Wakhan valley Pamir
The most impressive part of the Pamir for us was the Tajik Wakhan valley. This Wakhan valley is part of the corridor and our road follows the Pyanj river.
Instead of following the M41 east from Khorugh, the last change to get cash, do some serious shopping, get fuel and meet fellow travelers, we drove south. We found a great spot at 37.41544 71.49664 hidden in a rock formation.
We visited the famous Garm-Chashma Hot Spring. The men and women are allowed to use the outside “pool” at different times.
We passed the bridge at Ishkoshim which connects Tajikistan and Afghanistan and where every Saturday is a market where you can visit without a visa.
The interesting part of this part of the route started for us with a hike starting in Darshai, we hiked this gorge but turned around after some kilometers because the gravel and sand got in-stable due to landslides.
At the end of the afternoon we drove the steep and narrow road up to Bibi Fatime hot spring. An very nice, but as al hot spring here, inside spring. It is absolute worth the drive up. Here also men and women can use the pool separately. After this we drove down just a little to stay the night at 3.200 meters with a great view over the valley and to get adjusted to the height.
Zorkul valley
To add an extra road to our trip we planned at first on driving Zorkul. This route is joining the M41 at around 40 km south of Murghob.
Unfortunately we ate to early in the season, may/june, the roads are still impassable according guides we met in Khorugh. Khorugh is the place to buy the extra permit for Zorkul. We met a dutch couple who drove to the Zorkul lakes, which where still completely frozen, and the returned to the entrance at Khorgus checkpoint. But after watching their videos we decided it was to wet for our 11 ton campertruck so we decided to skip this part.
Bulunkul & Yashikul lake in Tajik National Park
After we passed the Khargush checkpoint, we where the 6th vehicle that passed today it was time for our real first mountain pass in Tajikistan, the Khargush pass 4.344 mtr. Because higher passes are coming we decided to camp 3.900 meter just after lake Churkurkul.
Since we did not see any shops and gasstations the last 100 km we decided the next morning to buy some bread and diesel in Bulunkul. But it turned out this coldest (-65 C) village in Tajikistan has no facilities whatsoever. Vincent baked later this day a bread in our little oven.
We continued our trip to two little geysers and had lunch here. Via a Yurt Camp with a hot spring we found our wildcamp at the eastern end of lake Yashikul. Fantastic.
The road to Alichur is impassable because of the very wet, swamplike, tracks so we decided to spend more time at lake Bulunkul and stay an extra night at lake Yashikul.
Tajik National Park
It is very large but quite expensive to be in. We pay with our truck € 40,- per day