The journey from Kalai Khumb to Khorog is 143 miles consisting of about 30 miles of quite good road and the rest about the worst we have been on. It follows the Panj river all the way, often a foaming torrent of white water and, in one place, a large lake as calm as a millpond with sandbanks. The other side of the river is Afghanistan, lots of beautiful little villages between the river and cliffs towering almost vertically to a great height. On the Tajik side, children were shouting “Hello” to us incessantly from the side of the road, inside mud-brick houses, up trees, sometimes holding out bowls of apricots for sale. We saw a turkey with eight chicks. We stopped at the side of the road for dinner and a man came out from nowhere with two tiny children and invited us to his house for tea and rice. We declined because we wanted to get to Khorog before dark, but felt a bit mean for refusing his generosity.
Khorog is a strange town, becoming a tourist hot spot for Pamir Highway travellers, almost all of whom fly to Dushanbe and get a taxi round the Highway or hire a motor bike (or even a bicycle!). Saw some Swiss vehicles travelling the road like us. The Serena Inn charges $156 a night, so we stopped at the lovely Lal Hotel for $30 including an excellent breakfast and very friendly staff. Met five blokes with “UK Fire and Rescue” on their jackets, sent to Khorog to advise local officials on how to rescue folks like us.
