From 40 degrees to freezing
It got cold. Very cold. My fingers are finally starting to warm up enough now to actually type properly again as we leave our campsite on our last morning in Tajikistan. Undoubtedly this was another incredible location to camp but the bitter cold was not so ideal.
I remember it starting to get cold first when we camped near the hot springs high up the mountainside. At a height of over 11,000 feet I suppose this was to be expected, and the coats were brought into action for the first time. At this point though it was still just a pleasant change from the boiling heat we have experienced for most of our trip and in the morning it was warm again. Driving on that day we dropped down into the valley again and continued along the amazing roads of the Wakhan Valley, culminating in a climb up and out of the valley onto the plateau which the Pamir Highway crosses. This climb was punctuated by stops for Rub a Dub Dub's Micra to cool down, which has been overheating since they crashed into the back of Two and A Half Men's Agila, and was challenging in parts with large loose rocks and the deep sandy patches.
The little Perodua plugged along though and dealt with everything in its path. Surprisingly this has been the case with almost everything so far, and incredibly nothing major has gone wrong with it the whole way. The fuel and temperature gauges admittedly still read hugely wrong half the time, usually solved by tapping on the cover in front of them, and there is now certain knack to controlling the electric windows. On the whole though these are extremely minor details.
'Our little donkey refuses to die'
Once we had made it safely out of the Wakhan Valley we finally hit the Pamir Highway; and the first proper tarmac road we had been on for days. It is amazing how beautiful the silence is after rattling along washboard tracks for days, but sadly it only lasted about 2 kilometres before we turned off to get to a lake we were planning to camp by. This was the second night of cold and by now we had climbed even higher and seemed to have found an even more exposed spot. Fed up with pasta and with none of us particularly wanting to cook we succumbed to temptation and used the first of our emergency just add water ration packs. If you think these sound disgusting I can tell you that you're completely wrong. I had Chicken Tikka and I'm pretty sure I've had worse fresh from takeaways in the UK, and all the other boys said their's were delicious too.
'Would highly recommend Mountain House freeze dried meals'
In the morning light the campsite looked a whole lot better, if no less bleak, but after another cold night some of the others with thinner sleeping bags were starting to wish they were back in the sweltering heat. We headed off though with the plan to do a long day all the way past the last big town in Tajikistan, Murghab, and over the highest point of our trip. I've said it a thousand times but the mountain views just never ceased to amaze us along the way as the road continued to climb.
'Just good'
At about 4pm we finally made it up to the top of the highest pass, at an official height of 4655m. To put this into some perspective, the very highest point in the Alps is 4810m; at the top of Mont Blanc where there is snow all year round. Although there wasn't snow when we got there, as we stupidly climbed further by foot to try and reach 16,000 feet it did start to snow. We eventually made it, gasping for breath, to 16,119 feet (4,913m); meaning we had climbed about 4,000 feet in two hours overall. This is entirely not recommended, and acclimatisation should really be considered, as this is the sort of height when altitude sickness starts to affect people. Luckily though we were all okay; apart from being rather cold by the time we got back down to the cars. It could have been much worse as just after we set off again the snow really started to come down, and I for one was very glad to be sat in the car with the heaters on full blast.
'Well this photo didn't work. Just imagine it says 16119 feet'
'All three still going at 4655m at the top of the Ak-Baital Pass'
Our final campsite in Tajikistan last night was by Karakul Lake, just south of the border with Kyrgyzstan and one of the most beautiful lakes I have ever been too. Cal keeps saying the road down to it is the best road of the whole trip, for its view of the lake and incredibly long straight stretch of tarmac. I completely disagree but the view certainly was special. At over 13,000 feet though and completely exposed a new level of cold was reached last night. The temperature was down to below zero and as the wind picked up even those of us in multiple coats were starting to feel the cold. A freezing night later I'm not planning on doing much camping at this sort of altitude again without being much better prepared!
'Our final incredible campsite in Tajikistan'
