Miles driven: 252 miles
Time in Car:14 hours
Borders crossed: 0
5:15 am came as light began to fill the Pamir mountain canyon. We took down camp and packed our car. Originally the night before, it was just us and the Norwegians that were up for 6 am departure. However, over some dinner, the remaining three teams also said they’d join in the 6 am departure time but stop at Khorog. 6 am came and went. Every minute not driving is doubly missed as we need every ounce of daylight today. Part of me wish we only had two teams going in the early morning as we will be twice as slow with five. European punctuality aside, we patiently waited and began driving at 6:25.
The morning drive to Khorog had much better stretches of roads in between towns but still there were sections of awful driving. At around 8:20 am we ran into a bit of a snag. One of the two front left roof rail bolts had come out which caused a noisy, squeaky rattle from the roof. Also, inexplicably two peanut butter jars we had been saving since Prague exploded spraying our rear right door with peanut butter. We stopped and jimmied a new bolt into the roof rails, tightened all the other roof rail bolts (they had come loose from the bumpy road too), and sadly cleaned up the peanut butter splatter. In 20 min we were back on our way. By 9:20 our convoy had reached the city of Khorog. It was Saturday which meant the Afghan market was on at the bazaar. On Saturdays in the summer, unless there are political tensions, Afghan tradesmen are allowed to come into the Khorog bazaar to sell goods and food. We stopped for about 20 minutes and ate some food - fried bread and shish kebab. The goods on the other hand were nothing special which was kind of disappointing. We quickly filled up gas and then said our goodbyes to three of the five rally teams of our convoy. The Aussies in the Van, the Germans in the Opel, and the Brits who we had been convoying with since the ferry, had decided to stay longer in Khorog before carrying westward into the Pamirs. We bid our farewells and wished them well. It was just us, the Norwegians, and 200 miles of road into the high Pamirs before us. We had turned west of the Panj River and drove away from the Afghan border. We had an ambitious day of driving ahead of us to get to Murghab. We were hoping we could swing it by sundown.
Detaching the sump after it had been torn off by the road
The pavement was relatively smooth when our first major car issue occurred. There was a change of road conditions from decent pavement to rocky, uneven gravel. There were several large boulders that protruded in the road. Stevie nailed a rock making a grimacing bang noise and shortly after we hit another. Right away we knew something was awry from the noise coming from our car. We stopped and sure enough, the sump guard had been torn off. All the bolts were stripped from our chassis. Only two bolts near the rear of the sump on the flange pieces held the sump. We had hit a rock so hard that it had turned the metal on itself like a folded ribbon. Mike got one of the remaining bolts our with a socket wrench. The other bolt had metal folded on top of it making a wrench and pliers unmanageable. Tanner took a hammer to it and we got it off shortly. With the sump off and roughly 100 miles of unknown, rocky terrain in front of us, driving without a sump guard was terrifying. One bad bottom out or one missed rock, and our oil pan could be toast. We pressed on.
Hargush Pass - a scenic location where our roof rail brackets broke
Later, as we were passing through the first of the two 14,000+ foot mountain passes, we heard more squeaky rattling from the roof. We stopped and checked it out. The front left roof rail we had fixed in the morning had worsened. Both bolts had now sheared off and the roof rail was really just resting on our roof. We lifted our roof box to slide some cardboard underneath the connector bracket (kinda like sliding napkins underneath a wobbly bar table) to distribute the weight a bit more evenly. We also ratchet-strapped the front of our roof box through the front seats to our car for extra precaution. We pressed on. Less than an hour later, more squeaky, rattling noises this time from the back right roof area. Quickly we stopped and noticed that the rear right roof rail bracket (the connector that transfers the load to the chassis of the car) had completely come undone. It was already near 5 pm at that point. The wind was howling; it was cold; we hadn’t seen a car in ages. So we did what we know best - we ratchet strapped the back of the roof box to the car through the back seat windows and we pressed on.
Frustration and car issues aside, the drive was again incredible. This part of the Pamirs made it easy to see why this road is called “The Roof of the World”. Apart from a half dozen 4x4s and several semis, we were practically alone on the road on today’s journey. The geography drastically changed from the previous two days of driving. We were now driving through high altitude pastures sitting on mountain plateaus. Huge snow capped mountains soared in the distance but the road today was through the valley floor instead of bordering cliffs along the Panj River. We passed through Hargush Pass at 14,252 ft and then came across the small town of Alichur alone in the barren highlands. The town seemed completely empty apart from herds of goats, cattle, and yaks. The wind was so strong and the ambient temperature must have been in the 40s and it was August. Still this town survives the harsh winters where temps have been recorded as low as -80 degrees Fahrenheit. From there, we drove past a few alpine lakes and soon darkness fell. Driving at dark was never in the plan and not recommended but we had to make it to Murghab. Thankfully, the road was quite nice allowing speeds of 30 and 40 mph. We checked into the Pamir hotel with our Norwegian convoy comrades. We had secured the last three spots in the inn and they put us up in a yurt outside. It was cozy and warm enough and we went to bed thankful we completed our marathon day. -FWY
Yaks on the plateaus of the High Pamirs