Day 7. A Room With a View

After a fun evening in the hot spa, waking up and seeing a view like this from the toilet is bonus. 

Another great technical ride awaits, this time from the hotel back down the mountain. Lots of gravel and sharp bends. The first petrol station we find has no petrol, the next one does, but it's double the price we saw in Dushanbe, but we need fuel so have no choice. The filling technique would have the health and safety people apoplectic. 

Mark is not feeling well today, but bravely joins us, he looks almost as bad as he feels but hasn't given up yet. The option to ride in the Hilux is still there if needed.

Lots of gravel as we continue to follow the river along the border. The river has widened, the land has become flatter and there are many farms growing wheat and other crops along the way. Like wherever we go, children hearing our bikes run out to wave gleefully at us and we happily reciprocate, while they also yell the ubiquitous "hello, hello!" at us. Nearly everyone I wave at, waves back: children, women, men, grannies, soldiers, lorry drivers, police and even the hard to reach teenagers. Tajikistan has a very high score on the old wavometer, around 96% I'd say; up there with India. 

The terrain changes and the river seems to become smaller, giving you the impression that you could wade across it at some points. Of course it's very deceiving because the river is still flowing fast and it's depth is not clear. Even so, along all the border roads we've seen plenty of border guards watching out for the bad guys; yet without fail and belying their tough military exterior and AK47s, they always wave back to us.

We see a group of brown dromedary camels grazing on the other river bank, of course we stop to take pictures. There's no sign of a herder. I ride right down to the river's edge; At this point I'm not sure if this is still Afghanistan on the other side.

Later where the river has cut its way through the mountain to create a gorge we stop for some group photos with the dramatic mountains in the background. We've gained elevation back up to 3500m from around 3000m lower in the valley and having moved away from the Afghan border. 

The riding gets more challenging. Gravel, but more dips, more corners, hairpins, steeper parts and sections of dreaded sand! Small water courses have cut small valleys, and there are small bridges over the streams. A bigger bridge had been washed away and we take a detour further up the small valley. There's a challenging crossing further along where bigger rocks and stones have to be negotiated before crossing three large pipes set into road that channel the water. The pipes are not flush need care, ideally raising the front wheel first to get over the first (a skill I don't have yet).

Eventually the road flattens out and becomes faster, and we're still climbing. We stop and gather at a checkpoint and Danny and Christopher arrive; Danny is buzzing with excitement saying how much he enjoyed that blast. We show our passports and GBAO permits needed for this region and then we're off again. The road is more of the same and we keep climbing, eventuality reaching 4310m. 

The scenery here reminds us of the Altiplano in South America, quite flat, barren and windy. There's more gravel roads, which we all enjoy and then we hit the asphalt, but not before Mark has a little sit down to recover. He's done well to get this far. 

Apparently the asphalt road was build by the Soviets about 60 years ago, the fact that it's still here is testament to its solid construction back then. It is not in perfect condition, some potholes could swallow a motorbike wheel, so we have to be careful as they are sometimes difficult to see. But generally we can make fast progress. The scenery is looking more and more like Patagonia and when we stop for lunch in a rundown high altitude, spread out and a little rundown settlement we all say the same thing. 

More riding on fast roads, this time Mark leading, and he's in his element in the mostly good asphalt. We wave at ask the lorry drivers and some toot back.

Eventually Andre takes the lead again. Another pass at 4100m and we begin to lose altitude. Its now after 5pm and the light is getting tricky; the mountains shade sections and the low sun is also in our eyes. With dust on our visors it's very difficult to see ahead clearly; I flip my visor and my sunshade up and rely on my specs, which works better.

I pass a new fence construction and speculate on its purpose, the angle of the top suggests its keeping things in - a prison comes to mind. 

We arrive in our destination town Murghab at 3600m and again have our passports and permits checked and recorded. We learn while there that the fence is actually going to be a zoo... There's also a mini theme park near the checkpoint, complete with bicycle racks; and a new hotel is being built, but it seems some distance from the centre, or indeed anything. 

There's no WiFi/Internet at the hotel, but there is some glimmer of hope from a cell tower next to our hotel. At dinner, Steve becomes a tech support guru for Christopher...

Before dinner I go for a run. At 3600m I really suffer and the kids in town laugh as I pant by. It's the hardest 2.7km I've run outside of Tibet, but I didn't expect this altitude to be so tough.

Speaking of tough, our Suzuki bikes have been excellent and even though mine has over 84 thousand kms on the speedo, its still on the original engine, clutch, shock absorber and other major components, only the bearings and other consumables have been changed - that's tough!