July 15, 2004

Osh by gosh!

Pamir Tales - Part 1

Osh, Kyrgyzstan

My quest to travel the Pamir Highway in Tajikistan, 728km at heights mostly above 4000m, has begun. Issues include no transport, no permit and not much information. Should be interesting.

I start my quest near the virtually disused Osh railway station. Trucks from the Aga Khan foundation, shipping in vital supplies to the remote region, leave from here. I found a few friendly drivers but no-one was leaving anytime soon. Just as I was heading out I was approached by an older guy. He'd be leaving in a couple of days if I liked. Best offer so far. I agreed to meet up late the next day to confirm.

I did a bit of travelling around to some nearby sites and then returned late the next day to check with my potential lift. Alas, his hoped for shipment had not come through so he wouldn't be going. He was very sorry.

With no other options, everybody denies the existance of any buses or share taxis, the only thing left was to take a share taxi to Sary Tash, 200km from Osh and the last settlement before the Tajik border. From there maybe I could catch a lift.

On the Saturday morning I got in to the front seat of a small Russian jeep that was about to leave. I turned around to greet my fellow passengers and was confronted by five ladies in bright traditional clothes, covered in glitter, and at least eight kids. They were hard to count as they kept moving.

Heading up one of the passes the little jeep conks out. Fuel trouble. Unperturbed the driver gets out and siphons some petrol from the tank into a five litre plastic bottle. He then puts this in the engine compartment and connects the line from the fuel pump to the bottle. A bit of priming of the fuel pump to get some petrol up to the carburettor and we're off.

Of course now, every bump we hit I'm thinking about an open bottle of petrol sitting in a hot engine compartment, ready to spill at any moment. I'm wishing I was in the back with the kids. Instead I just put on my sunglasses, to protect me from the imminent blast.

Late in the day we finally made it to Sary Tash. Upon approaching the town all my misgivings about undertaking this trip were dismissed. The amazing Pamir Alay range rose high in the south forming a seemingly impenetrable wall of rock and snow, thousands of metres high.

My companions took another road to the west and I was left in the small town, to find a place to stay and contemplate how I would get over that mountain range tomorrow.

Posted by David at July 15, 2004 08:46 PM