From our campsite near the junction with the Pamir Highway our route followed a heavliy washboarded road up a narrow valley, past a couple of very pretty lakes to Khargush Pass at 4255 meters before descending to the town of Khargush, a military checkpoint and the Parmir River and across the river - Afghanistan.

Along this first part of the days journey we saw a few old deserted (soviet military?) buildings, a couple of families herding animals and a couple of cycle tourists but other than that the route gave a feeling of being very remote. Contrary to some of our concerns the route was easy to follow, and was no difficulty for our large vehicle.

Past the Khargush checkpoint the Pamir Valley was very wide, with steep brown/gray mountains sides reaching up to snow capped peaks that peaked through the high cloud cover. We were a little dissapointed that we could not get good views of those higher peaks as they seem to be one of the highlights of this road. The valley narrowed as the river descended and eventually we found ourselves traveling a narrow shelf road high up on the wall of the now deep Pamir River canyon. Across the valley on the Afghan side we could see tracks or roads carved into the equally steep canyon wall.

We traveled for many miles on this narrow road high on the flanks of the canyon before in the distance we could see the green fields, and trees of Langar Village and the junction of the Pamir and Wakhan Rivers to form the Panj River. The descent into Langar village was very steep with a couple of tight switch backs (other obstacles were donkeys carry fresh cut hay). Tight switchbacks continued. The only road through the village also had a couple of very tight turns, was narrow, passing between stone walls/fences, and lined on both sides (and overhead) with wonderful stands of trees.

On the western edge of the village we stopped at a very small shop to try and buy Coke, but were out of luck. Our passengers on the other hand (because they spoke Russian) were able to find bread, fruit and some cookies. While the shopping was taking place we chatted with the local kids, and Nina spoke with the local schools English teacher and visited her house.


We could have parked for the night near the shops in Langar but it did not seem suitable for Alex's and Anna's tent so we continued past Langar down the valley through a couple of other villages with their narrow, tree lined main streets. However we did not find a suitable tent site so at the village of Zong (I think) we simply pulled off the road onto a small patch of ground. Alex and Anna found a home-stay in the local village. Nina and I spent some time chatting to the local kids and playing frizbee with some of them. When our bed time arrived we had a ittle trouble convincing the bolder of the young boys that the games and treats were over.