This gallery contains 10 photos.
As today was one of our more active days, we did stay fairly local today and only covered an overall distance of 40km (add in another 30km for local transport to/from sites). After leaving Langar we made it to Vrang … Continue reading
Today was to become an active day – and as such a welcome change to the previous days, which were mostly spent driving.
Our first activity was a hike literally in the backyard of our homestay; the van took us for the three minute trip to the trail head, from where we started a walk up the mountain, first passing by the village cemetery – until we eventually hit a petroglyph field.
While the petroglyphs may be of historic significance, for me they were not the main attraction … there were simply too many of them, most looking fairly recent (rule of thumb: if it’s in Cyrillic, it is very likely not ancient); some depicted animals, but looked too new / too clean (considering this was on an open rock face open to the elements). So I am not really sure, what to make out of these.
But then however – was the incredible view of the valley, that got better and better the higher we made it (we made an elevation gain of around 200m – up to well above 3000m). There were perfect views of the Pamir river (flowing in left to right on the picture above ) meeting up with the Wakhan river (coming in in the middle of the picture) – thus forming the Panj river. Also we had some good views towards the other side of the river, i.e. the Afghan Wakhan corridor.
The walk – in and out – took more than an hour; it may have been taxing given the altitude … but it was nevertheless very rewarding … what we did not know at this point though … there were more and better views to come today.
Following our market visit, we left town and – after having passed a first checkpoint (which may or may not have included a special payment, to expedite the process) – were on our way towards Langar. A total distance of 225km was ahead of us.
We continued along the Pamir Highway first heading South towards and up the Pereval Nayzatash Pass (4137m), before taking a turn into a Western direction (still on the Pamir Highway) through a tundra-like landscape (similar to the alpine tundra as found along Trail Ridge Road in Rocky Mountain Nationalpark in the US).
We had a stop for lunch at the settlement of Alichur, which not only featured another interesting (noodle) soup – but also the most interesting toilet experience of the trip. Obviously toilets here were of the usual squat kind, here in an open setup (i.e. a superb view into the mountains straight from the man’s room). It was here, that I was in the middle of my business, when suddenly it got dark and dusty … to cut the story short … I was just lucky enough, to use a squat toilet in an open setup, when a dust devil decided, to go straight through the toilet block.
After lunch we continued along the Pamir Highway for another 20km, before we took a turn to the dirt road down towards the Wakhan region.
There may have been little traffic on the Pamir Highway – however now we were basically on ourselves. Road conditions had also taken a turn to the worse.
We nevertheless continued and made our way up the Khargush Pass (4344m) – the last high pass for the trip. Views here are of dramatic beauty … salt lakes, high mountains around … and eventually the first glimpses of the Wakhan Corridor and the Hindu Kush mountain range.
After the pass it was downhill … we eventually met up with the Pamir river (which also marks the border to Afghanistan) and were now following the road in parallel to the river, until – after another checkpoint – we reached the settlement of Langar (2830m). It is here – at the confluence of both the Pamir and the Wakhan rivers (and as such the birth of the Panj river), where we would spend the night.
