As we left Osh at the beginning of the week we came onto the Pamir Highway which we will follow from the south of Kyrgyzstan all the way across Tajikistan to Dushanbe.
One of the things about the Pamir Highway is it’s utterly remote. It’s also up in the Pamir mountain range – we’ve spent most of the last week above 3,500m.
Being so remote means that even here in the ‘big smoke’ of Murghab before our rest day there’s no such thing as WiFi at the hotel, and even with a Tajik SIM card in my mobile dongle the best I can get is (relatively expensive for this part of the world) 2G which is something like the speed of a dehydrated snail trying to crawl across sandpaper!
The upshot of all that is that I doubt I’m going to be able to upload any blog posts other than this very short one to let you know that all is well 🙂
We only have a very short week coming up – three days – and Khorog is supposed to be a more substantial town so hopefully I’ll be able to get caught up again then.
Utterly isolated, the wild-east town of Murghab is the logical base from which to explore the eastern Pamirs … [the] box houses and criss crossing power lines don’t create an immediately charming effect. Murghab’s layout is confusing, even though there are just two asphalt roads.
Lonely Planet, Central Asia
I keep thinking about visualizing seeing “a dehydrated snail trying to crawl across sandpaper!” – it makes me smile on our wet dreary winter days.
Good to hear all is OK with you Steve
I guess the views must be spectacular at +3,000 meters, and the pedaling must be more difficult than before.
Looking forward to the pictures and stories 🙂
Yippee – you’re ok! Been wondering how you’ve been going. Missing the updates xx
All good in crispy ChCh. -3oC last night but no winter to speak of – many crystal clear days after a frost. Just so mild. And no days of grey skies and rain. Long may the wonderful winter weather continue.
Happy pedalling. Will your bike be going home with you? Or will it be (in the words of Tony Cribb AKA The Tin Man) “forked” by the time you finish?!?
Yeah, out-Stan-ding.
Keep peddling, thinking of you daily, in fact it’s become Stan-dard procedure.
Stay safe mate,
Glad Stans all good!