Kulob pass and campside Panj river

I woke up early to the traffic and decided that it will be a quick breakfast. The sun is already ready to heat up another day and it´s gonna be tough cycling.
My GPS has told me it´s 10 km to the top at + 2000 meters a.s.l. The surroundings are dry, sand, stone and plants that thrive in this environment. Not much in the way of green spaces.

I stopped when I saw a small house, parked bicycle beside the road and walked up few hundred meters.  A dog is barking and a young guy riding a donkey i full speed to catch another donkey that has sneaked away.

Everything around and close to the house is sand and dirt, only few green spots and some threes and busches.
From the house I heard a baby scream, looked into the open door and saw a child sitting in the far corner drinking from a mug. I shout out and a women  with her son came out and I asked for water and pointed to my bottles.

Two minutes later she came back with the bottles filled with cold water. It doesn’t have much welfare to show, the poverty is great but the hospitality is greater, it’s something that stuck in my consciousness during this bike ride.

I continue my cycling upwards and it gets steeper and steeper. Need to jump of sometimes when it´s to steep and the road become worse the higher up I got, finally I´m at the top. A huge portal painted in red, green and white, colors of Tajikistan with some text I don´t understand in front of  me. I take time for a much–needed rest and I sit down on a large rock. I pick up some cookies and the water bottle  and admire the view down to the valley. 10 km upwards and + 2000 m.a.s.l

After almost half an hour rest it was time to continue, my GPS shows that on the other side of the mountain pass there is a small  community in the vally, Shurobod.  It´s suite me perfect to stop there for lunch.

The road downwards was awful, bumpy and lots of lose gravel and stones and I need to focus where I have the front wheel. I don´t want to crash here. Half past 1 pm I entered into Shurobod and at the end of the village it was a restaurant so I stopped. It was almost full. I order meat soap with lots of meat, bread and a bottle of beer, russian beer. Taste very good and it was cheap also.

From start in the morning to here I have only covered 17 km with average 7 km/h. From Shurobod the road was so newly paved that even the lane markings hadn’t been painted yet and flat or slope.

Just before Khirmanjo a new switchback, but this time downwards and Panji river for the first time. Did a short break at a roadside restaurant . In Kisht some youth stopped me just because they were curious, asked me questions in the only English they learned in school.

One of the youths follow me all the way up through the village until I gave him something… A bicycle pump become my gift and he seems to be satisfied.

Kisth guy with my bicycle pump I gave him

Tentcamp outside Kisth by the river Panji, and Afghanistan on the other side

See yah later
P-G
//The Global Cyclist