Three seasons in the Pamirs

Freddy, Pierre and I leave Khorog after a few days of rest. With the climb to the Pamir plateau, the pleasure increases with the altitude.

The seasons slip by

Autumn arriving after a bit of a climb.

The first thing I notice on the way is that we quickly leave summer for fall. By following the course of the river, the temperature drops at the same rate as we go up.

Over the miles, the leaves will change color, then the trees will eventually disappear completely. Grass will become increasingly scarce and after only three days our landscape will become an expanse of rocky peaks topped with snow. There will be no Indian summer this year it seems!

I have a lot of fun riding with other people. Fred is from southern Germany and has a cute German accent that makes him pronounce the word village “willage”. He's blond, likes to have his picture taken and laughs at all my jokes. He pedals fast, is a strong climber and doesn't like it when he's not the first! After a few detours and trips, he has just finished his studies to be a sports and history teacher.

Pierre is brown, and has not shaved since the start of the trip, which makes him unrecognizable by his passport. Before leaving, he was in administration for a theater company. But he is passionate about building bicycles and would like to see if he can make a living from them when he returns to Paris. Besides, he and his bike were a real magnet for everyone we met.

Freddy who explains our trip to a Pamiri. Hands that turn, it's a bike!

Pierre giving a child a ride on his amazing bike.

Nagorno-Badakhshan and the Pamiris

The what ?

Le Nagorno-Badakhshan. The mountains we cross are mainly in this autonomous region of eastern Tajikistan. Created by the Soviets, this province now forms 45% of Tajik territory, but contains only 3% of its population (250 inhabitants). And these say to each other above all Pamiris, rather than Tajiks.

The Pamiris are the original peoples of this territory. They are a group of eight different small nations, each speaking its own language, and all practicing a rarer form of Islam, different from the rest of the country. It wasn't until the 1930s that they were connected to the rest of the world, when the Soviets built the Pamir Highway to link China with Afghanistan and Iran.

Another attribute of this people, they are extremely welcoming and generous. Freddy, Pierre and I were received by several Pamiris on the road. It was one of them, Davlat, who told us about the Civil War taking place here between 1992 and 1997.

The Pamir mainly covers the eastern part of Tajikistan, but also spills over into Kyrgyzstan, China and Afghanistan.

Davlat and his family.

Shortly after the end of the Soviet Union, the Nagorno-Badakhshan region took the opportunity to declare its independence from Tajikistan. The fighting was never really equal, and after 50 to 000 men and women died, the province fell into line and gained the status of an autonomous region. In retaliation, revenge or political calculation, however, little investment has taken place in the region in recent decades. Which may explain the poor quality of the roads and buildings all over the way.

Beautiful days

These days of climbing the plateau were, and I weigh my words, the most beautiful of my trip now. A pleasant temperature, a backwind, a surface better than I expected, a magnificent view, almost more traffic, and in good company. It is the state of grace! Many of the views even made me think of Austria, in addition to the wilderness, and I refrained from stopping to take pictures every two kilometers.

The altitude is also still very tolerable, being, apart from the many passes, between 3 and 000 m. Fred and I even let ourselves go racing for about twenty kilometers to the village of Alichur.

Alishur

We had been waiting for Alichur for several days. On the map, it is the only inhabited point a few days' drive before and after. But in reality, it is only a few buildings of rammed earth and agglomerated clay in a large valley. Electricity is unstable and often cuts off, and no one has running water. The inhabitants must therefore go daily to the well located in the center of the village, in order to manually pump what they need. At this altitude, it is already freezing at the end of September, and nothing is growing. But hey, there's a mini-market where they sell double-sized Snickers. The advantages seem to me to balance the disadvantages!

Pierre and Freddy arriving in the village of Alichur.

Maybe a long climb, but what a visual spectacle! We see Freddy and Pierre at the bottom right.

After analyzing our available accommodation options for 3 seconds, we decide to camp just after the small village. Our tents appear to us as the most luxurious option!

A quality "Guest House".

After our night in a tent, we will fill up with water at the village well. A child of about 5 years old arrives at the same time as us and we help fill his huge tank of about eight gallons. Fred and I then carry him two to his house. We have the funny feeling of being played by the young man who said to himself that he would save himself a lot of trips thanks to the tourists by bicycle!

Then we leave. The view is always superb on the plateau. The backwind pushes us. How lucky are we to experience this.