From the market it was back to the jeeps (the same ones as during the previous night, plus an additional car, to add some comfort to the journey) for the 360km ride to Dushanbe.

Stops en-route were limited. Our drivers were clearly more used to a local clientele than tourists … so stops were only put in, where needed (i.e. at checkpoints, for lunch and to receive tickets from friendly police officers).

The drive continued along the Panj river. Eventually we hit a modern, paved road (yes … new !! infrastructure). We were now going at 70 km/h (rather than the 30km/h we had gotten used to, ever since we had entered Tajikistan).

Eventually we left the Panj valley and also the Gorno-Badakhshan autonomous region and were heading towards the city of Kulob (in the outskirts of which we had a lunch stop). We were now on a main road and heading straight for the capital, where we did arrive in the late afternoon.