Through our hotel in Dushanbe we organised a driver and car. Habib turned up at 8.30am in his Rav 4. First we had to pick up a permit to travel and this took quite some time as some of the roads under construction were closed and some of the offices were also closed.
As we headed north out of the city beside the Varzob river, we passed by many huge houses built into the rocks beside the river. Many of them had little outdoor seating areas overhanging the river with curtains or awnings for privacy and to block the sun. It seemed a popular feature of the riverside homes. The road was pretty narrow and winding to stop for photos.Towards the end of the river ribbon developments was the president's huge holiday complex with new buildings under construction.
We climbed up the Anzob Pass at 3372m and drove through many tunnels and solid concrete galleries protecting the road from falling rocks and scree.
Saw lots of honey trailers stacked high with bees hives on the side of the roads.
A Chinese company was rebuilding the road. Huge trucks passed us hauling coal from the mines in the hills.
Continued on the rough dusty road to Takfon and stopped at a roadside eatery for laagman (noodle soup). Habib has limited English so he took over all the discussions about food and we just chose the dishes we recognised.
We stopped briefly beside the river and saw a couple of policemen in a rubber raft trying to probe for a car that had ended up in the river. The locals drive far too fast at times.
The dusty road took us through little villages and orchards down to Iskander Kul lake. The policeman at the check point gave John a laminated sheet of charges to enter the lake area. John gave it to Habib who returned it to the policeman as it seemed to be his way of getting lunch money!
A Soviet era camping ground and cabins with a communal canteen were beside the lake where we saw tents and tourists and their bicycles camped.
Further around the lake was the President's dacha (holiday house) with its own helipad. Across from it was a small park and a clear water spring with several inlets.
Habib spied a cup hanging from a tree branch so we sampled the cool sweet tasting water. Pipes ran from it under the road to the president's house.
We arrived at a homestay at Sarytag village a tiny rural place with one shop and about 20 houses. We had a room for eating and a bedroom. It looked like it had been used as a self contained batch with a small kitchen with modern appliances. These were all covered with dust covers and not in current use.
After the welcome tea we met Joel, from Begium but working in Luxembourg, who was on a 10 day trip with a guide and driver. He was suffering already from diarrhoea and had lost 5 kilos. He threw down some pills then had more that his guide had and set out eating and drinking beers from the villages only shop. He proudly told us he had been to all 45 European countries and travelled 103 countries in total. He was quite a character and in his early 50s.
Joel's guide informed us that Habib had divorced his first wife then remarried but also had a second wife on the go. He said he had children to all the women. We wondered how a driver could afford to look after so many people on his income.
There was an old mud brick building to house the sheep and goats beside our room and a group of men were demolishing the roof to rebuild it before winter. The dust was horrific and smelt stale. We decided to go for a walk while it was going on. There is not much to see or do in the village and we saw about three other homestay houses.
In the late afternoon we saw young girls chasing their cows home after grazing outside the village and an old man on a donkey dragging his reluctant billy goat home. He had his horns tied up and well anchored to the donkey. The goat never let up his stubbornness the whole way.
Dinner was served to us in our own place and Habib joined us. The mutton and vegetable stew was followed by fresh, peaches, grapes and apples from the family orchard.
In the morning we headed back around Iskander Kul where Habib lead us up a trail to hike up to look down on Snake River. A local was fishing there and there were a couple of rubber rafts for paddlers. From here we continued to walk to a waterfall called Fann Niagara. You could hear the roar before you saw it. A steel platform had been built over the edge of the falls and Habib was a bit hesitant to get on it.
We continued north through a dusty narrow canyon to Ayni, a transport hub, and a lunch place for goat soup. There are loads of places to eat as there are so many huge trucks passing through.
Headed up the Zerafshan Valley through lots of irrigated cropping land, the most fertile we have seen so far. The new road from Sarvoda ended when we turned off to head up to Shing in the Fan m
Mountains and we were back in narrow dusty roads again. There are seven lakes on the Shing River and on our way to our next home stay we passed by four.
We rounded a corner near Nofin and Habib spotted our homestay owner Jumaboi sitting on an outcrop chatting with his friend. He piled in and we headed down the valley.
The home stay was on a sloping piece of land with the main house at the top and an outdoor kitchen. A new stone building was under construction nearby and below the vegetable garden was another long building stone building recently completed. We got a room in the old house. There was mains electricity and solar power.
Around the edge of the property were four tea beds where groups would hang out and have their meals. Habib slept in ours at night. Jumaboi had an English menu and we could chose from three dishes what we wanted. His is a popular homestay place and a small group from German speaking European countries arrived just on dark. They were starting their tour here and then going onto the Pamirs.
After breakfast we were given a packed lunch and hiked along the road through the local villages from the fourth lake to the sixth lake. The local kids wave and say hello as we pass. The women stare and carry on washing clothes in the river and the bathing children play. It's not unlike every small village we have seen so far. Apricots brown up as they dry on the hot rocks or dusty roofs. All family members cut grass with their sickles and leaving bunches to dry up before gathering them up to carry home to store for the animals' winter feed.
In a curve on the main street and set out on plastic sheeting was a display of new shoes and clothing for sale and locals came and went with their purchases. The women love the long heavy velvet dresses with matching pants under. There also seems to be a trend for mothers and daughters to wear the same clothes.
We had our lunch beside the sixth lake on the grounds of a tourist camp with cabins. A woman called to us and when we said we just wanted to eat our lunch she said OK all in sign language. We watched the local birds but had trouble trying to photograph them as they were so fast. We had so much lunch of fried potatoes, tomatoes, cucumbers, apples and apricots that we gave all the leftovers to the woman and her large family and she was most grateful.
On the walk home we met a young Israeli couple heading up in the afternoon heat without any food or water and with no idea that their planned walk to the seventh lake would take 4 or 5 hours each way.
The weather was a pleasant 25 DegC in the late afternoon with a gentle breeze so all the dusty clothes got a wash and were dry after dinner. A large local family group had arrived while we were out and they had hung a whole sheep up from the tea bed and proceeded to eat their way through it with pots on the boil and the charcoal brazier smoking up a storm. They gave us grilled liver, salads, watermelon, cucumber in soured cream, and then our plov (rice) dinner arrived. They cleaned up, packed up and headed back to the city of Panjakent two hours away.
As they left a father and son from Belarus arrived with a local driver and guide. They ate some fish from the lake and then partied on into the night on their beer and cognac.
We drove out of the valley the next day to Panjikent where Habib took us to look at two hotels and we chose one to stay at.
As we headed north out of the city beside the Varzob river, we passed by many huge houses built into the rocks beside the river. Many of them had little outdoor seating areas overhanging the river with curtains or awnings for privacy and to block the sun. It seemed a popular feature of the riverside homes. The road was pretty narrow and winding to stop for photos.Towards the end of the river ribbon developments was the president's huge holiday complex with new buildings under construction.
We climbed up the Anzob Pass at 3372m and drove through many tunnels and solid concrete galleries protecting the road from falling rocks and scree.
Saw lots of honey trailers stacked high with bees hives on the side of the roads.
A Chinese company was rebuilding the road. Huge trucks passed us hauling coal from the mines in the hills.
Continued on the rough dusty road to Takfon and stopped at a roadside eatery for laagman (noodle soup). Habib has limited English so he took over all the discussions about food and we just chose the dishes we recognised.
We stopped briefly beside the river and saw a couple of policemen in a rubber raft trying to probe for a car that had ended up in the river. The locals drive far too fast at times.
The dusty road took us through little villages and orchards down to Iskander Kul lake. The policeman at the check point gave John a laminated sheet of charges to enter the lake area. John gave it to Habib who returned it to the policeman as it seemed to be his way of getting lunch money!
A Soviet era camping ground and cabins with a communal canteen were beside the lake where we saw tents and tourists and their bicycles camped.
Further around the lake was the President's dacha (holiday house) with its own helipad. Across from it was a small park and a clear water spring with several inlets.
Habib spied a cup hanging from a tree branch so we sampled the cool sweet tasting water. Pipes ran from it under the road to the president's house.
We arrived at a homestay at Sarytag village a tiny rural place with one shop and about 20 houses. We had a room for eating and a bedroom. It looked like it had been used as a self contained batch with a small kitchen with modern appliances. These were all covered with dust covers and not in current use.
After the welcome tea we met Joel, from Begium but working in Luxembourg, who was on a 10 day trip with a guide and driver. He was suffering already from diarrhoea and had lost 5 kilos. He threw down some pills then had more that his guide had and set out eating and drinking beers from the villages only shop. He proudly told us he had been to all 45 European countries and travelled 103 countries in total. He was quite a character and in his early 50s.
There was an old mud brick building to house the sheep and goats beside our room and a group of men were demolishing the roof to rebuild it before winter. The dust was horrific and smelt stale. We decided to go for a walk while it was going on. There is not much to see or do in the village and we saw about three other homestay houses.
In the late afternoon we saw young girls chasing their cows home after grazing outside the village and an old man on a donkey dragging his reluctant billy goat home. He had his horns tied up and well anchored to the donkey. The goat never let up his stubbornness the whole way.
Dinner was served to us in our own place and Habib joined us. The mutton and vegetable stew was followed by fresh, peaches, grapes and apples from the family orchard.
In the morning we headed back around Iskander Kul where Habib lead us up a trail to hike up to look down on Snake River. A local was fishing there and there were a couple of rubber rafts for paddlers. From here we continued to walk to a waterfall called Fann Niagara. You could hear the roar before you saw it. A steel platform had been built over the edge of the falls and Habib was a bit hesitant to get on it.
We continued north through a dusty narrow canyon to Ayni, a transport hub, and a lunch place for goat soup. There are loads of places to eat as there are so many huge trucks passing through.
Headed up the Zerafshan Valley through lots of irrigated cropping land, the most fertile we have seen so far. The new road from Sarvoda ended when we turned off to head up to Shing in the Fan m
Mountains and we were back in narrow dusty roads again. There are seven lakes on the Shing River and on our way to our next home stay we passed by four.
We rounded a corner near Nofin and Habib spotted our homestay owner Jumaboi sitting on an outcrop chatting with his friend. He piled in and we headed down the valley.
The home stay was on a sloping piece of land with the main house at the top and an outdoor kitchen. A new stone building was under construction nearby and below the vegetable garden was another long building stone building recently completed. We got a room in the old house. There was mains electricity and solar power.
Around the edge of the property were four tea beds where groups would hang out and have their meals. Habib slept in ours at night. Jumaboi had an English menu and we could chose from three dishes what we wanted. His is a popular homestay place and a small group from German speaking European countries arrived just on dark. They were starting their tour here and then going onto the Pamirs.
After breakfast we were given a packed lunch and hiked along the road through the local villages from the fourth lake to the sixth lake. The local kids wave and say hello as we pass. The women stare and carry on washing clothes in the river and the bathing children play. It's not unlike every small village we have seen so far. Apricots brown up as they dry on the hot rocks or dusty roofs. All family members cut grass with their sickles and leaving bunches to dry up before gathering them up to carry home to store for the animals' winter feed.
In a curve on the main street and set out on plastic sheeting was a display of new shoes and clothing for sale and locals came and went with their purchases. The women love the long heavy velvet dresses with matching pants under. There also seems to be a trend for mothers and daughters to wear the same clothes.
We had our lunch beside the sixth lake on the grounds of a tourist camp with cabins. A woman called to us and when we said we just wanted to eat our lunch she said OK all in sign language. We watched the local birds but had trouble trying to photograph them as they were so fast. We had so much lunch of fried potatoes, tomatoes, cucumbers, apples and apricots that we gave all the leftovers to the woman and her large family and she was most grateful.
On the walk home we met a young Israeli couple heading up in the afternoon heat without any food or water and with no idea that their planned walk to the seventh lake would take 4 or 5 hours each way.
The weather was a pleasant 25 DegC in the late afternoon with a gentle breeze so all the dusty clothes got a wash and were dry after dinner. A large local family group had arrived while we were out and they had hung a whole sheep up from the tea bed and proceeded to eat their way through it with pots on the boil and the charcoal brazier smoking up a storm. They gave us grilled liver, salads, watermelon, cucumber in soured cream, and then our plov (rice) dinner arrived. They cleaned up, packed up and headed back to the city of Panjakent two hours away.
As they left a father and son from Belarus arrived with a local driver and guide. They ate some fish from the lake and then partied on into the night on their beer and cognac.
We drove out of the valley the next day to Panjikent where Habib took us to look at two hotels and we chose one to stay at.
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