High Pamir Adventure

So - a bit more catching up on past antics. In Murghab I spent one day (more than enough time to explore the ins and outs of that not so bustling metropolis) and arranged for four days trekking in the nearby Pamirs, which mostly involved hiring a guide and a car and driver for drop off and pick up.

The first day's hiking was over a pass in the Pshart range west of Murghab. The pass was not particularly tall or steep, and looked like it would be no problem - but that was without accounting for altitude. At around 4500m, climbing every little hill made me feel like I was competing in an Olympic event and I think I went about twice as slow as I otherwise would. Luckily we were hiking from yurt to yurt so I didn't need to carry tent or sleeping bag. The western part of the Pshart range is quite remote and still contains the odd bear, and my guide claimed to have seen snow leopard in the valley we were in in winter.

We stopped for tea (and yak cream, yak butter, and yak youghurt) on the way down from the pass at a yurt, which felt very cosy after the brisk, chilly wind outside. Each yurt has basically the same layout - round, with the right had side from the entrance the sitting and reception area, and the left hand side the 'kitchen' where all the food is kept. In the center is a stove burninng dry yak dung with a chimney poking out the hole in the top and at the back is the enourmous pile of blankets and mattresses that get taken out at night and put away in the morning. The walls are a kind of wooden trellis structure covered with felt which is very effective at keeping out the wind. After tea we got picked up and driven down the Maidian valley to spend the night at Eli Suu, a hot spring where I had a good relaxing soak.

Day two was spent hiking up the Eli Suu valley, past two jailoos (summer pastures and yurt encampments) to the upper jailoo. The Kyrgyz move from the sheltered winter pastures (such as the Maidian valley) to higher summer pastures around May and return around September. Each family has its traditional jailoo and will move to the same place every year, with each encampment having around 2-3 yurts of related families. The yurt I stayed in that night belonged to Yusuf Ali, who teaches Islam and Arabic in a village school during the year and who was really welcoming and one of the nicest people I met in all Tajikistan. He also had a profound effect on my guide, who didn't seem particularly religious before but started praying about 3 times a day after meeting him. Here I watched the yaks being milked and had 'Kyrgyz National Dish' for dinner - which was basically pastry flavoured with a couple onions that took 4 hours to prepare, yet another reason why Central Asian resturants are a little thin on the ground outside the region. In the morning the whole camp posed for pictures which I have promised to send.

Day three was over the big pass (around 4600m) which was longer but not as steep as the Pshart pass. It was also more exciting as we hiked past a glacier (actually hiking up and down a bunch of rock glaciers for the geologists) and the way down was thrillingly steep. Different Kygyz National Dish for dinner, but basically the same deal without the onions. Day four was over another lower pass, and then involved incing along scree slope on the mountainside to come round and over another pass into the large Bazar-Dara valley. This shouldn't have been difficult becuse I was getting used to the altitude, but I wasn't feeling well in the morning and did most of it on an empty stomach which made it probably the toughest day. It felt pretty good to get to the yurt at the end of the day. I asked the owners of the yurt how many tourists they got in a summer, and they replied, lots - about 3 or 4 in a year! Not quite Bali here then. Morning pick up by Tatik in the jeep and 2 hour drive back to Murghab.