Cycling the Pamirs - Tajikistan 2018 : Day 5

It might have been a short day but it wasn't without its highlights as we continued along the Pyanj river valley from Yamchun towards the Wakkan !

Morning roll call showed that a more had joined the "Taijiky Trots" casualty list with big John a bit too graphically describing how he thought was going to die the previous evening after his heroic uphill effort !

We started the day with the Mother of all descents ! The 7kms we battled up 2 days prior flew past in a blur as we traveled along a rocky / potholed surface on an adrenaline fueled descent back down to the Valley floor

While giving thought to the probable deadly consequences of my own high speed descent I was flabbergasted when overtaken by our co guide Ian who made me look like i was standing still - obviously i need to work on my downhill game !!

Although thankful to be alive I think most might have wished that they'd gone over the cliff when the descent took us on to a flat road of crushed rocks that made forward progress nearly impossible.

Some well worn walking tracks mirroring the road allowed us some temporary escape as long as we kept an eye out for the odd moving human "Hay Bale" - a local farmer carrying more than his body size of feed !

At one point we rounded a corner and came across an impromptu soccer match organised by Neil our friendly UK Copper !

Jurgen our chain smoking Dutchman, Neil and self were up against a group of delighted young Tajikistan children who were rapt that we'd stopped to play! Old age, Altitude and any other excuse we could think of meant that were soon completely knackered with the young kids hardly getting into a sweat ! It really goes to prove that Soccer is a universal language !

Cycling onwards we came across a couple of Round the Worlders. Tajikistan is a popular route for those trying to avoid cycling through Afghanistan !!

The scenery provided for beautiful Mountain views as we entered the last village en route before we hit the Pamir Hwy in a few days. Needless to say some of the guys led the charge to the local shop to ensure that the support vehicles beer supplies did not run out !!

Riding on to our nearby Homestay accommodation was enough to finish most of us for the day but a few hardy adventurers including Simon, Mathus, Christine and Gerard went out rock climbing to visit the well known Langar Petroglphys - ancient rock carvings, some dating back nearly 5,000 years !