04
Road to Rushon
2 days
At 7:00 we go to the Pamir taxistand in Dushanbe and quickly find a driver to Qal'ai Khumb. We wait some time for more passengers and meanwhile meet another driver. His clients are an Australian family with a van that he will guide through the Pamir mountains the next day. He recommends a guesthouse and lets us make the reservation with his phone. When our car takes off he stops the driver to give a cordial handshake. Our first encounter with the sociable and good natured Pamiri people.
After more than five hours driving one of our fellow passengers points out that the mountainside we see before us is Afghanistan. We immediately wake up from our slumber and do not take our eyes off the landscape across the Panj River. On the Afghan side are mainly simple mud brick structures. A small dirt road that cuts through the mountains connects the remote green villages.
We are confronted with the impact nature can have in places like this. A truck was crushed by falling rocks. Landslides and rockfalls are common in the spring due to the rains and meltwater.
We are eight in a packed family car when we leave Qal’ai Khumb in the morning. At the front of our shared taxi sits a bank manager. He, the driver and a passenger in the back seat speak some Russian. The old clerk at the petrol station fills the tank with a funnel and then we can start our journey to Khorgos. When we stop in a shop, the driver offers us a bottle of Pamir Aqua.
We are not even an hour away when the car has to stop. The roadworks we were warned about, but were then denied by another driver, turn out to be no myth after all. Bad news says our driver. The road is closed until 7 o'clock.
We get out of the car and the Pamiri immediately fraternise with the other cars. An excavator stands tall, pushing large stones from the slope into the river.
We sleep, listen to podcasts and talk to the bank manager, Khairredin. After a few hours, our fellow passengers come towards the car for lunch. They conjure up bread and sausages and share them with us. We share in our turn a bar of Belgian chocolate we bought in Almaty.
After a toilet break past the row of trucks that have joined us in the meantime, we are called back to the car. The road opens anyway at 14:30. Khairredin and the driver clearly made the right friend. We are escorted to the beginning of the queue by their friend and off we go.
Past beautiful green villages full of spring blossoms, we hobble along the bumpy road. Our driver retains his focus with the help of a few cans of Gorilla. When they see a man in a wheelchair watching passing traffic in front of his house, they stop for a moment, have a chat and give some change. "He is disabled and cannot work". We follow their example.
Just before nightfall, we stop at a roadside restaurant. Our company encourages us to sit on the tapchana like real Muslims. They tell us about their beloved breakfast circhai and we affirm how beautiful we find Tajikistan. So we sit together and share the meal. All from different backgrounds, all on the road for a different purpose.
We are dropped off in Rushon around 22:00 where someone immediately arranges a guesthouse for us. Our company still has a long way to go until Khorog.