adventures along the border and other dusty road stories

I am writing this new article from Ishkoshim, a small town at the beginning of the Wakhan Valley in which we needed to take a few days break because I got sick. Luckily now after 4 days I am getting better and we might get to move on soon. But before that is going to happen, I would like to tell you what has happened since we arrived in Qalai Khumb.

After we had refreshed ourselves in the town, rested, enjoyed good food and stocked up we had decided to skip the next 180 kilometers because this part was under heavy construction and the road was in parts only open in particular hours. So we decided to organize a taxi and have more time in the places where it was more beautiful to cycle.

We had to wait for the drivers to arrive in the night to negotiate the price and to leave in the early morning at 4 because of the road blocks. To keep it simple, we had a lot of discussions as the drivers wanted to make use of our situation and take a huge price of us, which we didn’t want to accept. This turned out to become a big hassle as the drivers were communicating with each other and we tried for the whole day to get something to work out. In the end we gave in and paid a lot of money for the trip. We were squeezed in an Opel Zafira with all our gear loaded up on top of the roof including 3 cycles, the other 3 were sent already with a taxi that could take the gear but had no space for us.

A long and exhausting trip was ahead of us, as we were driving over dirt roads in very bad conditions for cars over the distance of 180 km into the night. The driver drove very fast along the turns and over holes in the ground, nobody was able to sleep or relax during the ride. We always had someone sitting in the front to watch over the driver and stay in communication as they often drive over their capacity and tend to fall into seconds of sleep. After this odyssey and another frustrating negotiation we stayed in the guesthouse in Rushon where he dropped us and from a very frustrating and bad deal we were welcomed by the lady who owned the guesthouse and she offered us to rest there for free and made an amazing breakfast for us.

We found out she was the chairwoman of the town in the past and now hosts people on her land. After the draining night and the blissful morning we carried on and cycled towards our next milestone, the next bigger town of Khorog.

Everybody was happy to cycle again and we enjoyed a smooth ride. We passed by a beautiful little market run by some local women who offered us their selfmade food.

We enjoyed some homemade Kefir, some patties with different fillings and especially the talks with some of the women, they were much more open to talk to strangers like us and it was a very heartfelt chat.

After another bunch of kilometers we wanted to settle down to prepare our lunch, where a farmer saw us and invited us to come over for a tea to his house. We decided to go as he very much insisted and we found ourselves in the shade of many many apricot trees.

They prepared a nice place for us to sit and provided us with all kinds of goods from their land. Fresh apricots, selfmade jam, a nut and dried fruit mix from the region, good tea, bread. It is very hard to say no or to communicate that we wouldn’t need that much, but it is part of the culture here to host guests with an abundance of food. They were very happy to have us there, their daughter could speak English and we were exchanging some of our stories. When our Siesta was over they didn’t want to let us go, yet the road was waiting for us. So we had our last photo shoot together and we continued on. It would have been a lovely place to stay over night, but we wanted to continue.

I cannot repeat it often enough, but this region had so many beautiful sceneries to offer to us, we were so gifted and felt very happy to be cycling here.

On the way we met a wonderful woman in a small shop on the side who conquered our hearts with her charme and her charisma, she had a dictionary under her desk and was learning english when she was not serving customers.

So she used some of us to practice and continue to learn the language. When she got to know what we were searching for she in the end sent her daughter to her garden to get fresh potatoes for us which she gifted as she was not selling them in her store. With a big smile on our face because of her infectious humour we went on as it was starting to get dark and we wanted to find a good place to stay for the night.

It was not hard to find a good spot because we found a lake on the map where we knew we could pitch our tents. When we arrived our usual procedure started and we set up the tents, washed ourselves and jumped into our second clothes, started to cook, eat, chat and then sank into a good sleep in our sleeping bags.

We got up early the next morning because we wanted to arrive early in town, we had a full program for the day. Finding an affordable place to sleep, stock up with basics that we will not find in the mountains, get things repaired and check our bikes so we leave into the wakhan valley with good energies and a well prepared setup.

When we arrived we found a nice cafe as a Basecamp and we set out in small groups to find a good place to stay. Ankit was the most successful one who bumped into a woman who offered us her whole apartment for a very low exchange and we were happy to have a calm place where we could all be together and we could have a kitchen for ourselves. Arriving we were then again splitting into groups to get the rest organized.

After I failed to find a bank that would accept my maestro card I gave up and had a lovely lunch with Jose in one of the restaurants. They served a national dish which is called plov, basically made from rice, carrots, onions and some slices of beef on top. It is very tasty and I was happy to have something nourishing in my stomach. After I did my part of the shopping I found a green park in which they had created a big pool fed by the mountain creek which the people, especially the kids used to go swimming. It was a great refreshment as temperatures were still above 30 degrees, even though we were at an altitude of about 2000 meters.

Back in the apartment we had a last check-in after dinner and went to bed early.

The next morning things took a bit of time, but we left the town and we were excited to start our way into the Wakhan Valley.

Not even a kilometer on the bike we had our first accident, Claudio wanted to help a woman who dropped a jar on the ground. Unluckyly it had a crack that he didn’t see and so he cut his finger. After a moment of first aid and rest we continued and discovered more beautiful aspects of this country. I was very fascinated by the other side of the river, Afghanistan was often not even 50 meters away and it was exciting and interesting to imagine how life would be over there.

The next family who invited us for tea told us that they couldn’t cross to the other side for seven years and there was a time where the valley had much more traffic and exchange between the countries. Now they are not allowed to go into the water or to fish in it, there is a high price you pay for it when you get caught. It was a good reminder for me to not risk it and use it as a refreshment or to go and clean myself in it, because you never really see where the soldiers are having their checkpoints. But there are enough side streams coming down the mountains that we could use to fulfill that need.

We had a lovely time with the two Pamirs and we showed each other pictures of our families and shared some stories from our countries. These talks are so enriching and it is what makes this journey so rich and meaningful to me.

After yet another checkpoint where we had to show our passports, visas and permissions we stopped at a bigger creek and waited for some other team members who had to fix again a flat tire. It was a lovely refreshment as the water came straight from the mountains and it’s turquoise color mixed with the dance of the light was magical, we all had to jump in.

We were cooking our meals on 2 stoves that needed petrol as fuel and this needed to be filled at gas stations. They look so different and are sometimes looking like out of a history book. This one was particularly interesting, the owner was giving the petrol or diesel away in a huge metal mug which he used to count the amounts.

In the evening when we were deciding to rest we asked a worker at the school we saw whether we could pitch our tents in the area and guess what – for sure it was no problem and he guided us into a nearby apricot orchard. It was the best time to harvest apricots so we decided to make a yummy stew for dinner and have sweet rice with cooked apricots as dessert.

That night was a bit tough for me as I was sleeping on a slope and I gave away my tent to Ankit from the beginning of the journey so we could save weight, but it meant I always had some company, Moskitos who liked to get a bite of my valuable blood.

The following day bared quite some challenges for us. When we continued we realized that the rack of Yogendra had a crack which was luckily still holding together, but we needed to find a solution within the next villages so it wouldn’t get worse.

We met another cyclist on the way who was originally from Iran and was traveling already for some years by bike, not alone but with his dog in the trailer.

Arriving at one of the hot springs of the valley we found a wonderful russian lady who offered us the tea and rest area of her hotel to cook and have siesta. It was one of the nicest of these constructions I have seen so far and the surrounding willow trees were giving us a great amount of shade.

In the break Yogendra and I went out to look for a welder that could help us to fix his rack and even though it was made out of aluminum we could find an improvisation that could work for now.

When we wanted to continue we had to fix another flat tire and shortly after that I ran into some problems with my front shifter which refused to work. Trying to fix it at a gas station the shifter snapped and I had no chance to do something about it. So now I am cycling on a 1 x 9 bike through the Pamirs with no chance to fix it before returning to the capital.

When we arrived in Ishkaschim we were all a bit exhausted and were happy to find a guesthouse that also prepared a meal for us and where we could enjoy being hosted. I had already developed an upset stomach because of the lentils we cooked for lunch and was happy to eat something else with the hope it would ease my stomach. Unfortunately that night I started to develop again a pretty strong diarrhea that would accompany me for the next few days.

I will shorten this part a bit, the diarrhea got worse over the next day and I had high temperatures in the night with cramps and felt very cold. It was a horrible night but after I could finally fall asleep the worst part was over. The next day my friends organized a doctor, the family of the guesthouse had a relative who was a medic and she helped me to diagnose the right treatment. I was happy I didn’t have to take antibiotics, but she sent me to the local small hospital where I got an infusion to get back some liquid and minerals.

After 2 hours there and a very kind nurse who watched over me I returned home and was slowly feeling better, I also started to take the medicine they gave me.

In the evening the team sat together and discussed how to proceed, as some were challenged with the situation that we couldn’t move forward. It was not easy for everybody, but it was clear that we still didn’t want to split the group. So they decided to stay and the night was a very restful one for all of us.

This morning I woke up already much more refreshed and not so weak anymore, I felt things are moving in the right direction. The others decided to go on a hike in the region and I had a stroll through the sweet town together with Jose. By chance we bumped into the rehearsal of a local band that welcomed us in and we could listen to some local music. Now, after I returned home I thought to catch up with my online diary and let you take part in my life of the past week.

I am glad I never lost my good mood in all of this even though we will have to limit our time here in the Wakhan Valley and we will not be able to fully cycle it as we all wished for.

Thanks to those of you who keep sending me messages and small greetings, it is something that I value a lot being so far away from home and especially when I got sick.

Let’s see how things will unfold and I am looking forward to the next chapter.

With love from Tajikistan

Eiko