arriving in Dushanbe

Since last Sunday I have been in the capital of Tajikistan, which is called Dushanbe. We have finally come together as a whole team and started our preparations and negotiations for the way into the Pamirs. Many things have happened and I would like to share again some of the moments I went through and wish you a pleasant time reading.

When we left the beautiful campsite in the mountains after our first recovery day we all felt much better, our bodies felt relaxed and we were very positive to continue. We just needed to pay more attention to what we ate and how we prepared and washed our food and the water treatment. It was a beautiful ride until the first town in which we had our breakfast.

The morning hours are always so beautiful, it is such a beautiful light that touches the landscape once it comes over the tips of the surrounding mountains.

Again we were met with outstanding hospitality, the restaurant was closed but a local resident saw us and sent down his son with a chai (black tea) for all of us. We bought some more groceries at the local street market and went on.

We left the town which was at an altitude of about 1.300 meters above sea level and we were soon expecting to start our climb towards the collar that was waiting for us at 2.700 meters. It had two sides to it, on one hand we were excited to be in the mountains and to enjoy the beautiful landscape and on the other hand we cycled on a main road connecting Tashkent with Dushanbe, two major cities, one in Uzbekistan, the other in Tajikistan. We had to cycle with a scarf over our face, as the cars had no filters and the whole valley was full of fumes. Don’t mistake the lorries with the modern ones you know from central Europe, we had many older Soviet machinery passing us, driving only a few km/h faster than us.

We found a great place next to a remote village to rest and get the energy we needed to start the steeper part of the climb, which turned out to be a bit of a sketchy place. It was a closed restaurant at the road, we had some people welcome us and we were happy to fall asleep.

After some time a group of teenagers came, which had suspicious energy around them. Somehow we decided to pack our stuff and move on, and as we had it all packed and started cycling we saw how they called in more people shouting they should hurry up as we were leaving. They were on foot and we felt all a bit weird, but happy that we left, glad nothing bad had to happen, neither to us nore that the teenagers had to do something we all would regret afterwards.

On the way we often met people who were working very hard on fields, getting food for their animals, selling apricots or other local products at the side of the road. It is a very tough terrain to live in.

After some time we had a pitstop at another shady place, it was a workers town. The mountains around carried a lot of coal and so there was a company mining for it. That also explained why so many trucks were coming up and down, they were getting coal and took them to the cities. It was a very dirty, but fascinating place, I would have loved to wander around for some time. We got some fruits and headed on.

During our last hour of climbing we were surprised by a great shower, helping us to not overheat on the steep roads. It was a beautiful refreshment and with that we were lucky to find a place to set up camp in the garden of a local farmer, he was very kind to us and we even had access to a mountain stream in which we could bath and wash off the dusty sweat.

The next morning we got up again before the sun at about 4:30 am and took the last remaining 700 meters to finally reach the top. It was the least exciting collar I ever cycled, we had just reached the entry into the worst tunnel you could imagine.

We had to find people to take us with their car, the tunnel is 5km long, there is black smoke coming out of it as there is no ventilation, the water that drips down from the ceiling is a black sauce and there is hardly any light in it.

After a short time my friends found a first driver and shortly after I was sitting in a big lorry that helped me. Another experience of mutual support, I love this country.

On the other side we finally had our moment, a beautiful scenery of summits and a stunning creek down in the valley opened to us and we felt very blessed to be cycling here.

From here we basically cycled down to Dushanbe, a 65km descent from 2.700 meter above sea level to 700. Unfortunately there was a strong headwind that blew into our faces which made it more challenging for us to ‘just roll down’. It became a great team effort to cycle in a rotation, where we shared the work against the wind, whereas the others could stay in the windshade that saved up to 30% of work.

We left the abandoned and desolate places and cycled past the presidents residence, a huge complex of stunning buildings, which we were not allowed to photograph. It continued now with big mansions and places wealthy people were using to retreat and enjoy the river that came down the mountain.

We had our last stop at another oasis in the otherwise super dry and hot region and from then on cycled directly into the capital.

Before we headed towards the hostel we took a moment to celebrate that we made it and that we were such a great team for the past days.

Arriving at the hostel made me so happy, the whole court Infront of the house was full of cycles from people that come here from all over the world. You have people who are going into the mountains and others that are just coming back from the challenging Pamirs, who have a lot to tell and are finding a place to rest here. It is a place where I felt home, with so many adventurers.

After a good rest and a shower we fell into a deep sleep and the next day we were awaiting the other team members that were flying in from India.

To not flood you with ever more information I will keep that a bit shorter.

We started a process of planning, we had never met before and had a lot to decide together: first collecting ideas, wishes, doubts, worries, excitements, expectations and many other aspects that were important to take into consideration for our decisions. How shall the route look like, there are many ways how you can move through the Pamirs with hot springs, desolate valleys, all depending on the effort you want to put in, structuring the common finances and selecting and sorting out our gear to be as effective as possible.

Interestingly the initiator got sick just before the first meeting and so I stepped into the facilitation with the help of another team member. It was not the easiest task to apply community principles and a sociocracy decision making in such a diverse group of nationalities and ages. But for the fact that we have only met for a few days we are moving in a good way.

Over the last days we could find a solid common ground on our basics and we’re planning and taking our time. We also had to expand our time here, Jose needed a treatment with antibiotics to get better.

One of the early mornings we used to test the equipment of those who didn’t cycle yet and had a lovely excursion in the hills around the city. It was a great test for the group to see how we move and what we still need to talk about to move in a good way.

The yellow jerseys you see were a gift of Yogendra to the team, he is running many cycling tours through India which are bringing people in contact with some indigenous tribes and he is trying to bring awareness into environmental topics and much more. He has a lot of experiences in cycling, which come in handy for our trip.

Another gift we received was from Bharat who created beautiful handmade tiles to remember our trip. It was very heartwarming to experience this generosity within our team.

This journey bears not only a lot of treasures through the country we are moving through, but also within our team.

Lastly I will upload a few impressions from the city, I am unfortunately not so motivated to write much about it, it has a crazy mix of pomp and a president that loves to show off in the capital with impressive architecture and on the other side of the street it is still similar to the rural areas, many things are improvised and stitched together. Much is under construction and also this city offers many aspects to explore.

I am now sitting in a great Café that I like to visit in the morning for a coffee, getting prepared for the start tomorrow morning. We are a bit nervous about the strength and abilities of one teammate and hope to find good solutions to compensate that in a responsible way.

I will now upload this post and then it is unknown if I am able to report again during our tour as there is hardly any reception. Afterwards you will hear again and I am happy I have this format to digest my experiences and share them with you.

Without much more to say I am in deep gratitude towards you and I am glad tomorrow we will finally leave.

Take care and I invite you to open up yourself to strangers that are crossing your way, maybe you can enrich their lives like it is happening to me here in one of the worlds ECONOMICALLY ‘poorer’ countries in the world. (place 149/192 according to Wikipedia in 2021)

Love you all 💕