Day 77: Tajikistan

Overview

Driving duration: 5:11 h
Distance: 220 km
Avg Speed: 43 km/h
Start: Close to Shagmon
End: Kalaikhum
Night Location: 38°30'10" N 70°47'58" E

Tajikistan

After a good night’s sleep we woke up to a dusty camper, not outside, inside. Somehow the camper got really dusty overnight, not sure what happened. Not too late we were on our way with the goal of Kalaikhum, only 220 km of distance, but the travel speed is just different here. But the road was really good, at least for Central Asia.

First we reached Kolub, where we filled up diesel again and then we climbed another pass and after the descent, we met the Panj river, which forms the border between Tajikistan and Afghanistan. The road then followed the border for over 100 km (and will for quite some time in the coming days). It feels somehow quite surreal, there is also a fence now on the Tajik side, and we met multiple barracks and military squads that patrol the border.

This reminded me of how the “birth lottery” is just a crazy thing, here on the Tajik side life is clearly better. This starts with the road, which is a good 2 lane paved road, compared to a small dirt track on the Afghan side. And goes on with the possibilities that people have here. During dinner a local boy came by and we had quite a long chat. He told us that his brother is currently studying and he wants to become an engineer. He was multiple times in Dushanbe and so on. And this is a boy from the mountains here. For someone just across the river, this is for sure completely impossible and life will most probably be spent in the village he was born in as a farmer.

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Activities