Tajikistan

It’s now a little over two weeks till I board the plan to Istanbul as the first stage of my trip to Tajikistan. The usual response when I say that is first “Where?”, closely followed by “Why?” .

The first part is easy. Tajikistan shares borders with Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Afghanistan and China. It is Central Asia and formerly part of the Soviet Union. But most people focus on the fact it’s next to Afghanistan, sometimes described as its ‘noisy neighbour’.

Actually, that’s one of the answers to ‘why’. Many years ago I had planned to ride the Khyber Pass. It was a major ambition, actually more of a dream, which is the first stage of an ambition in my mind. Then the Russians came along and the rest is part of a long and painful history.

Tajikistan is one one of the former Silk Road routes. Alexander the Great, Tambourlane, Marco Polo, Genghis Khan all passed that way. It was also one of the places that the so called ‘Great Game’, the Cold War played out between the two super powers of the 19th Century, Russia and Great Britain, was played out. The players then, soldiers and gentlemen explorers, mapped a wild and unknown terrain including the world’s fourth highest mountain range, the Pamirs. So while I don’t get to fulfil my ambition I do get to see all that and I get to ride one of the world’s last remaining wildernesses.

That is a huge part of the ‘Why’. People have described this as a holiday. It’s isn’t that. Nor is it in an adventure, in my head at least. It is, of course, but it’s not the first word that comes to mind. It

I think exploration covers it better. There is more I unknown about this trip than Known. I know the beginning and end points. I know some of the places we are going. I know the weather can range from 40′ to hail, that there will be river crossings, high passes (4600m) and mostly dirt roads. I know there are no atms, restaurants beyond the two major towns we will visit, no or little Internet access. Not much civilisation as we have come to define it. The biggest unknown for me is how I will cope. With being off road for that length of time in that environment where help if things go wrong is too far away, with sleeping in other people’s houses and beds, with that much silence and isolation.

I don’t know how we will bond as a group. There are, as I understand it, 6 maybe 7 of us. Will be become close or find two weeks of each other’s company way too long.

Who knows? And there will be many more things I had never thought of, good and less good, that will occur along the way. So maybe it is an adventure after all.