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.
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Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
239 km from Khorugh to the finish, about 6 h 01 of riding. The stops in between: Ishkashim and Yamchun. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 4,500 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
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.
Khorog is where the day begins. Next is 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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Ishkashim comes up 126 km in. Next is 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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
253 km in you reach Yamchun. Next is 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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Langar closes the day.
Khorog → Ishkashim is 170 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Ishkashim → Yamchun is 123 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Yamchun → Langar is 86 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.