We started Pamir (9. May 2024) in Dushanbe, Tajikistan and we take the south route via the Afghanistan, Pakistani and Chinese border and finished Pamir in Osh (Kyrgyzstan). The route was almost 1.600 km, we spend 21 days on the Tajikstan Pamir. We made a special blog on the Pamir route and all the, for us, important waypoints.
Why now?
We are close 😂👍. The Pamir Highway is one of the most beautiful and remote highways we ever drove. Also, the Pamir Highway is part of the ancient Silk Road, and has been used as a trade route for thousands of years, making it a fascinating journey. But, it can also be a challenging adventure, with narrow, winding roads, high altitudes, and harsh weather conditions. We hoped that traveling this route in May would give us the best chances of snow free roads and good weather. This almost worked out.
The 4.282 m. Kyzyl-Art pass is the border to Kyrgyzstan and as we started Pamir this border was still closed due to snow. By the time we arrived the border was open but the 7 km track down to the Bor-Doba post 3.490 m. But the “road” was partly flushed away and the survace was wet mud, very dangerous to descent.
Permits
At entering Tajikistan we needed to pay for entering via this bordercrossing and we got asked how long we planned to stay. We payed US 100,- for the truck and got, as asked for, a 35 days entrance document. Seperate from these you need extra permits in Tajikistan.
These permits you buy in Osh or Dushanbe. Almost everybody starts in Dushanbe because this way the elevation increases relativly slow and it is easier to adapt to the height. Check our post on Pamir waypoints for the location.
REGISTRATION CARD OF FOREIGN CITIZEN
If you stay longer then 10 days in Tajikistan you need to registrate yourself. This could not be done at the border so we did it at the OVIR office in Dushanbe. Our registration was valid for 28days.
GBAO permit
The GBAO, Gorno-Badachshan Autonomous Oblast, permit is necessary to drive M41 or Wakhan corrido, but also for Murghab, Khorog, Langar. So beside the xx registration we needed the GBAO permit. We organized the permit at the OVIR office in Dushanbe. You see the original permit on the left and the google translate version on the right below. The cost was US 20,- We waited an hour to get it ready for us. We asked for 28 days.
Money and cards
Although it is possible to get money out of an ATM with a Mastercard in Dushanbe, the rest of the country only accepts VISA or cash.
Mobile networks
Tajikistan and especialy the Wakhan valley have very bad mobile coverage. Our advice would be to buy 2 SIM cards for 2 different networks to enhance your luck.
Which Pamir is the best one?
There are 3 ways to get from Dushanbe to Osh.
- Via Bartang valley
A beautifull valley, but even locals do almost never cross this valley because the road is most of the year non-existing. They drive either east or west, whatever is closest, but they do not cross.
We met motorcyclist who drove Bartang, but they told us about the many landslides they had to conquer. - M41 highway.
This with potholes and trucks filled highway diverts in Khorugh and is the official Soviet M41 highway. Most tourist avoid it, or use it to drive their rentals back to Dushanbe after driving Wakhan coridor to Murghob. - Wakhan corridor
The most beautiful, but also most abandoned route is the Wakhan corridor route, driving along the Pyanj river with on your right hand, Afghanistan, Pakistan and China. Check our blog with waypoints and our route.
High altitude
Our Unimog truck on high altitude
Unimog is running okay but starting the truck at 10C and above 3.800 meters take some longer starting. After this a lot of smoke and ikt takes still at least a minute for the engine to run properly. To drive up the passes needs more effort amd we are ashamed for how bad the exhaust fumes are bluring out. But then, the diesel quality is also not guaranteed in Tajikistan, so this maybe a factor also. Our airtanks are back to 5 bar, normally they stay steady above 10 bar after one night sleeping and also filling the airtanks seem to take longer.
The aircilinder which switches from high to low gear has a hard time.
Tyre pressure …
Eberspacher diesel heater at high altitude
We do not use our diesel heater so much. We only used it above 3.800 meters to keep it cosy amd warm in the evening. I have the feeling it had some problems starting up, but it is running and keeping us comfortable. Also with the diesel heater the diesel quality might be an issue.
Preparing ourselves for high altitude
We are careful in picking our spots for the night. So per night we try not to have more then 300 meters altitude difference with the day before. We made a post with our GPS/GPX track and waypoints, here you can find the most important campspots too.
Sleeping, sport, hikes. breathing while sleeping is more difficult then hiking.
What else happend at high altitude?
First our chips bags exploded around 2700 meter so we ate all of it 👍😂. The higher we came the more stuff “exploded” or made a mess when we opened them. The shampoo and sunblockers made a mess yoghurt splashed open while driving so our fridge was all over with it. At 3700 meter we woke up at night from an explosion. I did not want to go out to check out the damage but then we smelled something very strong. After some researching I found a little can with paint where the litt blew off.
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