Today’s ride completely exceeded my expectations. I was prepared for the adventure to be ‘over’ after finishing the Wakhan corridor yesterday, and for a much more ‘normal’ ride today to Kalaikhum, following the river (and the Afghan border) but wow was I mistaken.

Today’s route in blue

It was a late start this morning; the homestay I had slept in was quite comfortable, and I spent the morning writing and posting up the journals for the last two days.

Beautiful morning in Khorog

Breakfast in the garden

Breakfast was with Jeff at 9AM and it had very delicious homegrown apricots (probably the best I’ve had, but then again I’ve never really loved apricots), and the other staples; eggs, muffins and buttered bread. Jeff was quite the conversationalist and had some hilarious things to say about middle eastern affairs, and about the French habit of dipping croissants in coffee for breakfast. He was talking about strange eating habits of the French (raw meat, snails, frogs etc), and I laughed and showed him the photo of the sheep head I had for lunch in Dunhuang. A bit too far even for the French!

We said our farewells and I was on the road by 10:30AM. It was quite a relaxed ride to start, weaving through small villages.

On the road once more

Lush villages bordered by enormous mountains

As the morning went on, the river started to carve through a deep canyon with tall mountains as walls. This was definitely more scenic than yesterday’s ride through the Wakhan.

The mountains emerge

I stopped by a few bikers parked alongside the road. It was one Belgium guy and two Italians (who loved the Ducati). The Belgium guy was on a Tenere 700 (seems quite popular on this route), and had just come from riding in Afghanistan. It seems like he went from the Uzbek border, to Kabul, and then back to the Tajik border - it was safe, and the worst he had encountered were curious and overly zealous locals who loved to touch things on his bike and get close.

As I continued on, the Afghan side of the border seemed a decent bit more populated, with lush (but small) agricultural plots, and people walking alongside the river. Along the Tajik side of the border were frequent military patrols. Groups of 4 men with kalashnikovs marching up and down the river.

Life on the Afghan border

The walls of the gorge close in

The path into Afghanistan

The road ahead

The road ahead pt 2

Beautiful tarmac and Afghan villages

Eventually I started running into roadwork, and was quite pleased with myself when I had negotiated with the locals to let me ride in the shoulder where they were still making the road to pass. After this was a stretch of beautiful, freshly laid asphalt cutting through the canyon, with no one else but myself on the road.

Trouble ahead

The party came to an end about 70km from Kalaikhum, where another stretch of roadwork was taking place. This time, boulders blocked the road and they mentioned that it would only be done by 6PM (3.5 hours from when I had arrived).

Road closed.

I did try see if i could move some boulders and ride through, but i was shouted at by the construction team, so i decided to not be annoying and to wait.

During this time i met:

• a kiwi who was cycling from Mongolia to Canada (first to Europe, and then on a boat to the US)
• a young Spaniard who came on foot (!) asking for water and trying to hitchhike the pamir
• a Brit who had lost his phone and needed to contact his dad to try locate it (i lent him my satellite communicator but alas, no dice)
• a number of local drivers, who were very curious about my journey and my bike.

The Kiwi decided to try his luck and pass

Locals admiring Sandeep

I also used this time to lubricate my chain and retighten the bolts of one of my auxiliary lights.

Roadside maintenance

Around 5:30pm, 3 hours after initial stopping, the rubble was cleared.

The blockage clears

The next 2 hours were spent carving through both old, poor condition asphalt, and fresh, brand new roads along the Afghan border. There is much more activity on this side, with many more houses, mosques, and people wandering about.

Afghan village alongside the river

A blue-domed Afghan mosque

I finally reached Kalaikhum by sundown. Here there are two hotels. One of these were fully booked and the other had only “Lux” rooms available. Interestingly enough, the entire town had a blackout from 9-11pm, and the “Lux” room was not so lux without air conditioning. I spent most of the evening outside in the cooler evening air, and bumped into one of the locals I had talked to at the roadstop earlier. He brought over an ice cream and did not take no for an answer!

Tomorrow; Dunshabe!

Some stats:

• 237 kms traveled
• 9.8L fuel added
• 0g coffee consumed
• 4 unique interactions

Altitude map of today’s ride

Route to date