Langar to Alichur, (7/7); 4rd July
4th July
We woke up early and I went to chat with Vladim. He was going to cycle until sunset, hopefully to Mughab, by the end of the day. The road condition of the last 10km of the Wakhan was as rutted, washboarded and sandy as the previous two days. At some points there were a few tracks as people had tried to make their own way to avoid the bad sections. I could see Vladim’s tyre tracks snaking across the road, trying to follow the path of least resistance.
About an hour or so into the ride I saw a large truck approaching from the east. My immediate thought was how on earth is that truck going to navigate the roads of the Wakhan. It was a moment later that I realised we had reached the M41, which was fully paved, and that truck had come from China, heading west, the 21st Century Silk Road, moving by motor vehicle and not camels, moving cars and not tea.
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I was so happy to be on paved road I was tempted to kneel down on the tarmac and kiss it — we hadn’t had smooth surface like this since leaving Dushanbe.
We were on a high plateau and could see some beautiful blue lakes as we headed towards Alichur. We are staying at a Sher’s House in hotel which is exceptionally clean and even has a banya, which I think is partly heated on dried dung.
At the hotel we met Anja, from Russia, who had rented a Skoda and was driving around Central Asia. She kindly offered us watermelon which I indulged in. She had actually driven past us the previous day, asked if we needed food or water, then asked to take a picture of us.
She airdropped the picture she took, nice to have an action shot of us riding the tandem. The rest of the day was spent whatsapping the people we’ve met on the road, drinking green tea, hand washing clothes, and enjoying the banya; essentially just decompressing after a very tough few days of cycling.
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