The most scary journey of my life. It started off OK with a good road from Obigarm to Darband, then the sign to Khorog sent us off on an unmetalled road. We picked up a hitchhiker, Vicenti, an Italian who came to Tajikistan in 1976 to work on the Rogun-1 hydro station (which uses Italian-made turbines) and stayed after it was completed. Now working as a driver at the Rogun-2 construction site. Couldnt thank us more effusively as he was late for work!
The road was a mixture of crap and excellent and, with many side roads and not too many signs, we kept asking the way. Picked up two soldiers who travelled with us as far as Sagirdasht village and we then started to climb a long succession of hairpins to the Sagirdasht Pass. The memorial to three tourists and a Tajik driver whose vehicle went off the road was a bit unnerving, but the journey to the top of the pass was fine. Utterly dramatic view, surrounded by snow-capped peaks, bright emerald green pasture land. Just magical!. Then we started to go downhill round an even larger number of hairpins, past the bit which every traveller mentions where a single-track rock-strewn road cut into the side of an enormous vertical cliff has a big camber towards a drop of I reckon several thousand feet only inches from our offside wheels. Black spots at the bottom which were probably vegetation or herds of cattle, but after seeing the memorial to the dead travellers, I felt somewhat uneasy. Tried to work out where the centre of gravity of the vehicle was and how badly the road had to slope before we went over the edge. Thought of reversing back but impossible.
Eventually, after passing Tajik vehicles racing up the pass at top speed to tend to huge herds of cattle, we arrived at the bottom in the dark, signed the book (we had to sign a book before we drove up the pass. I guess they compare the books every so often to see if someone drove up the pass and didnt come down), and drove past a small river absolutely boiling with water and foam splashing across the road. Eventually came to the surprisingly large and smart town of Kalai Khumb. Thought of stopping at a hotel; saw a very posh place with some extremely elegant ladies in the foyer and massive 4X4s parked outside, so drove on a further 7 miles and stopped for the night by the roadside under the watchful eye of President Rakhmon.
