We are up and packed and ready for breakfast by 7am. The family who slept together on mats in the dining area, were all up and gone. By 0730 we are on the road and it’s a cold crisp morning. The road climbs gradually with a few small hills, the road surface good. All along the valley edge, we see yurts and herds of yaks. Very few cars or trucks pass us, and we see no people or trees.
At 50kms, we reach the high point for today at Neizatash Pass and take a break. A tail wind is beginning to pick up. The long gradual downhill is a perfect grade. After the summit, the landscape changes once again with big dry canyon walls.
After 80kms, we reach a stream and the road turns left with some short nasty hills. We follow the stream still downhill and at the bottom a yurt restaurant and then one last steep uphill. But for the steep hill, we might have stopped at this restaurant, but it's so hard to give up the momentum. Rounding a corner in a downhill, we see a wide green valley with a river and the edge of Murghab still 16kms away. The road hugs the edge of the hills. Finally reaching a police checkpoint, the Pamir Hotel is still another 5kms. After crossing the bridge, we see two cyclists just leaving town for the Wakhan Valley. They are Italian and British.
We reach Pamir Hotel around 13:30. For US$28, we have a nice double room that includes breakfast, a warm shower and the best restaurant in town. Dorm rooms are available for US$10pp, so for an additional $8, we have a very nice corner room. The Dutch cyclists, Maarten and Edwin arrive along with the Swiss cyclist whom we saw in Alichur yesterday.
Alichur at sunrise. It gets chilly here any time of the year, people burn mostly yak dung.
