Bicycle touring Tajikistan. Pamir Highway. Mountains. Bikepacking. Bike trip Out of the beaten track

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Cycling 1000 miles via mountains.

A photogenic Murgrab town in Tajikistan located 4,000 meters above sea level. The inhabitants call it "crown of the earth". I was invited to a private home in the first picture. The host said that I can stay as much as I want but I chose "only" two days. On the second day in the morning,I've heard that "I should go now". I was surprised and packed all my stuff up and cycled off. The host saw me from the distance and call: "Why are you leaving?" A language misunderstanding. The Russian language is his second and my third. I stayed.

The Tajik wedding. Men eat separately, women separately. I liked most the music band, but I'm preparing separately videos about each country. I'm sleeping at home in front of the wedding today. This house has a door tied to a string. In fact, all homes are open.

After 100 km the first small village Aliciur which isn't on the map even. They are just cutting the ram's throat and I am helping them to flay the skin. We bring in lumps of salt (which initially seem to me like snow) from a nearby lake for other rams to make them fat. After an evening walk I can't find the house where I've stayed. The atmosphere is aggravated by the great dogs chasing the yaks (animals appearing in Pamir and Tibet similar to cows and buffalo).

I enter the center of Pamir: Khorog town. The car stops and three Tajiks come out of it: "We'll lift you". I didn't notice the fourth who sat in the front and was not nice at all. The others called him "director". The fourth one demands that I sell him a bike. Consternation, I'm ready for everything. Suddenly, the director fainted and others pull him out of the car and pour water. It turns out that director doesn't walk because he has an electric shock and they take him to the hospital (first photo already on a stretcher.) When I ask the first person at the hospital for a hotel - he invites me to his house.

Pamir Highway is located along the Tajik-Afghan border for many miles. I sleep in a house on the river and on the other side an Afghan in a turban rides on the motorbike and children go to a clay school. I meet a girl on the Tajik bank (first photo) whose occupation during the day is collecting small fruits from the tree that fall when the wind blows only. I'm flooding her with questions like a true virtuoso to get residual answers in mixed Russian and English.

I am cycling 100 km following the river with an abyss and I have rocks hanging over my head. There are the tombstones of people who died here every few kilometers regularly. It was explained to me that these people are falling into the abyss because of a car breakdown. Fortunately, because I was afraid that it was falling rocks and avalanches. I met an interpreter from Belgium who has been traveling by bicycle for several months with a saxophone on his back.


The first crisis because nobody invited me to sleep in the house in this small village. I could put a tent close to the stream like a German girl which I met but I chose the "hotel" for £2. This is a barrack with the poster of the president (dictator who ruled for 20 years) and access to electricity. The situation could happen once for forty days, but it seems to me that Pamir is just about to end because 200 miles of mountains remain only. These people here sell a compote/homemade tea on the road and they have business thinking. In addition,I had to repair the bike which makes the word crisis is justified. I am prepared for this extreme situation from the beginning by carrying small vodka and canned fish.

I sleep in the mosque because it seems to me more exciting than the Guesthouse, which costs £1 here. I pour myself water if I encounter streams to survive the heat of 40'C. This is not my patent because I noticed that Tajik women are pouring on each other buckets of cold water before the trip.

I am at the border market in Tadzykistan where for a moment they open the border/bridge and people from Afghanistan come and sell grapes. The soldiers make sure they don't go any further. Local people talk about them: it's not surprising that they become fighters when Nato drops a bomb on the house and kills almost the whole family. When they give me goat meat and honey, there are plenty of bees and giant Asian wasps around me. They reassure: I am a beekeeper and I know that they won't attack you here, they defend their territory around the hive only.

Tajikistan. Pamir Highway.Mountains.Bicycle touring. Bikepacking. Bike trip.