Garm-Chashma

I moved slowly into Khorog. I felt quite worn out from the relatively long 2 previous days. Khorog is the biggest town in Badakshan. It had the feeling of a town under revival. A university, funded by the Aga Khan was one of the many construction sites around town. Even so it was still a bit of a shotgun town, with a single street. It didn't have any 'sights', other than its dramatic position at confluence of the Pyanj & Gunt rivers & surrounded by 4000m & 5000m peaks.
It owes its relative importation to a turn-of-the-century decision by Czarist Russia to make it the regional capital of the important frontier zone. With its bazaar, the best in the region & the only Internet connectivity for several hundred kms it wasn't hard to hang around a while.

Long after lunch I set off from Khorog in the direction of Ishkashim along the Pyanj river. I'd left the Pamir Highway which headed up the Gunt valley. I will eventually rejoin the Pamir Highway in 300km. The Pamir Highway was quiet & this road, a secondary route was even quieter. Otherwise it was more of the same that I'd seen in previous days. Pretty Afghan villages were just a stone's throw away across an ever reducing Pyanj (I was going upstream), high peaks stood above vertiginous cliffs that came down to the road.

Ishkashim, the next town of importance was too far to reach in a day & in any case I wasn't feeling like rushing. I could make it there in 2 reasonably easy days & stay at a guesthouse. I felt like a break from my tent & needed to get connected to electricity to recharge batteries.

I stopped for the night at a hot spring at Garm-Chashma a few kms off the road. Initially I thought I was going to be turned out of the place by the local police. There had been a barrier across the road by the turn off. There were no police manning the barrier & the locals hanging around gestured that I should just go around it. The police gave me a bit of a hard time over this but I played the ignorant foreigner. The administrator of the hot spring hotel showed me a place to pitch my tent. I had a soak in the hot spring which was heaven.

I'd met an English speaking guy from Dushanbe down to soak away a skin disease. He & his friends got me something to eat which was good since after the hot spring it was too late to cook.

I cycled 66 km in 5 hours & 47 minutes
Total so far 7690 km in 112 days