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Title image - BAI takes you to: Silk Road

Silk Road Trekking Dispatch

August 3, 2009 – Crossing Tajikistan on Our Way to the Fann Mountains

Map from Samarkand to Penjikent

Map from Samarkand to Penjikent

It’s the morning of Monday August 3rd I’m calling you from Artuch alpine base camp. This is a hostel, a lodge. The group slept comfortably last night in little cabins with rushing mountain streams right outside their doors and windows. We are now in the refreshing, cool mountain air at 2,200 meters above sea level which is over 7,217 feet. We’ve entered Tajikistan now. Sixteen members of Berg Adventures support staff from Samarkand have joined us. Yesterday morning we all drove out 40km in Samarkand and we crossed from Uzbekistan into Tajikistan.

Temple along the way

Temple along the way

This Berg Adventures IP Trekking team is a culture in its own as the members are from many countries: UK, Australia, Holland, Spain, U.S.A and Canada. We now have members from Uzbekistan and Russia (that would be the Berg Adventures staff).

When we reached Tajikistan we knew we were in a different world. Tajikistan is a much less developed country overall than Uzbekistan. We went to a market that I had told you was thousands of years old on Saturday in Samarkand. Now, in Panjikent, the first town we went to in Tajikistan, we also went to a city market and we found it to be much more primitive, dirty, congested, with far fewer things for sale that had been imported. Tajikistan is a much more rural country, but the people are wonderful. Here in the mountains where we are, we see a lot of people whose lives are about herding their sheep. They live of course in some of the most beautiful mountain scenery in the world, and just as we found in Uzbekistan there are welcoming smiles everywhere.

We’re going to begin hiking today finally, after journeying across central Asia by bus, train, and airplane. Now we will take off as a team and begin our trek into the Fann Mountains. The donkeys have been loaded. Our Russian and Uzbek porters are picking up some bags to put into their back packs to support our trekking members and it’s a beautiful day, with absolutely clear skies.

So here we go we’ll report by satellite phone as we trek across the Fann Mountains and we look forward to updating you daily about the sites we see and the adventures we have.