Miles driven: 181 miles
Time in Car: 4 hours
Borders crossed: 1
After blowing our remaining Uzbek som on instant noodles, we packed the car and headed for the Tajikistan border. Samarkand was only 30 min from the crossing and we were through the customs and passport control relatively smoothly in about an hour or so. We left Uzbekistan and the desert landscape and our scenery quickly changed into steep, mountainous terrain. This type of mountain driving will be a sign of things to come over the next week. 4th gear will be seldom used. 5th gear, never
Nestled in between Kyrgyzstan, Afghanistan, and China, Tajikistan is relatively small country that is basically comprised of mountains. In fact, geographically 93% of Tajikistan is mountainous. Our drive to Dushanbe, the nation’s capital, was one of the most stunning of the entire trip, not to mention the near perfect tarmac. We winded up and down through the western Alay Mountains at relatively good speeds. The views were incredible. Above the tree line, shear rock face mountains stretched as far as the eye could see. In the distance, you could see the some snow capped peaks. The drive followed a rushing river through the mountain pass on our way to Dushanbe. Apart from a 2 mile long, smoggy, dimly lit mountain tunnel at the peak of our drive, it was one of the most enjoyable rides of the rally thus far. And given that we start our route through the Pamirs tomorrow, we are in for even more incredible mountain roads over the next several days. and this initial drive was only a small taste of what we are in for during our time in Tajikistan.
The Alay Mountains
The Dushanbe mechanic
We arrived in Dushanbe near 5 pm and checked into our Airbnb team with a British team we have been convoying with. Mike and Joe quickly ran to a mechanic to check our sump guard. The Russian-speaking mechanics checked underneath Stevie and the sump was in perfect shape. However, they did discover that a stock bar beneath the exhaust was hanging on by two bolts. It had been warped to kingdom come. Most of the bolts had sheared off. I’m not sure how it got that . They removed the last two bolts and pried off the stock bar. Problem solved…I hope. The mechanics humbly asked for nothing in return but we threw them a 5er anyways. Back at the Airbnb, Tanner demanded pizza and we obliged him by stopping at a Dushanbe pizza spot that had pretty good Trip Advisor reviews from Americans. We definitely over ordered on pizza, and it was pretty decent. It was actually a nice change-up from plov, shashlyk, and mutton we had been eating the past two weeks. We had a beer with our British convoy team and talked about our excitement for the upcoming Pamirs. Tomorrow we meet up with two other teams, making our caravan a 4-car crew, and head into the Pamirs. -FWY
PS: We may be out of pocket for the Pamirs connectivity-wise so future blogs may be delayed.
The warped stock bar removed from our car