The moment has come, we have reached already the end of our Caravan School and with that are ending an incredible learning joureny. Starting as a group of strangers we have grown together as a team and as friends in many ways throughout the journey. I am so happy we finished the adventure with everybody still on board and we managed to stay together through all the challenges and celebrations.
I have reached home a few days ago and am really happy I can be together again with my friends, my community and all the kids, even though I could have stayed much longer in this beautiful country with its wonderful people.
Let’s continue where we have stopped last time and continue the adventure after we have left the wonderful mountain lodge that we found after the challenging dayride towards the pass of Kargush.
The time in the lodge was very refreshing for all of us and it prepared us well to continue in the cold. The landscape had changed a lot, the mountains had received a wonderful coating of snow and many clouds were hanging over and around the peaks, leaving the scenery in a very dreamy and mysterious atmosphere.
We cycled through the mountains and reached another military checkpoint after 2 hours of riding. It was one of the loneliest and most hilarious ones I have experienced so far. It was a rather big military base that was situated in the middle of nowhere and these guys have made it their second income to charge high prices of travelers who are looking for food and shelter when they are ending up here. We were hungry and I made a joke to my friends wether we shall not try to get into their base and eat in their canteen – an idea everybody liked. So I spoke to the first lieutenant in charge and we agreed on a price for some food, yet it was hard to understand the details and I was left surprised when the soldiers came and gave us each a dry piece of bread and a tiny tincan with some buckwheat and beef, exactly the opposite of what I had expected. After some useless discussion we accepted the bad deal and I actually enjoyed hanging out with the lieutenant who was, besides his trickery, a very sympathic man. I got used to accept some bad deals we had to take and in the end I laughed about that one.
Cycling on we reached another shelter and decided to rest for some time. We decided not to cycle on towards the collar as some teammembers were not feeling confident to camp in the high altitude with this quick changing weathersituation. It turned out as a smart move, it started to rain and the wind picked up – yet we were snuggled up inside the cottage and were safe from the elements. The only downside was the bad smell and dusty rooms, but with humor and our great tolerance we also enjoyed this place.
After a rather uncomfortable night and some spooky donkey that yelled at us in the middle of the night right infront of our door at 4 in the night we were greeted with a misty, cloudy and windy morning. Yogendra prepared again a delicious breakfast with the remaining goodys we still had and after everything was put back nice and neatly into our panniers we continued to cycle towards the collar. It was cold but as we started to move we heated up and enjoyed the different weather – we were mostly cycling through hot sunny days the weeks before.
Along the way I found a lake and for sure needed to jump in, it was the highest dip in a waterbody I had taken in my life =).
After a while we arrived at the pass, it was so unspectacular and we even passed it unknowingly because it was marked only by a small pyramid of stones. I loved it so much that it was so minimalistic and ordinary, it was what we made out of it.
We celebrated a bit and soon cycled on because we wanted to find again a spot where we could set up camp and prepare lunch. We knew it was hard to find water here, the water present was salty and not usable for us. It turned out to become again a big thing for us, we just couldn’t find a suitable place which provided water. So we cycled on for hours and to our disadvantage, the wind picked up and it started to pour down rain. We were so slow and a car that stoped told us we would find a restaurant some 15 kilometres ahead, a great motivation for us to keep moving, yet it turned out to be a false information.
Finaly we reached the crossing that led us on the road M41 which offered us real tarmac and even some tailwind. Still we had to push forward because the next village was another 10 kilometres away. You could feel how everybody was struggling, it was cold, wet and windy. On the last patch before the tarmac road it also happened that the rack of Yogendra finaly gave in, the washboard roads were too strong over all and we had to distribute his whole gear among the team.
It was a tough ride and we were all so hungry. As if it was planned, we reached the final height before we could roll down to Alichur, our destination. The clouds opened and over the city a beautiful rainbow appeared. What a sweet and magical moment! I love the universe for the way it orchestrates these moments.
We rolled down and were intrigued by this wonderful welcome. Luckily they had a great homestay in town, a very open hearted host that welcomed us as warmly as the rainbow. We got a part of the homestay for us a a team and shared the house with 6 other cyclists. Daniel, a long distance cyclist and famous in the traveler community we knew already, we constantly met him along the way and it was nice to exchange stories and moments of the adventures among people like us. Still in the flow of things a realisation started to arise like a slowly growing plant, we will not continue to cycle and we will soon depart into different directions again.
After our rest in Alichur we decided to hitchhike back to Khorog, which we all thought would be super easy. In the end we succeeded and arrived all well after some more adventures, but the beginning was a challenging one, we were all standing at the road and hardly any car or lorry was coming that could have taken us. We had to split the team and 3 of us left first, one after the other found a way to get to the next meeting point.
It was again a tough way, Ankit and me were stuck in the back of this jeep for hours and we were driving again over roads that were in pretty bad conditions, yet we could just sit and observe the wonderful mountains that were surrounding us.
Back in Khorog we got again a great offer by the wonderful woman who hosted us last time, she had a whole house for us to rent and we spent our final day in a beautiful surrounding. Unfortunately the 3 who left to hitchhike first were stuck in a town and only arrived the afternoon later and so we had only half a day left for a reflection time in the team where we could all share highlights, learnings, challenges and what we take home from this trip with each other. It was a rich space even though we were all a bit tired and some already in their full preparations to leave.
There were many beautiful memories we shared and apreciations that were voiced that left me with a big smile and a huge gratitude for the time in the team. I had a lot of learnings that came in ways that I could not forsee or anticipate. I tried to life through every day in a way that I was always ready for it to be the last one – I thought you never know if you will get sick, get injured, gear could break and your journey can be over from one moment to the next. When I look back on all the moments that were challenging us I could see my openness for things to be different than what I expected and that was what made it so enjoyable for me.
This is is not the moment for all my learnings, but I appreciated a lot the constellation of our team, the different backgrounds of us, the age range, biographies, our humour that came out in so different ways and I learned a lot from all these different ways to perceive life, challenges, and ways of problem solving.
The next morning we tackled another challenge which was to find a taxi back to the capital – especially now where the summer break was ending and all the families are taking a cap to get back to Dushanbe found as in a slightly unfortunate position. But as the saying indicates, when angels are traveling they will always be supported, we found ourselves in a car with the rest of the team, Claudio stayed behind and left for his own adventure towards Kirgisistan.
Slowly driving out of the mountains we had our first visible sunset, most of the days we were in the valley and could only imagine how the sun looks like behind the mountains.
After many hours of driving and hundreds of kilometers on bumpy roads we reached the famous greenhouse hostel. The city was busy getting back on track after a huge storm and a lot of rain.
I stayed in the city for another day to find rest and to not spend too much time sitting in a car too long. I used the day to writein my diary and had a great lunch with Jose in an old tea house of which I forgot to take a picture. We had a great conversation around our experiences throughout the time and could share in more depth about our learnings, which I really appreciated. For me this part of integration and digestion is very valid and I was happy we could still find some time to reflect together.
The next morning I left to catch a ride from the outskirts towards Samarkand. It was another 300 kilometers I needed to overcome before I was finally close to the airport.
The city was full of soldiers that morning, I was very confused but when I asked what the fuss was all about (we are speaking of thousands of soldiers) they explained that they were preparing for the national day of independence and they were rehearing a huge march through the centre.
When I reached a good spot I was happy I didn’t need to wait long and I was picked up by a worker who took me along for some kilometers. All in all it was not too difficult and I reached the border by 6 in the evening. After a very lovely dinner and 3 vodkas with some locals that didn’t want to let me go I cycled the remaining 45 kilometers towards Samarkand. I was not sure if that was a smart idea, it was probably the most dangerous ride of the whole journey, because the roads were not very wide and people were not so careful when they passed me as a cyclist. So I had to stay very focused and raced towards Samarkand which I reached alive 2 hours later.
The remaining days I spent wandering around the city, enjoyibg the time in which I felt no need to do anything specific. While I was out and about the city was celebrating its independence day and the national holiday.
I explored some more unknown territory like the bazaar of Samarqand that I haven’t seen yet and got another taste of the culture. Especially the herbs and spices from the region and the wonderful cutlery were sticking out to me. Yet this was a very overwhelming space, all the traders were trying to involve me in a conversation and I was trying to just absorb the many impressions of this lively space. It was great to then find some shelter in a nearby restaurant where I could readjust.
Then it was time to get my cycle back into the box, pack my luggage and organize a ride to the airport. I got picked up by a far too small car who was convinced to fit my box on the backseat, in the end we just stuffed it in the trunk, meaning one fifth got stuck inside and the rest stood out 45 degrees. I love this kind of improvisations and was happy when we arrived at the airport and the bike was still there.
I gave him my last money and inside I bumped into a dutch couple who I got to know briefly just before our departure to the Pamir Mountains, what a funny coincidence, we were flying with the same airplane towards Istanbul. After I saved their knife from being thrown away (I took it into my luggage) they invited me for a coffee and breakfast and we were happy for the company.
The flights were all going as planned and I was very happy when I had everything back in my hands and could get in the car with Alex who came to pick me up from Lisbon. After our ride I was welcomed by my friends at home which was a beautiful arrival for me. The kids came running and I was filled with so much joy and gratitude to be back home again.
Some prepared a lovely dinner and we spent a lovely evening in our yurt. What a bliss to come home to such great people – thank you all for being part of my life.
Now after some days back at home I am writing these lines to also let you be part of this last chapter. I got sick the day after I arrived and stayed in bed most of the time until yesterday, slowly I am getting better after a flu that hit me by surprise.
I am looking forward to what the next episode in my life has to offer and what I will make out of it.
Thank you so much for staying with me and my adventure and for being such great supporters. You definitely made this trip possible and a very deep experience for me.
Thanks for this remarkable gift!
I send you many greetings from Tamera
With love
Eiko
dusty road stories 