to Kalaikhum: over the pass and down to the Panj River

July 9, 2016

It is a nice cool bright morning as we pack up our tent, eat some cereal and set off for the last 450 meters of climbing to the summit of Sagirdasht Pass. The pass is supposed to be 3254 meters high, but Patrick’s altimeter tops out at 3150. Even though the altimeter is not 100% accurate it is pretty close most of the time so there is something funny going on with this pass.

There are a bunch of abandoned Soviet buildings at the pass (we hear later that Jo and Will slept in one of them) and a derelict bus stand (we cannot figure out why all these bus stalls since there are no public buses) where we have our first food break.

The downhill is very nice, first following a river through green rolling hills, then the river drops away sharply into a ravine while the road is left clinging high to the sheer rock walls. At a large hairpin, we catch-up with Jo and Will. We ride together for a while, then stop at a derelict picnic area where we find shade, water and more company.” Lotte Eriksson from Finland” rides up and joins us for lunch. Just around the corner are two more cyclists headed up towards Dushanbe. The Pamir Highway sure is popular among cyclists.

As we lose more elevation on our way down to the Panj River it gets noticeably hotter. By the time we reach Kalaikhum it must be over 40 degrees Celsius. We take the other cyclist advice, turn right into the alley immediately after crossing the bridge where there are two guesthouses. We pass the first “hostel” and check out the one next door. This one is way too expensive for us, so we go back to the hostel. This is more in our range but pretty basic for the 10$ per person. It includes dinner and breakfast, but the food is also very basic and leaves us hungry. Good thing there are several decently stocked shops in town where we stock up for the next leg and find cold beer for today.

Jo and Will show up a little later and we share the 4-bed room with us. We do not really like the atmosphere at the guesthouse and decide to forego the restday we had planned here. Instead we plan to do the next 240km to Khorog in four days.

We have another 450 meters to climb before we reach the pass. There are pretty views of snow covered mountains to our north.

The hills are covered in grass and wild flowers.

Last push to the top of Sagirdasht Pass.

Two guys on donkeys trail us on the last kilometer. We give them our left-over bread to feed to the donkeys.

Wildflowers, not sure if they are the same species, but these flowers were yellow on the north side of the pass and white on the south.

The downhill is spectacular. The river plunges into a deep canyon, much steeper than the road can keep up with. So the road is left clinging high to the cliff sides. Spot the cyclist.

Jo and Super Cycling Man making their way down. They spent the night on top of the pass, we catch them in the downhill.

While we take a food break in a roadside shelter another cyclist pull up. She is "Lotta from Finland" and is riding her 25 year old bike "Lady Princess". As James told us yesterday, Lotta talks to her bike.

Another police checkpoint just before Kailaikhum.

Today's ride: 41 km (25 miles)
Total: 270 km (168 miles)

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