I headed out of town after one final go at my favourite Internet cafù in Dushanbe. It had good connectivity to the Internet, which isn't to be taken for granted in Central Asia, had a variable pricing scheme which made it very cheap late outside business hours & was open 24 hours. Why weren't there more like it along my path?
I followed the M41, the main road that would become the famous Pamir highway. For most of the distance I covered on it today the road surface was fine. Where it wasn't it was being worked on, asphalt was being laid & bridges built. I wonder who was paying for it to be done. I was quite relieved that it's well surfaced. When planning the trip I looked forward to riding days on end up outrageously bad roads, from the comfort of home. Now 'with the sound of gunfire in the air' I'm not so gung-ho.
It took no time at all to get out of Dushanbe, after a little suburbia Soviet-style (decaying concrete apartment buildings) we were surrounded by agricultural land, wheat & fruit trees. I bought a water melon from one of the many vendors beside the road & stuffed myself with it. It was great value for 2 Somoni or about 60 US cents. It was so sweet & juicy, a perfect cyclist's snack.
The road rose from 900m at Dushanbe over a 1800m pass up a meandering valley. Though it didn't feel much like a pass or even very high. The highest point was at the end of a wide valley strung along with farms, orchards & villages. There were lots of good camping spots but I felt I hadn't gone far enough to call it a day. After reaching the highest point the land became steeper & more rugged. It didn't look like good camping terrain & I regretted my decision to go on. Before I knew it I'd lost 300m of hard earned altitude.
I found a nice spot between a quiet road into a village & a small river. It lacked the obscurity of public view that I normally seek but I had plans for a nice dinner. A couple of people stopped & talked to me a little, that's all my very limited Russian permits. The dinner plans were try & make a kind of plov (a classic Central Asian dish of rice, carrots & pieces of mutton). Then I would boil up some fruit (I thought they were figs when I got them but they were different inside, I've no idea of their name) that I'd bought the day before that starting turning into sludge under the packing pressure of the pannier in which they sat.
I cycled 104 km in 8 hours & 1 minute
Total so far 7196 km in 106 days
GPS Coordinates of end point - N 38°43.3, E 69°40.794
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