Tajikistan Pamir Highway

Day 1 - Home - Departure
For those who did not buy this tour as a package tour including the flight ticket, this day does not apply. 

Day 2 – Arrival – Osh
You will be picked up from the airport and taken to the hotel. Osh is the second largest city in the country. Here the people speak more Uzbek than Kyrgyz. It is a city set up by the Soviets with wide streets and squares, one of which still has a Lenin statue.

Day 3 – Osh – Tashkent
Early in the morning, we cross the border into Uzbekistan. We arrive in the Fergana valley. This is a fertile stretch of lowland surrounded by mountain ranges. The valley was annexed to Uzbekistan when the lands were partitioned. But it is only with a narrow piece of land that is connected to the rest of the country, by only one road. We follow this road and at the narrowest point, we cross a beautiful pass. After the descent, we arrive in the capital of the country, Tashkent.
 

Day 4 – 5: Tashkent – Samarkand – Stay
We are now at the lowest part of the country. The Russians have planted this area full of cotton plantations. They got the irrigation water for this from Lake Baikal. Which, as a result, has shrunk to less than a third of its original size. So, it's a flat landscape. The city of Samarkand is where we spend the night. The city is mainly known for its great Silk Road settlements. This is the Registan. We have a day off here to visit these buildings.
 

Day 6 – Samarkand – Seven Lakes
It is only a short distance from Samarkand to the border with Tajikistan. That is also the landscape border between flat Uzbekistan and mountainous Tajikistan. After the border procedures, we drive to Penjikend for our lunch. Then we turn south. Here there is a dirt road that runs along many lakes. The road gets worse with every lake, we drive to the seventh lake. Here we spend the night in a homestay at people's homes. It is a deserted but beautifully beautiful area.

Day 7 – Seven Lakes – Dushanbe
We first drive back along the lakes to the main road. Once there, we continue in an easterly direction through the mountainous landscape of West Tajikistan along winding roads and deep gorges. The road here is in good condition but the ravines next to it are immensely deep. About 80 km before Dushanbe we have to go through the notorious and dangerous Anzob tunnel - "the gateway to hell" -. The road surface in this tunnel is full of holes and the rebar is loose everywhere. The holes and gullies are almost invisible due to the water flowing from the ceiling below. The cars criss-cross each other and there are no lights, but there is the occasional large broken fan in the way. An exhilarating ride that you won't soon forget. Towards the end of the afternoon, we arrive in the capital of Tajikistan, Dushanbe.

Day 8 – Dushanbe – Stay
This city is one of the most beautiful cities of the former Soviet Union and is located about 160 kilometers from Afghanistan. We stay here for two nights on Rudaki Street, within walking distance of the Presidential Palace, the museum, the reclining Buddha, and the local market.

Day 9 – Dushanbe – Kalaikhum
On the main road, we drive out of the city and after 20 km, turn into a narrower paved road. Past the hydroelectric power station and the big dam, we drive to Dangara where we stop for lunch. We drive south and approach the border with Afghanistan. Throughout the ride, you will have checkpoints and local police officers will be able to stop you. You must show respect for their work and patiently undergo the checks of your passport. Most of the time, the officers are just curious and want to take a picture with you and your motorcycle. Today it can be another scorching hot day, meandering through the bends and along the beautiful Blue Lake. We end the day driving through an endless plain with wheat fields.
The route of Kulyab is partly unpaved and it is a beautiful area, still below the tree line. Almost the entire day we drive along the river Panj which separates Tajikistan from Afghanistan, through the mountains. We pass some checkpoints and end the day in a simple guesthouse.
 

Day 10 – Kalaikhum – Khorog
We leave early and follow the border with Afghanistan and the river all day. This is a very sparsely populated rugged area and the peaks around us reach over 5000 meters. This is the autonomous region of the Pamir people. Pamirs are rocks carved out by glaciers. After a particularly impressive route through the mountains, we arrive in Khorog. We spend the night in a simple hotel. The surroundings of Khorog are very beautiful and rugged. The two high mountain peaks are the Skalinsky at 5700 meters and the Shavash at 5300 meters.

Day 11 – Khorog – Langar
We continue to follow the river border with Afghanistan in Badakshan province. The peaks around us now reach over 6000 meters. We will visit the hot springs of Gharm Chasma. These springs are in limestone rocks and bear a resemblance to the springs in Pamukkale, Turkey. Then we drive slowly on a bad dirt road into the Wakhan Corridor, along a meandering riverbed with the foothills of the Hindu Kush on one side and the Pamir Mountains on the other. Ishkashim is a border town with Afghanistan. It was here that the Great Game ended and the Russians and British agreed to make the Wakhan Corridor a neutral zone.

We drive further into the Corridor and see Buddhist caves in the rock face and remains of what may be a Buddhist stupa. All around us, snow-capped peaks appear and along the river, we finally arrive in Langar. Here the Wakhi River merges with the Panj River and becomes the Pamir River. A bridge is being built in Afghanistan to connect the Pamir Highway with the Karakorum Highway in Pakistan, which could usher in a whole new era in this isolated region. We spend the night in Langar again at people's homes in a simple homestay.
 

Day 12 – Langar – Murghab
In Langar, we turn away from the river, climb the Khargush pass of 4344 meters, and leave the Afghan border. From here, the Pamir Highway is a dirt road through a deserted wasteland past several mountain lakes with salt beaches. A beautiful day that leads to the small village of Bulunkul. Foreigners don't often come to this remote village, especially not on motorcycles. After a few hours of driving, we arrive in Murghab
 

Day 13 – Murghab – Stay – Border of China tour
Murghab is the largest settlement in the area. We get a first look at the mountain giant Muztagh Ata, located on the Chinese side of the Pamir. Unemployment here is almost 100%, a consequence of the collapse of the Soviet Union on which the Russians, who provided the work, almost all left. Very special is a market district that is made up of various containers.

Day 14 – Murghab – Sary Tash
We are now driving close to the border with China. For this reason, after an hour's drive, there is another military checkpoint. On the other side of the border is the Chinese province of Xin Jiang with the capital Kashgar. In this still rugged wild area, we cross the Akbaytal pass of 4655 meters. We will then arrive at Karakul Lake, an opal blue lake with snow-capped peaks in the background. Here we stop for lunch. Then we climb to the border post. It is located at a pass of 4300 meters. After the formalities, it's not that far to Sary Tash. We don't spend the night in the village itself, but in Camp Lenin just outside it. This camp is named after the highest peak in Kyrgyzstan, on the border with Tajikistan. If you're lucky with the weather, you'll be able to see the peak of the camp.
 

Day 15 – Sary Tash – Osh
After Sary Tash, it's only downhill and we leave the Pamirs behind us for good. At the end of the afternoon, we arrive back in Osh.  We hand in the bikes and have a day off in this small town to do your last shopping and recover from this impressive journey.

Day 16 – Osh – Departure