Thursday 18th August
Our second day in the Wakhan Valley and
the beautiful landscape showed no sign of letting up. In the morning we took a
mountain road up to a natural hot spring and enjoyed our first cleanse in days. The
steaming clean water was a glorious break from the wet wipes and bitterly cold
water bottle showers we had gotten used to. Once our skin had become all knobbly
from soaking for too long, we returned to the road.
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| Natural hot spring spa |
Somehow forgetting how
pleasant the hot spa had just been, the first thing on our minds was “where can
we swim across the river and officially set foot in Afghanistan”. With a story
set to electrify any menial pub garden conversation, we set about looking for
potential crossing points. The deliberation lasted all of 5 minutes after we
adjudged the current to be too strong and the piranhas to be readying
themselves for lunch. We did however receive the “Welcome to Afghanistan” text
from GiffGaff offering us a steal at £5/MB for mobile data, so that counts for
something.
If we weren’t being attacked at lunch by
piranhas, it was flies instead. Just as we had set up our stoves at the side of
the road, huge swarms of mosquitoes descended upon us. Given our distinct lack
of planning coming into the trip, we didn’t have any anti malarial tablets. The
only area region on the entire rally affected by Malaria just so happened to be
the south of Tajikistan in the Wakhan Valley. Before this became an ever so
real threat we just brushed it off backing our immune systems and exclaiming,
“we’re nails” whenever it came up in conversation. Thankfully, to combat our
worries Caleb had bought a canister of mosquito-murdering, bug-bludgeoning Raid
insect repellent a few villages back. Despite how satisfying it was watching
him fire insect spray at 2,000 bugs in the open air, it was like re-arranging
the deck chairs on the Titanic – completely futile. Plan B was to move Marigold
down by 15 metres to try and outrun them, but that plan failed miserably also.
We just had to grin and bear it and hope none of them had Malaria.
Other issues also developed throughout
the day. Our old nemesis the overheating engine was back and was as severe as
ever. Naturally we decided to heed the advice of Jeremy Clarkson and add more
speed and more power. Astonishingly this seemed to work as we bounced over
potholes and craggy inclines in third gear with ease. Granted the suspension
was not best pleased but she conceded it was for the greater good.
After miles of “washboard” roads on
which it felt like the whole car was going to shake to bits, at exactly 18:47
the soft smooth touch of velvet tarmac graced the underside of our wheels and
we began to glide. We had made it to the Pamir Highway.
Rapturous applause filled the car as for the first time in hours we could sit comfortably on our seats without the fear of vibrating straight off again. But barely a second after the party popper string came to rest on the dash, we found ourselves veering off again into the wilderness on the tail of Team Thunderbirds. Just a few hundred metres away from Bulun-Kul, the highest and most remote village in Tajikistan (at 12,000 ft), we pitched up camp and snuggled in for a very cold night.
Rapturous applause filled the car as for the first time in hours we could sit comfortably on our seats without the fear of vibrating straight off again. But barely a second after the party popper string came to rest on the dash, we found ourselves veering off again into the wilderness on the tail of Team Thunderbirds. Just a few hundred metres away from Bulun-Kul, the highest and most remote village in Tajikistan (at 12,000 ft), we pitched up camp and snuggled in for a very cold night.
Posted by: Rich