Leaving Khorog to continue the Pamir Highway, remote dirt track through the Himalayas. We climbed up to Jelandy where we got a room at a health spa, comfortable quarters in this harsh landscape. The Lonely Planet refers to this place as a sanatorium, because people come here to fix their ailments, no evidence of loonies, but then who are we to talk. Lucky to get beer from a group of German voluntary workers, who'd had their accountant ship it in from the capital. The effects of higher altitude now and I can feel the heart pumping hard when trying to sleep, we've gained 1500m today, sleeping high at 3800 metres. Bodies adjust to altitude given time. More...

Back into the mountains after our rest in Dushanbe, heading onto the Pamir Highway. orgasmic scenery. Celebrated my birthday with a bottle of Tajikistan cognac, could just cram into bags and great value at 4 pounds. We spied an ideal camping site on the other river bank, that rare occasion when there was a bridge across the huge river we've been following. The previous night we'd camped on the lawn of a tea-house, having fantastic home made beer, a barrel cooled by stream water and pulled by foot pump. Fantastic cool down swims the end of hard days ride, also washes the clothes. More...

Clearing customs from Uzbekistan to Tajikistan was fast and simple, and we were soon off in search of local currency, food and drink. The first night we camped on the edge of a farmers field, it wasn't easy find a spot soft enough to drive tent pegs in, I actually half propped my tent up with rocks, and windy too (not baked beans), slept well! Then a couple of days, riding huge v-shaped gorges, a river for company, thrashing noisily as we followed it's course up hill. There we did an overnight stay on the floor of a mud hut for the princely sum of 3US dollars for the 2 of us. The noise and sight of the gushing river was staggering, had the owners left the valley maybe they'd find the silence strange. Fantastic spot. More...