We're off to Khorog !

We didn't need too much information about road conditions when we were informed that our 650 km journey to our cycle start point at Khorog in Eastern Tajikistan was going to take nearly 2 days !!!

After packing most of our bike gear into our well maintained Russian Army Truck which largely resembled a Dr Who Tardis on wheels, we packed ourselves (quite literally) into our 3 other support vehicles - 1x luxury 4WD without Air Con, 1x mid style 4WD without Air Con (reportedly with Tajik's F1 champion as its driver) and a 14 seater mini bus which could fit about 6 and 1/2 midgets and again without Air Con on a bloody hot day!

The first part of our mixed convoy set off roughly on time from our Hotel leaving the Luxury 4wd behind (with me in it !) to head off 2 hours later to pick up our co guide Ian from Dushanbe airport who was arriving late after having been offloaded in Istanbul the day before.

Leaving Dushanbe we quickly found ourselves out amongst a typically barren countryside save for one poignant moment when we passed the hastily erected memorial to the 4 cyclists killed only a week before. This was a tough moment ! Without stopping we gave silent reflection to what it must have meant to these people and their families and friends to have been subjected to such a heinous act!

Our lunch stop just outside Kulob not long after, was surprisingly at a wedding reception centre. I say say surprising as the only things we'd seen for miles were cows and a few farmer sheds ! It was hard to imagine Mercs & Ladas mixing it with Donkeys to get to this place out in the middle of nowhere !

Soon after lunch we entered the GBAO region, a sensitive autonomous region within Tajikistan that required us to carry a separate permit. Here we said goodbye to our friendly chain smoking soldier who'd acted as some form of guard although given that he was was only carrying a briefcase one might question his effectiveness. Apparently his main interest en route was not looking out for insurgents but annoying the hell out of his vehicles inhabitants by his choice of less than popular Tajiky music !

An extended climb took us over the formidable Shurabad Pass before we dropped down to the Pyanj River valley for our first magnificent views on the Mountains of Afghanistan. Like excited school children we took our obligatory photos while looking out nervously for any Taliban looking locals !

We used the remainder of the available daylight making our way along an incredible narrow walled valley with our potholed road only a stones throw across the river from Afghanistan !

After an amazing and long day on the road we finally we arrived at Kalaikhum in the dark where early convoy arrivers had depleted the hotel of any and all the available cold beer (buggers!)

If there was any justice it was knowing that "everyone" (beer drinkers included) were going to have to battle the overnight heat with only a few rudimentary fans offering a tiny bit of relief !

Day 2 -

After a predictable sleepless night in our sauna like rooms we hit the road (well the bits that were made at least ..) early and took on some more bone jarring driving through the increasingly spectacular gorge scenery. It was hard to tell whether the roads we were driving on were any better than those still under primitive construction just across the raging river in Afghanistan.

At one point we stopped for a toilet break to allow our limbs to recover when an explosion set our guides running back to the safety of our convoy. Not any braver but certainly more curious, we instead ran in the opposite direction to see what the hell was going on.

With thoughts of an Afghan artillery barrage bearing down us it turned out that the explosion we'd heard across the river was just the singular road builders channeling out rock from a cliff overhang ! It was almost laughable until I later read a blog report where the writer indicated that their car had been hit by flying rocks on the Tajik side from a similar explosion in a similar location a few years back !

Every corner provided for spectacular views until after lunch when the Pyanj river valley finally widened just short of Khorog. After nearly 36 hours we were finally there !

Thankful for our Hotels warm water showers and proximity to cold beer we were soon revitalised enough to head out for dinner following Daniyar (our head guide) on a "5 minute" walk for 15+ minutes through the Agar Khan town to a place weirdly signposted as Mac Dolands (thankfully though not of the burger type !).

Finally we were able to wind down and relax with some local food and drinks in the knowledge that tomorrow was a well earned rest day !