Wakhan Corridor Road: Ishkashim to Langar

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Ishkashim

   A river a few hundred metres wide is all that separates Tajikistan from Afghanistan at Ishkashim, and you can watch farmers on the other bank working their fields as you drink your tea. The Panj, the upper Amu Darya, runs through a broad green valley here, hemmed in by the great ranges of the Pamir to the north and the Hindu Kush to the south. Snow peaks stand across the water, close enough to count the ridges, and the sight is among the most dramatic on the whole Pamir route. The town is small, around a few thousand people, with a bazaar, a handful of guesthouses and a border crossing that opens for traders and aid vehicles.

   Read the complete Ishkashim write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Ishkashim is where the day begins. Next is Yamchun.

2. 2. Yamchun

   The Panj river is the border here, and across the water the land is Afghanistan. At Yamchun, in the Wakhan valley of Tajikistan, the road runs high above the river on the Tajik side, and the other bank is a narrow ribbon of farms and mud-brick houses under the great wall of the Hindu Kush. The valley is one of the most remote inhabited places in Asia, and its people, the Wakhi and Pamiri, are largely Ismaili Muslims who have lived here for many centuries, farming barley and apricots in small terraced fields.

   Read the complete Yamchun write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Yamchun comes up 133 km in. Next is Langar.

3. 3. Langar

   Langar is the last real village of the Tajik Wakhan, a cluster of stone and mud-brick houses at about 2,800 metres, hemmed in by the Panj river on one side and the high, bare mountains on the other, and beyond it the valley narrows toward the Wakhjir pass and China. It is a village of orchards and walled fields, irrigated by channels from the mountains, and in the evening smoke rises from every roof and children play on the dirt lanes. Across the river, in Afghanistan, a faint track runs along the foot of the Hindu Kush, and one sometimes sees a donkey or a man on a motorbike on the other bank.

   Read the complete Langar write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   The route ends here after 135 km.