Fat in walm water.

No need to worry though- we are mechanical engineers after all- and with a little handy bending of a coat hanger we were on our way again.  We soon reached the main Pamir Highway (beautifully paved) overlooking a vast turquoise salt lake glistening in the sun, basically a lake with some white powder around the edge.  Henry and I, overcome with curiosity, jumped out the car, ran down to the white powder and gave it a lick! It tasted salty!

This was our last glimmer of sun for a while though as the weather quickly closed in.  The pamir highway, the reason for our several week detour driving at snail pace on a crumbly mess, and we couldnt see a thing!  A snow blizzard blew around us and we could only be thankful that we weren't on a bike.  That night, having driven halfway along the highway a small town emerged out of the snow.  We drove through a couple of times and eventually found a guesthouse to stay in, alreay occupied by a French and Swedish cycling duo. They were hilarious.  Most people skirt around the negatives of travelling, trying not to seem unappreciative or unimpressed, they did not!  We had all been thinking it, but they were the best at putting it into words, the food is APPAULING.  When the Mongol Ralley crew said we may loose a stone over the trip, we thought it might be due to the endurance factor, or D&V, but no, it is probably from the lack of will to eat ANY of the rubbish food.  Since Turkey the staple has been either lumps of fat in warm water, with the odd potato if youre lucky, or lumps of fat on a stick (shashlik).  Fat is the speciality everywhere, more expensive than meat and they love it.  We eat a lot of biscuits and look forward to our evening meal of pot noodles and oinion on the stove!

Enough complaining, the next morning we drove on and fortunately the skies cleared and sun shone -for a bit.  Untill the border infact.  We had timed it badly, 6pm on a Friday (border closes on the weekend) but we had made it.  We checked out of Tajaikistan at a grotty shed and got directed across the Border line.  It was comical, you could only laugh, ahead of us was the most enormous muddy mess streaching fo about 30m. You couldnt of walked through it with wellies, they would have been scked off in an instant. All out the car, the only thing for it was a run up, it was a near miracle the car got through, litrally floating across the surface with the momentum, no steering controll whatsoever, but the relief was short lived.  Normally the next border is within metres of the previous, but as we drove deeper into the blizzard and along the abismal road which both sides had clearly ignored no border imerged.  We could drive at no more than 5mph and were getting pretty worried about the tiem as it pushed 7pm.  We werent convinsed that letting us out one side, by any means meant they would let us in the other, and it would be a long, cold 2 days till it opened again on Monday!

Yet again luck was on our side and they let us though with just there usual question of "guns, drugs, knives?" at the prospect of having to search our tip of a car.  We were in Kyrgystan and it was beautiful, I think more so than the tajaikistan, still technically part of the Paminr Highway.  We passed dramatic mountains, wild horses, yurt tents with their pens of sheep and rolling fields, all the stuff lonley planet photographers would die for and stopped in a quaint little village (renound for drug smuggling) for the night!

Pamir Highway

We decided to go through the Wackhan valley even though the roads were again notoriously bad because many people told us it was unmissable and the most beautiful part of the Pamirs.  It was very impressive and the photos (well Gregs) will tell that story, we camped by an ancient fort looking across the river to Afganistan, with very recent signs of armed force inhabitance, it was very tempting to take a dip and have a quick visit to the other side, but one of our cyclist friends had previously warned us that he had been shot at fo just peeing in their general direction!

Half way along the valley was another set of hot springs and a secong ancient fort, but this time they were located up the side of the montaind rather than alond the river bed, we optamistically gave it a shot at getting up the path to them (on the deluded reccommendation of some other friendly travellers) but their was no chance.  Instead we opted for  giving a few dollars to a local with a 4x4 and getting him to drive us up.  After a nice wind up engine start we sped at break neck speed up the montain side and spent most of the journey thinking ""i though at least if we did perish on this trip it would be in our own car!"".  

The hot springs were as amusing as the last, this time all the clothes were off and I was thankful for the boy/girl segregation on half hour rotations.  As we carried on along the valley the scenery becam more and more sparce and the roads deteriorated, sand and pot holes we seem to be able to deal with, but it is the little amost vibrating bumps and the perfectly spaced ones that seem to hit resonant frequency with the car and result in us smacking the base of the car even if we are at 5mph that seem to do the most dammage.  But we did make it, with only two falt tires and the entire exhaust falling off.................

numb bum

We cruised the first 2 and a half hours along perfect motorway before our first police stop.  This was the first of many of the most pointless beurocracy I think I have ever seen.  It wasnt only us that was stopped most locals were too, but they had got the firm, smiley handshake, exchanging a cheeky bribe down to a tee.  We are stubborn though and werent going to hand over a penny, generally the police were pleased to see us and a combination of acting stupid, drowning them with paperwork or if all else failed flirting (genereally down to me, but im sure the boys would have happily tried) got us through! When the bribe didnt come in the handshake I think they were so surprised they werent really sure what to do, so they took our passports and various details (anything from our iran visa, to reading the whole passport upside down) were inputted into a tatty book, no doubt used as next weeks toilet roll!

 

So it was at this first stop that we noticed the "normal" cars thinning out. Not only were all the cars whopping great 4x4 but the odd straggling Lada (most common car type here) had a good foot more clearence than us and we soon realised why...  In the next 5 hours of drivind we just about managed to dross 3 rivers in the road, by getting out and pushing, and the local people getting out and pushing and then charlie loosing a flipflop down the river while pushing and then locals giving him a flipflop ect...and we made a grand total of 25miles what a day....

The Stans (part 1)

Its been a long time since our last blog entry and we have covered a lot of miles - we are now in the last of the stans! Uzbekistan was a bit of a mixed bag, we made two major stops in Bukhara in the South West and Samarkand on our way to the Tajikisatn border. Bukhara was an interesting place, popular with travelers it has a pretty similar history to many of the cities in the region, a major post on the silk road that was flattened by Genghis Khan in the 1100s. All that he left at the time was a single, large tower that he personally ordered spared on the grounds of it being so impressive. We had a good look around on our first day before heading out for a few drinks in the main square. It was here where we discovered a small wine bar selling Uzbek wines. The couple running the place were very friendly and we had a taste of 8 different bottles, all Uzbek (They all tasted pretty much the same to me). With these under our belt it was always going to be a good night and it was made even better when we bumped into the Italian scooter squad who we passed in Turkmenistan! Together we hit the main club in town that consisted of a room of mirrors, a laser, a strobe, a smattering of locals and two freakishly large Austrian identical twins. Needless to say mucho fun was had and we returned to the Silk Road hotel where we were staying in the early hours. The next day was spent feeling very fragile and watching the entire F1 coverage complete with russian comentary.

 On to Samarkand and we stayed in a great hostel recommended by the Lonley Planet guide right next to the Registan - a large complex of religous buildings. What was slightly wierd about the place was that all of residents were cleaning, sweeping, painting, tarmacing or paving everything in sight!We went for a stroll and passed a hospital where all the nurses and doctors were outside in their blues on their knees scrubbing the road! It turned out there was a big international music festival in town and Karimnov - the Uzbek Presidente- was coming to town. We discovered this after getting interviewed by a local newspaper having been mistaken for a British act! It was funny to imagine a similar reaction to a politician in the UK - they were literally laying tarmac for his arrival! Unfortunately we were unable to see any of the festival as we all contracted a stomach bug that had us in bed for 24 hours and no more than 3feet away from a toilet!

 Shortly after Samarkand we crossed into Tajikistan and drove up into the Fan Mountain to see the 7 lakes that had been recommneded to us by a Scottish couple in the hostel. It was here where we experienced our first 'uncrossable' point - a small stream across a rocky road. We drove the car up and soon got it stuck with no grip so we all decamped and headed on by foot to the first of the lakes. On our way we were passed by a number of equally unsuitable vehicles that had managed to traverse the stream and so we decided to give it another go. With a combination of a carpet, Greg's biceps and speed we got the Skoda over only to drive another 500m along the road before getting stuck again! This time we abandoned the car and pitched our tent next to the water in probably the best surroundings of the trip so far. We walked up to the rest of the lakes the next morning which was far more effort than it should have been - apparently sitting in a car for 6 weeks has an adverse effect on your fitness! 

Driving to the capital Dushanbe was a bit of an ordeal, the roads were the worst we have experienced and it was only possible to maintain a speed of around 10-20kmph. The road was perched on a ledge that ran along a valley next to a river which took us 13 hours of driving to complete. At the end of the road was a bridge and a barrier staffed by 3 policemen. It was getting dark and we were told the road was closed at which point a number of cars appeared from the opposite direction. Not content with being told that the road was closed and an alternative of a 4hour detour we persisted with the policemen and after half an hour, the help of some locals and $15 the road became open! We drove on and the roads were great, new tarmac for 10miles and then......the road was closed! A large mound of earth had been deposited on the road to stop people from driving through some road works ahead.It looked like we would have to turn back but fortunately Ellie was able to work her charms on the digger driver who within half an hour had removed the mound! Again we drove on but this time though miles and miles of incomplete tunnel through the mountains, we would emerge into the night and find more tunnels to go though. After 2 hours we finally left the roadworks and camped 10miles from the capital by the side of the raod. The following day we reached Dushanbe and dumped our gear at the Adventurers Inn - a hostel from the LP which charged $10/night to let us sleep in the garden. It was here that we chatted to numerous people all of whom pretty much said our chances of crossing the Pamir Highway (the next stage of our journey) were very slim. The hostel owner knew of 2 Mongol rally teams who had attemped it and failed in the last few weeks alone. After sleeping on it we ignored all of their advice and went ahead regardless..........

 

We reached one point in the 

driving up into the mountains

Pictures

Just added a small selection of pictures to the gallery...

<<<<<<<<<<<<<

More smiley soviets.

We stayed in a very amusing homestay owned by an old man who capt massis of pegions, a little crazy but a welcome change from the generally stern emotionless population.  We met an Ausie, Ken, who was planning to somehow work his way to some underground grotto of sulphur springs he had heard about, sounded interesting, so we decided to all go.  After we had got over the initial annoyance at being charged 20 times the local price (no exageration) the caves were pretty crazy.  Ther were very dark and stunk of egg and looke like a grotto an evil troll would live in.  I dont know exactly what was in the water, but when I got out all my silver had gone balack!

After leaving the capital the country seem to fall to shreads. We drove on through the desert towards the second city of Mary.  It was quite a contrast to Ashkabat, infact I think it had been completely ignored and left to carry on in the tradition soviet regime!  We decided to stay the night and for some reason felt driven to pick out a hotel that was described as an "unclean dive", it was.  It was a traditional soviet concrete block with sparse and vile decor and again vastly escalated prices for tourists. They dont try and hide it either, there it is written clear as day on the wall!

Anyway after that lush experience we moved on to Merve, the ancient city demolished by good old Gengis, apparently it was one of the biggest cities in the world before its destruction (but that was a long time ago).  Apart for the mud mounds that took a little imagination to picture the city, there was a spectacular appearance from the cammel species.  Hundreds of them were hearded all around the car making for a slightly more entertaining traffic jam.

With not long left on or transit visa and still the residing fear from our boarded entry, we wanted to push on and geT there in good time.  We drove with the veilw to get near the border igood light and set upcamp, but of course that didnt go to plan.  We were shafted at a surprise check point, bywhich time we didnt really mind about paying the $10 fee we just wanted to be able to see where we were camping,  No such luck we had an hour or so of beurocratic bulls##t and were released just in time to see the last light fade. Finding a spot was near impossible and in the end we resorted to our familiar protocol of camping next to a busy road, railway or in this case both!  We turned off the road onto a mud clearing  and drove as far from the road into the darkness as we could to avoid attention.  Just as we began to set up camp a figure strated approaching, I went over to try and justify our stay and ended up having a very amusing conversation which envolved discovering  we had pitched up where all the drunks reside and if we camped in the light he would whatch over us!  We were very lucky that at last we had found a friendly chap inTurkmenistan, but unfortunately we were now camped 20cm from the main road!

We got up early the next morning and made it to the border with uzbeckistan at 7.30 before it even opened, we were ready to go!  Thank god this border was pretty smooth even if they did x-ray every last one of our belongings.  We made it through by 10.30 and stopped by a river on the other side for a celebratery watermelon and pat on the back.

the weird and the wonderfull

Thank God (or Turkmanbashi should I say) we made it to petrol! Congratulations to some shrude driving from Charlie.  We drove over the last few mountains from the border and saw the desert open up infront of us and there in the middle, a concoction of glissening white marble, perfectly groomed greenery and gushing fountains, was Turmanbashi's playground!  He was the previous dictator of Turmenistan, his self given title means "leader of the turmen" and to all acounts he is a total nut case!  There are too many oddities to mention about Ashkabat (this capital), Turmentbashi and infact the whole of Turkmenistan, but I will give a few examples.

 

As we drove into the impressive centre,lined with highrise upon highrise, ompletely clad in white marble, we were blown away by two things, the first was there was no rubbish or mess anywhere, not a drop, but it slowly dawned on us the reason for this, there weren't any people either!  An empty capital city!  The only lonley soles we saw were the brigade of street cleaners, they had their fac rapped in white bandage, so there disturbingly resembled burns victims, and had resorted to sleeping dust off the road for lack o an other rubbish (remember we are in the desert!) and their only company was the police men scattered at 100m intervals and on every corner without fail.  We inveted a new game which involve how close you could move to a building, statue, foutain or even bench without being shooed away!  No onder there werent any people they werent allowed to be anywhere!!

beginning of Iran...

Our first night in Iran spun off our first real meal,  Starving from the border and looking for anything to eat (other than the crusty-though appreciated-bread handed throught the window) we stopped at a jazzy looking roadside restaurant. purely for the fact that it had pictures outside and with our total lack of Farsie we though this was probably the simplestway to order.  However once again our luck was up, the waiter was overjoyed to have us their andhad a fair grasp of English!  He doted apon us giving us all the specialities he could think of to try and on us asking for directions toa good camping area, showed us to a really cheap roop upstars!

The next day brought the massive trial of trying tofind somewhere to change money,  it took a good few house in a little town skippind from one place we were directed to, to the next, but it was eventually found and did culminate in an exciting neam of....something...at least it wasnt bread and kabab, it sort of resembled lamb,chick pea and aubergine stew,served with your own masher!