CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
From Dushanbe it runs 1137 km to the finish; allow about 21 h 05 of riding. The stops in between: Kalaikhum, Khorog, Murghab and Ak Baital Pass. The highest point is about 4,650 m. It crosses from Tajikistan into Kyrgyzstan - carry ID and check the toll rules. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
The ride follows Murghab → Ak Baital Pass for 97 km.
The ride follows Ak Baital Pass → Karakul for 87 km.
Dushanbe means Monday, and the name comes from a village market that took place on that day, long before the city arrived. Today Dushanbe is the capital of Tajikistan, a city of nearly seven hundred thousand people in a broad valley beneath the Gissar mountains, laid out on wide, tree-lined avenues with white marble buildings, fountains and parks, a Soviet creation with a distinctly Persian soul. The Tajik language is a form of Persian, and the poets of the region, Rudaki and Ferdowsi among them, are national heroes, whose statues stand in the city.
Read the complete Dushanbe write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Dushanbe is where the day begins. Next is Kalaikhum.
Kalaikhum lies in the deep, hot gorge of the Panj river in south-western Tajikistan, where the Pamir Highway's western arm runs along the border with Afghanistan. At about twelve hundred metres, it is low by Pamir standards, and the valley floor is dusty, warm and full of apricot trees. The river is the frontier: on the far bank lie Afghan villages of mud-brick houses and terraced fields, linked by narrow donkey tracks cut into the cliffs, and a rider can watch the daily routines of people walking, ploughing and herding only a few hundred metres away across the water.
Read the complete Kalaikhum write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Kalaikhum comes up 207 km in. Next is Khorog.
Khorog sits on the edge of Afghanistan, with only a river between them. The town lies at about 2,200 metres in the valley of the Gunt and Panj rivers, in the Gorno-Badakhshan region of Tajikistan, and from its streets you can see across the Panj to the villages and mountain tracks of the Afghan Pamir, close enough to hear the dogs. About thirty thousand people live here, the regional capital, and its character is calm and rather quiet, with tree-lined streets, Soviet-era buildings and a river promenade. A park beside the river is a pleasant place for a walk.
Read the complete Khorog write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
414 km in you reach Khorog. Next is Murghab.
Murghab is a town at the top of the world, or close to it. At around 3,600 metres on the high Pamir plateau in eastern Tajikistan, it is among the highest settlements in Central Asia, a scatter of low buildings and shipping containers set on a vast, cold desert of gravel, with bare mountains standing on every side. The air is thin and dry, the sky is an intense blue, and the nights can fall well below freezing even in summer. In winter, temperatures drop to minus thirty or lower.
Read the complete Murghab write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Murghab, about halfway. Next is Ak Baital Pass.
The Ak-Baital Pass, at 4,655 metres, is the highest point on the Pamir Highway, and it looks the part: a bare, windswept saddle of grey and tan rock, with no trees, no plants and scarcely any life except the odd marmot, on a high plateau where the sky seems dark blue even at noon. The name means White Horse, and the story is that a white horse once crossed here and left no tracks, though no one can say when. The road climbs from the east across a long, rough plateau and drops to the west toward Karakul, with the borders of China and Kyrgyzstan not far away.
Read the complete Ak Baital Pass write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Ak Baital Pass sits at 828 km, about halfway. Nothing on this route is higher. Next is Karakul, mostly downhill.
At about 3,900 metres, Karakul is high enough that you will notice every step. The lake lies in a bleak, enormous basin in the eastern Pamirs of Tajikistan, a sheet of cold, salty, turquoise water ringed by bare brown mountains and white peaks, with the Chinese border not far off. It filled the crater left by a meteorite that struck the Earth some five million years ago, according to the geologists, which explains its odd, nearly round shape and its lack of any outlet. No fish live here, the water being too salty, and in the early morning the surface can be glassy and still.
Read the complete Karakul write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Karakul comes up 1035 km in. Next is Sary Tash.
Sary-Tash is a handful of low houses and a few guesthouses at a crossroads in southern Kyrgyzstan, at about 3,100 metres, and it has a lot of importance for a place so small. Here the road from Osh, coming south over the passes, meets the route that turns east to China at Irkeshtam and the one that turns south to the Pamir Highway and Tajikistan. In the old days, caravans on the Silk Road passed through, and the Soviet Union later built the road that is still the main artery of the region.
Read the complete Sary Tash write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Sary Tash closes the day.
Dushanbe → Kalaikhum is 304 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Kalaikhum → Khorog is 220 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Khorog → Murghab is 391 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Murghab → Ak Baital Pass is 97 km. This is the part worth slowing down for - look through the bends and use the pull-offs.
Ak Baital Pass → Karakul is 87 km. Brakes and eyes forward; the views are behind the corners, not in them.
Karakul → Sary Tash is 143 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.