2017/09/07

Day 40: Murghab - Langar

In Murghab I am awake early in the morning. At breakfast, I chat with a Spanish biker couple, Antonio and Antonia. He had already been here last year and did store his bike in Kyrgyzstan.

I do a bit of shopping with my cash. There is no ATM at the local bank and so I have to change dollars. Then I buy a SIM card (completely uncomplicated) and fuel up, whereby here for the first time the fuel comes from canisters.

I have to pass a registration control, my passport and my visa/permit.

First the road is still paved. The mountains are vast. From time to time there are small lakes, salty or with mineral. There is hardly any vegetation. Then there's the turn to the Wakhan Valley, from there on it's gravel. The next checkpoint, I approach to the Afghan border. The dirt road is sometimes easy to ride, sometimes it's difficult, it's getting more sandy and dustier. Herds of livestock around, and because of the lot of footprints the road condition is barely to recognize. And so I'm falling again in the sand - quite hard, since I'm about a speed off 20/30 km/h, this is my most critical fall. After the first shock, I calm down quickly. One pannier jumped off and everything looks a bit messy, but no demolition to the panniers or bike. And me too, except for a scratch on the shinbone. I get the bike up again, put it on secure place and repack everything again. Of course I'm very carefully for next kilometers. Sand is just crap with a heavy bike. But I like this road, it's wonderful to be here, but the landscape is barely to be photographed.

I meet many cyclists again, one of them really makes a lot of road - wants from England to New Zealand. Very often I stop, especially when the cyclists are on their own.

There is a place where the Wakhan Valley divides along a river. A small Spanish travel group tells me about a nice hotel, in which they are accommodated. My plan was to go a bit further today, but I spontaneously decide to stop there too. It is already a bit more expensive (about 25 dollars), but the cheaper choice for camping with cooking myself has to be paid with time. I chat about European politics and the Catalan independence movement with the Spanish guys which are from Barcelona. Very interesting. And then two participants of the Mongolia Rally join in - two Australians. I think these rally drivers are all pretty crazy. I don't stay to long in the hotel room, where we get some simple dinner, I need to sort out myself and take a early sleep.

Insertion: I'm fine with the altitude (all the time around 4000m), only when bending or when moving hard, the pulse then goes up faster. I had only a short, slight hint of headache yesterday. However, for days I have a clogged nose, through the dust or the altitude, no idea. Therefore I sleep quite bad.