TRAVERSE 179
TRAVEL - KYRGYZSTAN
LEIGH WILKINS
OH MY G ' OSH !
No more lying to myself , the situation was now dire , I ’ d had the Pamir Poos for the best part of a week and couldn ’ t wait to get down from the altitude we ’ d been experiencing for the past few days .
Karakul Lake had been pleasant enough despite a chilling wind howling across the impossibly blue waters . The wind had been coming from the mountains that serrated the horizon , I ’ m assured it was one of the most stunning landscapes placed upon the Earth , my bowels rumbled in annoyance yet again , I was in no position to enjoy it .
We made our way north along the last section of the Pamir Highway and were soon presented with our final sighting of Tajikistan , a country it seemed was misunderstood by a public ill-informed by an international media pushing an unwarranted agenda . Our time in these lands had been exceptional , the people engaging and welcoming and the landscapes supplanted from another world . The border post seemed no different as young soldiers took our passports , recorded details , and wished us well knowing that the thirty or so kilometres of no-mans land would be a challenge for the larger bikes . There was no mention of wanted monies for such imagined documents as health certificates or processing of our now expired Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region passes , other travellers have often come up against such swindles .
We rode on into the cold , as the now seemingly derelict track made it ’ s way higher into the mountains . The Kyzyl Art pass border crossing is the second highest in the world , and we were climbing higher , my innards groaned as if in protest and I knew that what goes up must come down , surely we would be at much friendlier altitudes soon .
The road down was described
TRAVERSE 179