PAMIR | Extreme Bike Touring on the Roof of the World #40
Over the past weeks this road brought us close to tears more than once. Cycling the Pamir Highway is relentless. At times questions like “How much more can I take?”, “Why are we even doing this?” and some very explicit variations made us doubt everything. I feel a kind of shortness of breath and my heart is racing.
So it must be the altitude and we hope in Murghab about 300 m lower, it will get better. We feel weak, our bodies hurt from the constant shaking, we are exhausted and have barely slept, gasping for oxygen all night. It is still 520 kms to Osh in Kyrgyzstan. The most spectacular stretch of the road including its highest mountain pass is still ahead of us.
We are on the way from Alichur to Murghab, a little over 100 kms east. This is the longest distance in a day since we entered Tajikistan, but the conditions are very favourable. The ascent to Nayzatash Pass at 4134 metres is so gradual, it is barely noticeable. All the colours you can imagine! The road surface is mostly intact asphalt, and we are even getting pushed by a lovely tailwind. It almost feels like we are flying through this barren, rough and somewhat surreal landscape. After a nice 30 km long 500 m descent we meet a motorcyclist from Germany who gives us 10 of his Diamox tablets.
While this medication is mostly prescribed to treat conditions like glaucoma and epilepsy, it leads to a rising acidity of the blood. Mimicking the signal of a rising blood CO2-level this tricks the human body into breathing faster and by that raising the blood oxygen level. While we assume to be okay in Murghab, those will certainly help us to get over Ak-Baital pass. 15 kms to Murghab.
A short climb later we are almost in the biggest settlement on the High Pamir. Checkpoint time. We plan to spend two days in a homestay, giving our bodies some time before going higher. At 3600 metres above sea-level and with a population of about 7500 Murghab is the only significant town in the Murghab district, or Eastern half of the GBAO. The only attraction, if you can call it that, is probably the market.
A strong westerly wind whistles through the conglomeration of rusty containers and huts that provide the by far best range of products within a radius of 500 kilometres. Even though Kulma Pass and the Tajik - Chinese border are just 90 kms further east, don’t get your hopes up too much. In addition to the usual choice of cheap instant noodle soups, biscuits, sweets and soft drinks, there are a couple of butchers. Now that it's autumn, we can also find fresh fruit and vegetables.
For some reason carrots are always a bit mouldy in this part of the world. Ice cream made from yak milk is sold at the northern edge of the market. We also treat ourselves to lunch in one of the restaurants nearby. After vomiting violently several times a few hours later, Arev meekly admits that parts of her grilled chicken had tasted funny.
From now on the M41 leads north towards the border with Kyrgyzstan. The coming 200 kms are the most spectacular stretch of this road. The next and last settlement on the Tajik part of the Pamir Highway is Karakul. To reach it, we have to make it over our nemesis. Today we are leaving Murghab towards Ak-Baital pass with almost 4700 m of altitude, which we’ll try to do tomorrow. We stayed here for a couple of days, because we had quite some issues with our stomachs.
Heading out of town we bump into Will, a cyclist we had briefly met two weeks earlier. Camaraderie among cyclists is a thing everywhere in the world, but it is absolutely next level in the rough mountains of Tajikistan! Apart from a handful of vehicles there is no traffic all day. The landscape around us looks awe inspiring. It feels like cycling through a distant world.
Our goal is to get close enough to Ak-Baital pass to safely make it over the following day. As a precaution we both started to take Diamox, which should help us with sleeping at this altitude. At about 4200 metres it will also be a very, very cold night. We hurry to get into our sleeping bags before sunset. Mathias' temperature is slightly elevated. Going for a pee at -10°C is not funny, but this night sky makes up for it.
Yesterday we started from Murghab and we were joined by Will. We did about 50 to 55 kms, guys? Yeah. The past few days have been good, because the tarmac has been good.
I had food poisoning in the Wakhan valley and the road was very bad. It was very difficult. And then you come here and the tarmac is great, so… Some of the best cycling I have done on the trip, probably ever… Also we were quite sick.
In the evening I had 37,8 °C temperature, some diarrhea, and Arev is still recovering from her violent vomiting the other day. It will be interesting to see how we feel when we are another 500 m higher than we are now. In 2-3 days we will actually leave this country. Hopefully! If they let us enter Kyrgyzstan actually, because officially the border is not really open.
So we’ll see if we can cross the border or not. About a dozen kilometres behind this fence lies China. We are at 4300 metres now… roughly… I’m having a particularly hard time with breathing. We are starting to get a fairly nasty headwind that's bitterly cold.
From Dushanbe up until Murghab we enjoyed tailwinds most of the time. From now until reaching Osh however, it will be the other way around. We have only 4 kms left to the Ak Baital pass at *4655 metres. We can barely breathe. I don't know… Everything feels 10, 20 times more difficult.
I hope we can make it. I sometimes have moments of desperation. Oh my God! That hurts! My lungs are screaming for air.
I think the air pressure here is 40% lower compared to sea-level. The road is getting steeper now, close to 10%. Oh my God! There's less than 1km left. I think I am stopping every 50 metres.
The final ascent seems endless, almost impossible. This is ridiculous. We feel incredibly weak and tiny. Never before have I been so aware of my limitations. Moments of despair alternate with bursts of determination. I almost want to cry! I can’t believe this.
I thought I’ll never make it. Made it ha?! With a little bit of tears and sweat… And wind… just to make things easy. How are you feeling? Out of breath… I’ve been thinking about this for a long time actually… 10 years ago I wasn’t cycling at all and I would never think that I would come all this way. Words can hardly describe how we feel.
We literally made it to the top of the world. Since our first pedal strokes back in Germany we cycled over 10.000 kilometres. Again and again we pushed our limits, crossed physical and mental boundaries, and widened our horizon as well as our range of emotions. In that sense the Pamir Highway has been extraordinary, and it is far from over. After admiring the view and enjoying the sense of achievement for about 15 minutes we have to continue.
We would love to spend the night in the cosy comfort of a homestay. From the top of Ak-Baital Pass to Karakul it is just under 60 kms with an almost perfect 770 metre descent, our well-earned reward. Reaching Karakul before nightfall should be possible and an absolute blast as well. Oh my God! This is what I call a washboard, this is a proper washboard here. This is horrible. On the sides is gravel, so you can't cycle on the sides, in the middle is just up and down.
Brutal! Absolutely brutal! What a horrible shitshow! A road like this takes literally all the fun away! Come on! Since we are filming everything ourselves, we rarely manage to start recording before throwing a temper tantrum. However, coming down Ak-Baital in a northerly direction the M41 is in an absolutely unforgiving bone- and spirit-breaking condition for about 20 kms straight. Combined with a fierce headwind and slightly diverging expectation, well … We are going slower downhill than f*** up! Washboard, washboard, washboard, f*** headwind. Washboard…
Doesn’t f**** stop! After showing pretty much stoic self-control for several hours we are still too far from Karakul when the sun is about to set. What are we going to do? I think reaching Karakol is… Yeah, I think it's stupid. We should stay here. Shall we camp on this side with a nice view or we camp on the other side with less wind? Here…close to the road is a little less wind.
Since both we and Will are on longer journeys through mostly warm or hot climates our gear is not exactly ideal at this altitude. We have a 3 season tent, ultralight air mattresses, and my sleeping bag has a comfort temperature of +5°C. However, what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, and this looks pretty nice.
We ended up staying in this very wide and beautiful valley 30 kms away from Karakul, because it was getting too late, dark and cold. It was quite fresh again, probably -8 or something. But now it’s a sunny day, not a lot of wind… and the road is good. Finally!
Today is a much better day. Going mostly downhill on a much better road. This is great! It's amazing! Life is great today! This is the Pamirs, you know. One day you think everything is amazing, then the next second the Pamirs hits you in the face with brutal headwinds or freezing temperatures or the worst road with a lot of washboard that you could ever imagine or you just can’t breath because of the altitude or you can vomit or have diarrhea or a combination of those things. And then the next day it’s beautiful! Karakul lake at almost 4000 metres is the result of a massive impact event some millions of years ago creating a 55 km wide crater. Behind lies the snow capped Trans-Alai Range which forms the border between Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan.
There you go. Karakul. Wow! Yeah, that looks desolate. We should have spent some more time around Karakul lake but ran out of time and cash. We’ve rested for half a day in Karakul. Our day to cross the border is actually today and we’ll probably not be able to do it. We hope we can make it into the No Man’s Land between Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan which is about 20 kms long between the border guards and then cross the Kyrgyz border very early tomorrow morning.
Cell coverage is notoriously bad to non-existent in the Pamirs, but Arev needs to make a special call. We couldn't get a phone signal in the homestay and want to try in line of sight with the cell tower. Arev… It’s not going to get better than this.
If you get closer it’s not going to get better. We are now on our way to the Kyzyl-Art border crossing. We are leaving Tajikistan and saying goodbye to this beautiful lake, Karakul. Our friend Will decided to rest for another day in the village.
We hope we can make it to Sary-Tash today. Getting over the border is a bit sketchy and we could end up stuck in the no-man's land. Anyways, reaching Uy-Bulak pass the sun is shining and we feel like celebrating.
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A little later when the wind is shifting direction we don't hear anything at all for a few minutes. Absolutely nothing but utter silence. A brief moment of solitude and calmness. Due to deadly border clashes the Tajik-Kyrgyz border had been completely closed for 2 and a half years.
However, in the weeks leading up to our arrival there were reports of some travellers successfully crossing at Kyzyl-Art Pass ahead of us. For a brief period the Kyrgyz Department of Tourism would just put your name on a list for the border guards to let you in. When we contacted them they suddenly insisted that we go through one of four travel agencies instead.
They just changed the process. We are not saying that this is blatant corruption, but it sure looks like it. While three agencies asked for ridiculous sums, I convinced one to do it for free.
We soon will find out if it worked. It’s the third day with f******** mental headwind! Why?! Why, why, why?! Well, that is the Pamir Highway. You gotta love it or hate it or both at the same time. I can see the Tajik border. It’s maybe 100m away from here. A little bit up of course.
And there is some more climbing to do afterwards. I am pretty sure we cannot make it to the Kyrgyz border today, because they are in a different time zone, 1 hour ahead. It’s already 4:15 pm, 5:15 pm for them. No way we can make it until 6:00 pm. So it looks like we’re gonna end up camping in No Man’s Land.
Arev is also pretty done! In the past she had only sometimes carried the heavier rack-pack to get me through a climb faster. In Tajikistan that had become a force of habit. The border post looks a bit desolate. Getting our exit stamps takes only 5 minutes, but it’s not like there is a queue. A last steep climb to Kyzyl-Art pass. Oh my God! This is the top! This is the f***** top! This was our last four-thousander.
Over the next 50 kilometres we will descend almost 12-hundred metres to Sary-Tash, the first settlement in Kyrgyzstan. Even though in the map it says it’s 20 kms away, this kind of looks like a border. Let’s see what this is. Turns out that was just a small checkpoint. The border is roughly 17 kms away.
… and the descent towards the Kyrgyz immigration is steep and bumpy. The next morning we continue in front of this astonishing backdrop: The heavily glaciated Trans-Alay range and northernmost extent of the Pamir Mountains. It is about another 200 kilometres to Osh, the end, or start if you will, of the Pamir Highway, but first we have to enter the country officially.
So this is the Kyrgyz border post. Woohoo! We’ve got our Kyrgyz stamp and now here is the first sign that we are in Kyrgyzstan. Horses… And… Horseshit! Don’t get me wrong! I’m just saying, as they are known to have a couple of horses around one can naturally expect to see a lot of… Camels?! Yes, domesticated bactrian camels are extraordinarily well adapted to not only survive scorching hot sand deserts, but also up to -30° celsius with their winter coat on. That and their ability to carry enormous loads made them the pack animal of choice from the Caspian Sea to Inner Mongolia. Just 60 kms east of Sary-Tash lies Irkeshtam Pass, leading to China’s Xinjiang province. For at least two millennia it has been an important border control point between two major geographical and cultural regions.
From here on the M41 becomes a much tamer, modern road with a smooth asphalt surface most of the time. The tough days are over, our lungs burst with oxygen as we descend towards Osh. We’ve had a good run, so much luck with the weather, not even one flat tire… Flat tire number 5.
Almost at the end. 100 kms before Osh. Well, at least the culprit is found. A big thumbs up for our sturdy bicycles, which actually survived the Pamir Highway without breaking one spoke. I am not kidding, that is a noteworthy achievement for any bicycle! And what about us? That depends.
Obviously there was so much to love during our 4 weeks cycling the M4: the people, the solitude, the freedom, the lot, but right now we are just so tired. We are sick of mountains, sick of soul-shattering gravel roads, sick of freezing, sick of headwinds, sick of the same boring food. We are sick of being sick. One could think that Kyrgyzstan is pretty similar to Tajikistan from the landscape and everything, except they have a lot of horses as you can see.
That’s literally the most horses I have seen in one point of time. Day with headwind number 6 in a row. Anyway, it seems like everyone just wants to get down the valley. Like most Central Asians, Kyrgyz people used to live as nomads and some still do. It is mid-September, which means winter is coming. They packed up their yurts and are headed to lower pastures.
Horse on a truck. Not the intended use if you ask me but ok! So, in hindsight, the Pamir Highway, is it worth it? Honestly… For a few weeks the mere thought of cycling up another mountain pass on gravel made us cringe. However, no matter how many times this road made us scream or even cry… We also triumphed, a lot actually, and sweeter than ever before.
By seeking discomfort we obliterated boundaries, we rewired our brains. Without a question: We want to go back to the Pamirs, eventually. Join us again next time, when we explore beautiful Kyrgyzstan while driving a loaf of bread. If you enjoy following our journey and want to see more, help us reach at least 1000 likes. With just one click you can make a big difference for small and independent creators like us.
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2025-03-27 07:05
