out of Rosinante’s auxiliary tank and transferred it into Otto. The alternative was to buy some diesel from a guy with a old bucket full of diesel. The roads developed into a mixture of tarmac, concrete, gravel and dirt.
In Khorugh, one of the few bigger settlements in that region, we organized some stuff. It was not so easy to get certain things but as always it was interesting to discover a new place.
Otto’s exhaust pipe got welded and looked good again.
A screw had been broken off in a thread in the bracket of Rosinante’s underbody armor and we tried to remove it because the armor plates made crazy rattling noises on some frequencies of eroded tracks. I only wanted to use the lift and cordless drill of a mechanic because our had broken. But communication was difficult and so the mechanic tried to fix it. He broke the thread out of the bracket. I was pretty pissed but did not got mad with the guy. So it was cable ties again.
We went further south along the river separating Tajikistan from Afghanistan. It was interesting to be there and see Afghanistan and the Afghan people on the other side of the river. I guess mainly because of the news reports, I have a biased attitude towards Afghanistan and it was interesting to feel that.
We had to pass several military checkpoints and one soldier tried to get money from Simon for having the horns Racki had gifted him. But all went good. At one camp spot we got moved by the soldiers patrolling the river. It was not so easy to find camp spots and I would recommend everyone to just skip the border area where you are not able to keep at least a kilometer of distance to the river. We had some windy days and took the opportunity to play around with our kite. The local children loved it as well and I thought about gifting the kite to them. But in the end I kept it.
We visited the Afghan Market, a market for Afghan and Tajik people in the middle of the big river separating the countries. It was a nice visit, we tried the barbeque and had our first contact with people from Afghanistan who were all very friendly. And for me especially the men had a special look. Taking photos was not allowed on the market.
After some hiking, we visited a museum where a elderly and absolutely motivated man showed and explained a lot to us. We’re not so much into museums, but this one was pretty fun.
We wanted to visit an ancient Buddhist temple and a local kid took the opportunity to get some money by leading us there. Because he was a fun guy, he became our little guide. It was not much left of the temple, though.
The views along the river were very interesting.
And changing.
I liked the old school patterns of fields. The local farmers did not use machines and did all by hand and with the help of donkeys, horses and cows.
This was my favorite camp spot on the Pamir. It was a pretty tough dirt road with stones and steps to get up there but once we reached that place, it was beautiful!
We asked the surrounding farmers if we could stay for a couple of days and they were very fine with that. I think they liked having us there because I guess not so many tourists come up to that place. So we helped a bit with their manual farm work, had little chats via google translate and enjoyed the place.
And especially the views
One day we did an awesome hike up along the river.
On the way we met some cute friends.
And the views were awesome again!
Happy hikers.
I had thought the gravel mountains would be pretty boring very fast, but they did not.
Next we went east and the track got super crazy. It was the most eroded track we ever took and the waves were very deep. There were two ways to go: slower than 5 km/h or at least 70 km/h. So accelerating until 70 was a very, very shaky experience. Sometimes we had the feeling that Rosinante would fell apart. Simon had the same with Otto. But the cars made it through that as well.
Near Murghab, the other big settlement on the Pamir, we visited some ancient paintings.
And a absolutely stormy old observatory. The wind was so strong that we could lean into it. But staying there with Rosinante was not an option and so we went down from the hill to a river.
I loved the Yaks! They look so cool! We shared a camp spot with them. They were mostly eating and we rearranged the fuel pump for our diesel heater because it stopped working. After the rearrangement everything was fine again.
The ways the locals are transporting stuff and animals are adventurous. After some years of traveling, cows and horses on small transporters became pretty common. Although it got a place in the sun, this sheep seemed to be not so happy tied to the roof rack of one of the offroad taxis.
Most of the cars on the secondary roads/ tracks were some kind of offroad cars. Mostly Land Cruisers. And that’s a pretty strong statement on the road/ track conditions. When even the locals don’t go with the ordinary cars, it’s a pretty strong indicator for the conditions.
But the main roads, which we did not take so much were pretty good. Deep, deep potholes and some pretty broken sections, but absolutely driveable with all cars.
In Murghab, we met a horde of local children who got a bit annoying from time to time. But it was still a nice encounter. We played again with our kite and made some jokes.
And we met an interesting group of other travelers. Some traveling with a van, some with a car and some back packing. We had a chat, borrowed them some US Dollar (because the bank in Murghab does not exchange Euro) and talked about the way laying ahead to Kyrgyzstan. We told them about the pretty though part between the borders and promised that we would tow their van over this tricky part if it would be necessary. So we made up a day on which we would all cross the border together.
This is the main shopping place in Murghab.
Very different from Western European towns.
But always friendly and interesting. We found fresh fruits, cheese,
and Yak milk ice cream!
After Murghab we entered another area off the main road.
The colors in that area were amazing!
Our camp spot.
More Yaks!
After a nice hike and some days, we continued our way to the highest point of our Pamir adventure: 4500 meters. The cars did everything very well and we had a nice view.
On our way back to Kyrgyzstan, we wanted to stay again on the beautiful camp spot next to the big lake which we had used on our first day of the Pamir as well. On the way there, Simon wanted to find his sunglasses which he had lost some weeks ago on the dirt road. So we separated but agreed on meeting on a specific location.
At some point Rosinante’s warning indicator for the diesel filter turned on. First it was a bit of a shock because we where in the middle of nowhere when it happened. But after a look in the manual we pumped some diesel through the filter to check if it would be necessary to install our spare filter. After the filter incident, we thought that Simon may have missed us and so we drove to the place where he wanted to search for his sunglasses. We could not find him and after a lot of searching, we continued to the camp spot at the lake.
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Only after hours of looking for us Simon arrived at the camp spot as well. A pretty big fuck up. We could not imagine how we could have missed each other. But without any signal searching for each other seemed not to be an option as well.
We met again with a nice couple from Germany we had met earlier on the Pamir and had a good time together.
They told us that they had seen a big offroad camper truck that rolled down a very steep and long gravel slope and crashed into rocks. They showed us photos and we could not imagine how it could ever recovered from were it was laying now.
The same truck we had seen a couple of days before having fun of an offroad track and enjoying the Pamir.
Sometimes joy and disaster were just a hair’s breadth apart on the Pamir.
The border crossing back to Kyrgyzstan went very well. At the border a young soldier wanted to earn some extra money but we declined that.
When we reached the Kyrgyz border, the other travelers, whom we have met in Murghab, were already there. The most tricky part of the road between the borders had been improved to a degree that passing it slowly with a van and an ordinary car was possible when it was not raining.
Back in Osh, we were craving for stuff we could not get in the last weeks on the Pamir: pizza and cake!
A super nice final of our Pamir adventure.
This trip was absolutely amazing. I’ve never been before in an area like the Pamir. The remoteness, the nature, the views, the people, experiencing the so different way how they were living, and the offroad tracks made it a awesome and unique trip.