Welcome to the Wakhan Valley
Most sensible people would never consider driving a 1.0 litre car from the UK to Mongolia. If they had to do so though the next step would then be to find the easiest route with the best roads and stick to that. But scrap all that it's supposed to be a challenge, so our decision was obviously to take the longest and worst roads we could find; and our route through Tajikistan somewhat epitomises this mantra.
After we left Bukhara, Uzbekistan, we had a huge drive to the border to contend with and we eventually made it to the closest town at 1:30am. If you've never free camped then you might not know that this isn't the best time to be searching for a spot to pitch a tent. We continually try to avoid looking in the dark for a sly spot to illegally pitch a tent, but we continue to succeed in doing exactly this. Asking people is futile too, as trying to communicate via charades that you want a campsite always ends in all them understanding being that you need somewhere to sleep. This is what happened that night and as the only hotel in town was full we ended up forking out 5 dollars each to sleep on the floor in someone's house. Not our greatest moment, and the jar of pickled vegetables he threw in for free didn't really sweeten the deal.
Our early start did get us to the border early though and we breezed out of Uzbekistan and into Takikistan passport control. This was quick too and we thought we'd be through well before lunch. It was too good to be true. The road tax office in Customs was inexplicably closed till 2pm so they pointed us to the barren car park and told us to wait 3 hours. Probably expecting a good laugh at all of us pale English lot wilting in the sun, we outmanoeuvred them with our ingenious tarp-bungee combo which we had created before the trip and have so far used a total of once. When the office finally reopened the bloke in there turned out to be an avid coin collector, and was chasing us all for any interesting coins we had. He had coins from most of Europe and Asia though and was really after things from further afield. Amazingly I had a single Mexican dollar coin in my second wallet; brought along as a dummy with random coins, old cards, and one dollar bill inside to give away freely if we were to get mugged. I was more than happy to give him this and his excitement was something presumably one could only understand as a coin collector. Apparently no one in Tajikistan has any Mexican coins, so he said "My friend, no problems for you!". He was right and we went straight through customs after this without them even so much as peering through the car window.
'4 years of an engineering degree in all its glory'
Despite the wait it was still early and we blasted down what would prove to be some of the last good road we had to the capital city, Dushanbe. Currency was the usual nightmare with it being a Sunday and most cash points seeming to be out of cash. Eventually we found one and also stumbled across an Irish Bar showing the football, which was impossible to resist. A pint later, and definitely flaunting the zero tolerance rule on driving after drinking in Tajikistan that we had just remembered about, we headed out of the city. Going two for two it was again dark by the time we got out of the city and we were again aimlessly driving down streets looking for a camping spot and not succeeding. With our seemingly endless luck ("touch wood") shining down on us again though a taxi driver on his way back from work pulled up beside us and beckoned us to follow him. Not sure exactly what he meant we followed him to his brothers house, and they rapidly dragged out a huge amount of blankets for us to sleep on both inside and outside. We had a great evening chatting to them in broken Russian and English, drinking local and English tea, but wishing we had some Vodka with us too.
'One of the best nights sleep I have had all trip'
In the morning we thanked them endlessly for their generosity, gave all the little kids some simple gifts Callum had thought to buy a few weeks earlier, and then set off again. Midway through the day we reached the border with Afghanistan for the first time. We were due to be driving along the Tajik side of the border just a stones throw from Afghanistan for the next 3 to 4 days, winding alongside the river to the town of Khorog and then up the Wakhan valley. This was probably the section of the trip most of our parents were most worried about, but was one of the sections that we were all most looking forward to having heard great things about the scenery. On the other hand, we had not heard great things about the roads. Leading up the border it wasn't looking good with the most under construction road I've ever driven on leading over the mountain pass to the first valley. However, as Afghanistan came into view the road suddenly turned smooth and devoid of other traffic we cruised alongside the river with stunning views of the beginnings of the Pamir mountain range. For all we had heard about the Transfagarasan being one of the best roads in the world it had nothing at all on this which was quite simply the best road I've ever driven along. Finding a campsite here wasn't hard either and we pitched up by the river in the first of what was to be many nights in incredible locations.
'Views best seen from outside the dirty windscreen'
The following day we set off early and drove all day hoping to get to Khorog. We didn't. The roads were back to being awful and we made incredibly slow progress considering we drove all day. Not put off we found another stunning campsite and again got up early.
'Day 2 of incredible campsites'
This time we got to Khorog, arriving early in the morning and resupplying ourselves with food, water, and Tajik Somoni (the currency). We headed off ASAP and instead of heading out on the Pamir Highway like most teams, we opted for the much worse and much longer road along the Wakhan valley. I didn't think it was possible but the scenery here got even more special, with the backdrop constantly taking your eyes dangerously away from the severely potholed roads.
'Even this idiot can't ruin it'
To top it off halfway through the day we bumped into another team, four Aussies and the two stray puppies they had picked up, who told us there were supposedly some hot springs a little way further along the valley. Hot springs sound good anywhere, but when you haven't had a proper shower for a week, and the last wash you had was in a river, they sound even better. The only glitch in this plan was that we were at the bottom of the valley, and the hot springs were right at the top of the mountain on the side of the valley. This meant a very steep and rocky track up the hillside even more unsuited to our cars than the rest of the roads. We made it up though; albeit with a little pushing, which I still blame on the other cars for getting stuck in front of us.
At the top though we found it was shut till the morning, so with it getting dark we pitched up and went to sleep dreaming of hot springs in the morning. It was better than we could have expected. Sat soaking in beautifully hot water pouring in out of the cliffside wall none of us wanted to move anywhere. Eventually though we dragged ourselves out and have just hit the road again feeling fully refreshed. We are headed out of the Wakhan Valley today aiming to join the Pamir Highway; the second highest highway in the world.
'Day 3 of incredible campsites'
