Assumed the road to Murgab would be atrocious so gave ourselves two days to get there. Relaxed in the hotel struggling with the very slow wifi until about midday then drove through the town in a huge traffic jam because a truck had triple parked to a supermarket at the north end of town. Like most Tajik places, it didnt take cards so I walked back into town to find an ATM. A young girl approached me and asked if she could help; she is studying English at the University of Central Asia in Khorog and wanted to practice her English. We did a tour of Khorog’s ATMs, all either empty, or broken or didnt take Visa until we went into a bank and finally got some money.
We eventually set off for Murgab up a gently sloping road running alongside a beautiful turquoise river past tiny villages with the inevitable children selling apricots.The landscape became gradually wilder and the vegetation less lush until we foumd ourselves in a lunar landscape of bare brown hills fringed by snow-capped peaks. The colours of the mountains were constantly changing – red, crimson, ochre, orange, yellow. Utterly spellbinding! The little turquiose river followed us all the way, getting gradually smaller. We passed the occasional dilapidated building which looked like it hadnt been lived in for centuries until we saw a row of washing and a nearby herd of sheep and goats with a man on horseback. The road was excellent all the way and we were frequently passed by large 4X4 taxis full of western tourists going the hard way at breakneck speed.
The settlement of Alichur is about 60 miles south-west of Murgab and looks like there has been a nuclear war with mudbrick houses ranging from “poor state of repair” to “uninhabitable”. It was getting dark and there were no lights, suggesting a lack of electricity. Frequent “homestay” signs advertised accommodation at these places with all home comforts and, if I were 50 years younger, I would have probably enjoyed it. One look at Jennifer’s face and we drove on. There was one modern building in Alichur, the police station, so we drove for 10 miles and stopped down a little side road.
