Monthly Archives: August 2017

Day 7 cycle 77 km 6hr20 Away at 7.45am for which was going to be another tough day. It was a slow climb all day. We were invited in for morning tea at a summer dwelling. This was warm yak … Continue reading →

Day 6 cycle 64 km 5hr25 Woke to light rain so breakfast in bed. By time got up the rain had stopped and sun was not too far away. On bikes at 8.30am. First section was to the checkpoint for … Continue reading →

Day 5 cycle 45 km 4hr43 It is at Langar where the Panj River starts. This is the river we have been following since our first glimpse of Afghanistan from our Landcruiser on our way to Khorog. The Panj is … Continue reading →

Day 4 cycle 74 km 5hr37 On the bikes at 6.45 am. The “good” roads are gone and today was a tough day. All unsealed and corrugated so any speed was painful. We tried to use the edge of the … Continue reading →

Day 3 cycle 44 km 2hr52 27.08.2017 We were away by 7.15am. Stuart’s Tajik tummy is no good so we aimed for a shorter day and then hopefully a longer day tomorrow to get us to Langar. The road was … Continue reading →

Day 2 cycle 55 km 3hr43 Boiled eggs and bread for breakfast and of course chai. On the bikes by 7am. The road had more seal today and smoother but still rough. The gorge started to widen and eventually having … Continue reading →

Day 1 cycle 56 km 4hr22 (cycle time does not include stops for rests, photos etc) Away at 6.30am with just 1000km to go! Farewell to Katja. We continue to follow the Panj River upstream on the Afghanistan border. Road … Continue reading →

Actually a rest day to get bikes sorted and tested loaded with our gear. All place names have a variety of spelling in Latin alphabet. I can’t right it in the local script. So we are in the same town, … Continue reading →

Back in the Landcruiser at 8am and we continued along the Panj River and the Afghanistan border. Very rough roads and slow going. Lovely views across the river to the Afghan villages nestled against the gorge cliffs. Eventually the gorge … Continue reading →

Relaxed morning and a good breakfast at the hotel. Pick-up was at 11am by Max in an old Landcruiser. Bikes on roof rack and rest of bags in the back. Good roads out of Dushanbe with steady climbing. It was … Continue reading →

We were on our way trekking at 6.45am and followed this lovely river downstream. Silver birch and conifers all the way down. Mostly narrow flats beside the river with children minding the grazing calves. We crossed this now large fast … Continue reading →

We started our 800m climb at 7.15am. The trail was easy to follow with cairns along the way and of course donkey poo. There were many false summits on the way up but we knew it was a big climb. … Continue reading →

We were trekking by 7.45am and continued up the valley passed some dwellings used in summer for the alpine pastures for the cows and to make hay. About 6 children came across to meet us offering chai but we got … Continue reading →

Breakfast was black tea, fresh bread (it’s usually old and dry) and whole apricot jam. We ordered another half loaf of fresh bread! We had arranged for a vehicle to collect us at 10am to take us via the roads … Continue reading →