Jorf

Today was a day of spectacular scenery. From my camping spot at about 2200m it was a relatively easy climb to the Sagirdasht pass at 3252m.

Part of the way up there was a chaykhana that had delicious honey. I ate a whole loaf of bread with it which gave me loads of energy while climbing. It was steep open pasture land on the way up. There herds of animals being grazed as high as 3000m. The top had great views of the 4000m & higher mountains that were beside the valley I'd come up the day before & some hints of those that I'd be getting closer to in days to come.

The way down was totally different terrain. From open fields of grass at the top the road soon dropped into a narrow canyon parallel to a stream that soon became a roaring river. At times the river was several hundred very steep meters below the road & the canyon side continued above by the same distance. I saw some lovely camping spots near the top, they would have presented a nice opportunity to acclimatise to 3000m. However it wasn't yet lunchtime & I wasn't ready to stop. It would have been a perfect descent but for the road surface which meant I couldn't let my eye stray from the road for long. I also blame it for popping a patch on my rear innertube. In truth I'd been suffering from this issue for a while & suspected every piece in the patching process including my technique. I put a new tube in & promptly put a hole in it too, before even putting the wheel back on the bike! On a positive note it was surely the most spectacular spot to do roadside repairs.

At the bottom of the pass lay the town of Kali-i-Khum, the district capital of Darwaz. Where the regional capital has less than 20,000 inhabitants I wasn't expecting much from this place. In a statement of openness I had to pass through a police checkpoint o register with the KGB (they aren't really called that anymore but the name has stuck) & the militia, which are a kind of military police. None of this was much of a hassle but it took time. I was sorely disappointed to find that I'd just arrived to late at the bazaar & couldn't buy fresh vegetables for dinner. I need not have worried as I got all I needed at a chaykhana just out of town.

Kali-i-Khum was on the Pyanj river which is the border with Afghanistan. It was the frontier of the 'Great Game', the Cold War of the 19C between the Russian & British Empires. Now it's just a border zone more than 1000km long over which billions of dollars of narcotics pass. It is said that the transportation & trade of Afghanistan's most successful export comprises as much as 50% of Tajikistan's economy.

I followed the Pyanj river upstream before stopping for the night at a Chaykhana. It was absolutely spectacular country. Both banks rose steeply to mountains of over 2000m, which meant a vertical rise of 1000m or so. The Afghan side there would be villages wherever the ground sloped at an angle of less than 45°. That country or at least the part that I could see didn't seem to have been outwardly affected by the warring years. The mudwalled houses with mud or thatched roofs looked tidy & the fields well ordered & kept. I think its isolation must have helped as these villages had none of the modern connections to the outside world. They were strung along a river that ran too strong to be used for boat transportation. The mountains above
were too steep in most places to build a donkey path. I saw no evidence of either telephone or power lines, though they ran along the Tajik side & could be easily extended across the river. There was a path running from village to village but it was very narrow & not fit for the carriage of bulky items people would need to walk along in single file, even a laden donkey would have difficulty in sections.

My intention had been to camp but wasn't sure of the situation regarding land mines. I'd seen a few marked fields beside the road & wasn't sure if there were also unmarked ones too. I stopped in a little chaykhana at the end of the day. Stopping there gave me a little insight into the economics of the region. The chaykhana was a step above a subsistence business. It had 1 dish, beef soup, all of whose ingredients aside from salt & spices were grown or raised by the family who ran it. Food was cooked using wood gathered from the surroundings. The house was connected neither to the phone or power network.

I cycled 78 km in 7 hours & 23 minutes
Total so far 7420 km in 109 days
GPS Coordinates of end point - N 38°26.486, E 70°56.826