Murgab

14 july 2012

Getting over the border and into Tajikistan turned into a real adventure.

To reach the Kyrgyic border, I get a lift along the route track which heads into the mountains. From the border crossing there is an 18km stretch of track through the mountains to the official Tajik/ Kyrgyic border at the top of the Kyzyl-Art pass at 4282m. I was lucky to get offered a lift with a Swiss couple in their camper van along this stetch. It would have been a long and rugid walk!

At the Tajik border control, I arranged to travel on with two guys who were awaiting  four trucks to come through from Osh. These were carrying the containers to be used to set up an observatary near Murgab. The astrophysician, overseeing the project was one of the guys. We waited for hours and ended up driving ahead of the trucks through the night, guiding them down the steep Pamir Highway towards Karakol lake. My first sight of this famous stretch of the highway was from the back of an old Lada, in the dark under a star studded sky with the mountains on either side of us.