Get On With It – Getting to Dushanbe and Visa Woes

So this was the plan… cycle through the Pamirs and on to Dushanbe, pick up my Uzbek visa and be on my way to Uzbekistan to see the Silk Road cities, make a brief detour to the remains of the Aral Sea and cycle on into Kazakhstan and fly home in time for Christmas. It [...]

Read More

Riding the Pamir Highway – The Wakhan Valley – from Langar to Khorog

It was a struggle leaving Langar. After a night in a bed (=mattress on floor), I was more tired than usual. Not much energy either (soup and bread for dinner is not enough calories for a cycle-tourer, even after you wake in the night and eat a Snickers bar). So I lingered over breakfast and [...]

Read More

Riding the Pamir Highway – Into Wakhan Valley – Murghab to Langar

I woke up in my dim unlit room in Murghab, went to the window and pulled back the curtains. White light blinded me. I blinked and rubbed my eyes and pressed my face to the window and watched my breath steam up the glass. Beyond, snow was falling gently and the world outside was all [...]

Read More

Riding the Pamir Highway – The Cold Way – Sary Tash to Murghab

My legs and busting lungs screamed for a day off in Sary Tash (that’s what you get when you sit on a horse for a month). But the clear skies were too good to spend indoors. You never know when the winds will change and blow a dastardly-blizzardy-storm your way. When I finally decided I [...]

Read More

Osh and Up to the Roof of the World in Photos

Having lingered long enough in Bishkek while arranging onward visas, I took a bus straight to Osh. From there, it would be back on the bike. In at the deep end – unfit after a 6-week break while horse-riding, I knew the legs would suffer with the endless uphill towards the Pamir Mountains,...
Read More

Tajikistan Part 2 – The Pamir Highway and blagging my way out of the country, again!

I had strong suspicions that my entry back into Tajikistan wasn’t going to be straight forward. I was wrong. It was too easy. The guards who I had met at length only a week before, had forgotten me. It wasn’t like I was the only tourist entering Afghanistan with his own car at this...
Read More