After my timeout in Sarytag and Iskanderkul, I continued onwards to the north and went to Penjikent close to the border to Uzbekistan. Penjikent is the gateway for hikes into the Fan Mountains and that was exactly why I went there for. While some of the hikes were possible on your own, it was more advisable to go with a guide if you wanted to go higher up and for a couple days instead of just one. So I booked a multiday hike through a local agency and while the guy there said that it was possible to go over the passes already, I was not too sure about that, as there still was quite some snow around. Anyway, as I'm used to adjust myself along the way, I thought it best to just venture out and see what the Fan Mountains had in store for me. :)
Day 1: Day of the many problems
Already in the early morning a first problem arose: staying at a homestay, the host there really wanted me to drive to Artush, where the official starting point of my hike was. I tried to explain that I had booked a tour and that the ride to Artush was included. It was useless. As he didn't spoke English, he didn't understood me. With the help of two of his children, who spoke a little English, I managed to convince him to give me a ride to the agency and there the guy could explain it all to him. So when we arrived there at 8 am sharp, it was all sorted out, I said goodbye to my host and went together with the agency guy into the direction of Artush. Picking up my guide along the way, we soon were on the dirt road towards the little mountain village. While the road was pretty good in the beginning, it was more of a roller coaster towards the end. :) Nevertheless, we made it to Artush safe and sound and the donkeyman with his two donkeys to carry the food and cooking equipment, was also already waiting there. Unfortunately I had to learn that both my companions didn't spoke any English, so I knew that I was in for a lot of pointing and pantomime during the next days. The day before I also had asked the agency guy what I should bring and he had said, that I should only bring one bag with the stuff that I need for the 5 days. Okay, cool, no worries. So when the donkeyman started to load his donkeys, he pointed at my backpack. I shook my head and pointed at my shoulders. He looked at me as if I was insane. :) Discussion pointless, the backpack was loaded onto one of the donkeys and I stood there like a beginner without any bag at all. Well, so I could focus on other things at least. Starting our hike, we left the village of Artush and I knew that the first part would be along a gravel road, as there was another settlement up ahead that could be reached by car. The first couple kilometers were quite a hassle, as the road was overflowed at many places. Once we had those parts behind us though, the walking got better and easier. We took our time and ascended a gentle slope towards some already pretty impressive mountains. After an hour the guide and I took a first break and would I have known, that I wouldn't see the donkeyman again until the evening, I would have hold him up to get some stuff out of my backpack. Well, I didn't knew, so he just walked on with his two donkeys leaving us behind. Carrying on, we soon had the slope behind us and were walking in a sort of canyon with towering mountains to the left and right. Out of the canyon we came onto some open fields and were greeted by loud cries of "Hello" from some children that lived in a couple houses closeby. :)
Walking straight ahead now, we arrived some time later at the end of the road at a place called "Alp Lager". While I thought we might eat our lunch there, we just passed it and kept on marching towards the mountains ahead of us. Mainly hiking along a river, with beautiful mountains all around us and the sun shining through the clouds, it was a most enjoyable hike so far.
After the Alp Lager, we were ascending steadily again and when we reached a little plateau, it was time for lunch. Sitting there and enjoying some bread and sausage, I suddenly heard some voices. Turning my head I could see a group of about 20 people appearing from the direction we were going to. We heard some Russian and the last guy had a boombox with some Russian music at his backpack. Well, so much for remoteness and quietness. :) When we started to walk again, it didn't take long and all the donkeys with the gear of the Russians appeared as well. We gave way and my guide talked with many of the donkeyman, as he obviously knew them pretty well. Walking in a valley now, the way started to led upwards more steeply. While my guide had been coughing since the beginning, it worsened during this steep ascent. He stopped a couple times and once I saw him taking some medicine. Nevertheless, the stops increased and soon we paused every 5 minutes. Taking a closer look, it was obvious, that his condition was not good: he breathed heavily, he leaned his head upon his walking stick when resting and sometimes he closed his eyes like you do when a wave of pain is washing over you. I was getting worried and asked him what the problem was. He said that his heart was beating very fast and I was worried even more. Fearing that he would collapse, I told him to take his time. When the whole procedure was not getting better, I decided to do a body check with him and pointed at his legs, stomach, heart and head. He made a thumbs up except for the heart, which obviously was beating still very fast. Telling him he should give me his backpack, I offered him a second walking stick as well and he took both of my offers gladly. We continued our slow walk upwards and I hoped that when we reached the top of the ascent, we would be able to see Kulikalon Lake, where we were supposed to stay for the night. Well, when we finally reached the plateau, another valley and ascent similar to the last one, awaited us. Great... We took a longer break there and while he laid upon the grass to rest, I entertained myself with taking some pictures.
"How long to the Kulikalon Lake?", I asked him during the break and he answered: "One hour for you, two for me". At least he didn't lost his humor. :) When he was ready to continue, we started walking upwards again. While I kept on watching him closely, there were also moments where I took my time to appreciate the beautiful scenery around us.
Another worry was approaching though, as the clouds above us had intensified a lot and it looked like it was going to rain soon. The donkeyman was still nowhere to be seen and of course all my rain gear was in my bag on the back of the donkey. As there was no other choice anyway, we kept on ascending and I just prayed very hard that there would be no rain. At least this prayer was heard and when we finally reached the next plateau, the clouds had thinned out again and the sun was about to break through. For the ascent, that a good walker does in one hour, we had two and a half, but I didn't really care about that. I was just happy that we made it to the plateau without any incident and my guide said that it was already going a bit better in the meantime. It was true as he didn't pause that much anymore and his walking pace was a bit faster than before. A little bit later Kulikalon Lake came into view and the scenery that opened up before us was just breathtaking.
As I knew that Alauddin Pass was planned for tomorrow, I asked him which one of the mountains around us it was and of course he pointed towards the one that was still full of snow. :) Walking along the lake now, we came upon a little shelter and from there a man was approaching us. Seldom had I been more glad to see another person and when my guide told him about his problems, he only let him continue after he took his pulse and gave him some medicine. Leaving Kulikalon Lake behind us we walked towards another lake and as I knew that the camp was close now, I was able to enjoy the landscape to the fullest. Our donkeyman greeted us at a lovely spot in the heart of the plateau and I was relieved that my guide made it there without collapsing.
As it was kinda late already, they started to cook dinner and as the clouds in the meantime had vanished altogether, I was able to enjoy the start of a beautiful sunset. When dinner was ready we finally introduced ourselves properly: my guide was called Cholig (unfortunately he couldn't tell me how to write his name in English, so this is just my best guess) and the donkeyman Saïd. I told them that my name was Sam, but they didn't understood. So I tried Samuel, which was even worse. :) Deviated from Samuel, we finally settled for an Arabic version and from then on they just called me Ismail. :) While we ate, they told me what the program was for the next days: tomorrow Alauddin pass, the next day Laudan pass, then something I didn't understood and on the last day we were to go over another pass back towards Artush. Due to the health problems of my guide, it was obvious that we couldn't do what we had planned originally and that we would sleep all 4 nights in the same spot and do day hikes from there. It was also settled that tomorrow I would go with Saïd and that was fine with me. "Can we go over Alauddin pass?", I asked them and from what I understood, we would try to go as far as possible and turn back if there was no way over. But then Saïd told me we had to get up at 3 o'clock, because the weather usually was better in the morning. This confused me a little bit, but I told myself that they knew what they were doing and only told them to wake me up whenever we had to go. Falling in my tent after the last sunrays were gone, an entertaining day gave way to the land of dreams.
Day 2: Day of the unexpected
"Ismail!", Saïd was calling and as I had a light sleep that night, I told him right away that I was awake. Looking on my phone, it was 4 o'clock in the morning. As I had prepared my backpack yesterday already, I was soon ready to go. First we had some tea and breakfast though and when we finally left our campsite it was 4.50 in the morning. We were only a couple minutes on the trail when we came across a wild donkey, that had been strolling around our camp yesterday already. Saïd got hold of the donkey and sitting on his back, trotted off towards Alauddin pass, while I just followed them in my own pace. The ascent to the pass started after about one kilometer and was pretty steep as expected. We made good way though, Saïd occasionally getting off the donkey to let me catch up. The sky was super clear this morning and the rising sun enlightened the top of the nearby mountains. It was a sight that let me forget the short night in an instant.
In the meantime it had already dawned on me, that our aim today was to get over Alauddin pass and then back again. Reaching a plateau after the first steep ascent, I could see all the way up to the pass and there at the very top was a clear path visible, so I instantly knew that it was possible to cross over. When we reached the first snow, Saïd left the donkey behind and started to walk as well. As it was early morning and the sun rose on the other side of the mountain, the snow was very firm and the walk upon it was no problem at all. We still made good way and I had to stop every now and then to enjoy the panorama before it was too late. :)
After the first big patches of snow were behind us, it got steeper again and while there was one steep part in the snow, the rest was on more or less frozen ground. It wasn't too frozen though and made for pretty good walking as well. Soon enough we had reached the final part of the ascent, the path that we were able to see from far away. While the top looked close now, it took us longer to get there than expected. The path was super steep and the altitude was kicking in as well. When Saïd finally reached the top he cried out loud: "Allahu Akbar!" :) Not much later I had arrived as well and we congratulated each other on our achievement. Standing on 3850 meters above sea level, the views to both sides were astonishing. To one side the way we came up, with some impressive mountains in the background, to the other side Alauddin Lake, surrounded by other enormous peaks.
While we were finally in the sun, a cold wind was blowing on the pass and we didn't stay there too long. Starting our descent on the other side, we learned that there was almost no snow and we were able to walk on the official path. A bit further down we got off the trail and descended in some loose scree and through some patches of snow. It was more a sliding down than a proper walking and like this we got down super fast. In one of the snow patches we stopped at a rock and sat down for a second breakfast. A look on the clock told me that it was only 8 am. Wow! To some bread, sausage, cheese and fruits we enjoyed the fresh morning air and the marvelous view in front of us. The rest of the descent was a bit slower, but some more patches of snow and the view up ahead entertained us all the way down to the bottom and the shore of Alauddin Lake.
What a gorgeous lake that was and taking a little break there, we met the first people of today. A group of three people from the Czech Republic and Slovakia and a somewhat bigger group from France. All of them were on their way to Mutnoe Lake, which I knew to be a side trip from Alauddin Lake. Saïd was probably happy to speak to some people as he told me: "Let's go to Mutnoe Lake as well!" - "Hmm, how long does it take to get there?" - "Five five six!" - "What?" He only smiled at me and walked away after the other two groups. Once again, discussion was pointless, so I just followed and hoped this would be not too much of a detour, as we still had a long way back to our campsite. We soon were out of the trees that surrounded the lake and were able to see into the valley with the path towards Mutnoe Lake. It looked kinda distant, but I thought the lake would just be after that last ascent that we could see from afar. So we started walking upwards again and the views around us were soon super stunning once more. It made the ascending a piece of a cake.
Saïd was mainly talking with the guide of the French group and when they made their first break, so did we. Right where we stopped, a group of 5 Czech guys came along on their way down from Mutnoe Lake and Saïd started to talk with them. He asked them for Slivovice and cigarettes and of course they had both. Giving him a pet bottle of Slivovice, he took three huge gulps and we were all chuckling at the sight. The Czech guys took a sip as well and while I declined, Saïd was happy to drown the rest of the bottle. :) He kept on talking with the Czechs and while I thought that he would be able to handle the alcohol, it soon appeared that he would not. He started to lecture them about the history of Asia and Europe and wouldn't the Czechs have taken their bags at one point and just walked away, we probably would still be there. :) Well, we continued our ascent and walking behind Saïd, there was a steady smell of Slivovice. Then we caught up with the Slovakia/Czech group and there was a girl who had a cold and was struggling with the heavy backpack and the pretty steep ascent we were in at that point. Saïd took away her backpack and almost ran up the mountain with it. When at last he couldn't go on anymore he laid the bag down, looked at me, pointed at the bag and said "Ismail!". Before I could reply anything, the girl, obviously a bit embarrassed about the situation, ran up to the bag and told him that she would carry it again. So we left them behind and a little later Saïd started to sing and shout and he took as almost as many breaks as Cholig yesterday. :) While this whole thing was hilarious on one side, it was also not really funny on the other. It was impossible to focus on the beautiful scenery around us and I absolutely had no desire to take care of another guide after yesterday. At least he drank quite some water in between. When eventually we brought the ascent behind us that we had seen from far below, I had to learn that Mutnoe Lake of course wasn't there yet. So we walked and walked and Saïd sang and sang and carried the backpack of the Slovakian girl again, as well as the bag from an elderly lady from the French group. :) All of this took a lot of time and when we finally reached Mutnoe Lake it was past noon and time to eat some lunch. There was still a lot of snow around as well and the lake itself was completely frozen. The scenery was stunning enough though, the lake surrounded by towering icy mountains.
As it was a hard walk up here, I was kinda tired and was glad to sit down. While we had some terrible food out of the can for lunch, I enjoyed the break as much as the scenery of the lake. Strengthened from the food and the rest, we started our descent back to Alauddin Lake. Saying goodbye to the other two groups, we retraced our steps and soon had the valley before us from which we had ascended. Saïd had sobered up and was back to normal, so this time I was able to enjoy the scenery much more than during the ascent.
Only my stomach was not so happy with the food he received and rumbled on for the first hour of the descent. We kept a steady pace downwards and didn't really take any breaks and the longer the descent lasted, the more my right knee started to hurt. Arriving back at Alauddin Lake, we stopped for the first time and right then I somewhat had reached my limit and felt pretty shattered. This side trip to Mutnoe Lake took more than 5 hours and we still had to go back over Alauddin pass to our campsite. So when we sat down, Saïd told me that we will go back over Laudan pass instead of Alauddin. I told him no, because it was more distance to cover and I wanted to take the shortest way. He insisted and said that Laudan wasn't that steep. Then he pointed at me and said: "No problem!". At that moment I kinda lost it. :) In a cascade of English words I told him that for him it would be no problem, because he was used to walk in these mountains and such distances, whereas I was not. I didn't knew if he understood anything of what I said, but it felt good to let off some steam. :) In my heart I knew that a discussion was yet again pointless and after a couple minutes of letting this new information sink in, I told him: "Okay! Davai, davai". So we passed Alauddin Lake and descended further on towards another Alp Lager called "Vertical". We passed the Czech group again but luckily they were out of Slivovice. :) On the way to Vertical we came along another stunning lake and while I took a couple pictures, Saïd was walking on. When I caught up with him, he was talking with a Slovakian lady. She was on her way to Alauddin Lake and introduced herself as Mirka. Someone had recommended her to check out Alauddin and Kulikalon Lake and when Saïd heard that, he invited her to come along with us. No worries for me, as I was beyond caring what was happening and so we agreed to wait at Vertical, while she would quickly have a look at Alauddin Lake. We passed the time with drinking some tea in the Alp Lager and when Mirka was back again, we immediately departed as it was past 4 pm already. Just before we left, we asked how long it would take over the pass and received 3 different answers from 3 different persons.. :) Well, time would tell and we started our ascent towards the pass. Soon I learned that Mirka actually should have been in Dushanbe tonight and that this was super spontaneously, so she didn't really had her hiking gear with her. For the time being this was no problem, as the first part of our ascent was on the main trail. The path mostly led along open fields and before long we had some superb views of the mountains around us.
The weather luckily was on our side. There was a thunderstorm to be seen at some mountains closeby, but we were walking in the sun and the longer we walked, the better was the weather. A couple times we took a break and as Mirka was speaking some Russian, she acted as translator and there was actually a real conversation for once. :) After one of those breaks, Saïd suddenly left the main trail and we started to walk cross-country along the mountainside. In the beginning we mostly walked along some tiny paths and the going was easy enough. Saïd was walking quite far ahead of us, as he obviously was used to walk along these trails. We followed at our own pace and as the view of the opposite mountains was too gorgeous, we also took the liberty to stop to take some pictures.
Saïd didn't notice and just kept walking up ahead, so he soon vanished from our view. When we followed and rounded the next bend of the mountain, he suddenly was nowhere to be seen anymore. Hmm, did he go straight ahead or did he walk upwards? We decided to have a look around the bend ahead of us and when we didn't see him from there as well, Mirka started to call after him and I checked our position on the GPS. As the way in front of us didn't look like the way to go, we decided to head upwards a little bit. Just when we brought the first meters behind us, Saïd's head appeared behind some stones. Uff, we would have taken the wrong way. Mirka told him in stern words not to walk that far ahead of us, but Saïd obviously didn't care or understood, as there always was quite some distance between us and him. The going got rougher now and the way we took was covered with loose stones and scree. This was a problem for Mirka, as she didn't had proper shoes for such a terrain. We helped where we could and as we also had some patches of snow to cross, I lent her my walking stick which was helping her a lot to keep the balance. The slopes we were in, were pretty steep and slipping on the loose stones or the snow could have ended pretty bad. As the walk along the mountainside seemed endless, I was a bit worried that there would be no more sunlight for us to go down on the other side. So at one point we stopped Saïd and asked where we were going and how much longer it would take us to get over the pass. He pointed to a patch of snow not far from us and from there he pointed upwards. How long it would take us, he couldn't answer. At least we were going upwards now and after we passed the snow, there was finally a proper path again. It was quite a relief after all the scrambling before. Looking back towards the way we came from, the slopes we had crossed looked pretty insane from afar. The path unfortunately didn't extend all the way to the top and before we reached the pass, we still had some more scrambling to do. When we finally came upon the pass, the sun had already set behind the mountains. The last sunrays painted the peaks around us in red and all the struggle from before was forgotten for a moment. The views to either side were exquisite and even if it was late already, we took our time to take some pictures and enjoy the moment.
It was obvious now, that we wouldn't reach our campsite while there still was sunlight, but at least we were able to see the main trail again below us. To get there we had to cross a rather large field of loose scree, but going down that slope was, compared to the ascent afore, actually pretty easy.
So we reached the trail soon and were happy to be on our way to shelter and food. We kept on descending steadily and came quite far before there was no light anymore. Smartphone out, flashlight on and we continued our descent in the dark, guided by Saïd's knowledge and my flashlight. It took us about another hour until we reached our campsite and one of the craziest days in my life as a hiker was finally at an end. The clock told me it was 9.35 pm and that meant an almost unbelievable 17 hours out on the trail. My right knee was hurting more than ever and as we were all tired and hungry, we sat down for dinner and went to sleep straightaway afterwards.
Day 3: Day of sleep
Waking up when Mirka opened up the tent, a look on my phone told me it was 7 o'clock in the morning. She was telling me that she had to go, as she had to make her way to Dushanbe within the day. So we exchanged our contacts and she left the tent to get her shoes, which she left at the fire in the shelter yesterday to dry. Suddenly she called out: "There's no one here anymore!" Still half asleep I only could say: "What??" - "They are gone. My shoes are gone. The shelter is empty!" WTF?? That was impossible. Why should my guides leave without me? Well, there was no other option and I crawled out of my sleeping bag to have a look into the shelter. And yep, everything was gone. Not a trace left of my two friends. My first intention was to look if the donkeys were gone as well and looking into that direction, a head popped up behind a stone and Cholig was waving us towards him. As there would be a big group coming in today, they would occupy the shelter and we had to move our camp. Ahh, mystery solved. :) As I was awake now as well, we all sat down together for some tea and breakfast. Saying goodbye to Mirka afterwards, I got back to my tent for another hour of sleep. When I woke up again, some part of the big group had already arrived and it was time to move my tent as well. When the tent was set up at our new campsite, I stood at the river closeby to fill up some water and a Czech couple suddenly appeared out of the nowhere. They had been camping at the lake next to us and were now heading towards Kulikalon Lake. As it's almost customary to share your stories when you meet other western people, they stopped at our campsite for a chat. Saïd was present as well and when he learned that they were Czech, he asked them again if they had some Slivovice. Of course they had and me having a déjà-vu, I saw him drowning another half bottle of the strong schnaps. :) Well, we had already decided to rest today after the effort of yesterday, so he could do whatever he wanted. While the Czech couple was still with us drinking some tea, a military officer appeared to check our passports. Everything was in order and while we said goodbye to the couple, Saïd was already feeling the alcohol, as he launched himself in a long and loud discussion with the military man. When the man was gone as well, the time had come for me to take a little walk. I got into the tent of my guides and told them that I wanted to go to the Kulikalon Lake to take some pictures. For Cholig this was no problem, but Saïd came out of the tent and told me, that he wanted to come with me. I said no, but he insisted. His speech was already slurred and I didn't want him to join in. So I said no about 20 times in all variations possible. :) It was no use and he started to pack his bag in slow motion. When he realized that he had the wrong shoes on, he tried to get his walking boots on, but he was already that drunk that he couldn't lace them up. :) I couldn't look at this anymore and just walked away, unnoticed by him, as he was occupied with his boots. The way to the lake was easy to find and I stood at the shore 15 minutes later. The weather was superb and so were the views of the lake. Saïd was nowhere to be seen and I took my time to walk along the lake, resting here and there to enjoy this moment of silence and loneliness.
When I returned to our campsite two hours later, Saïd was laying asleep next to his tent. He was that passed out, that he would only awake about 5 hours later. :) For me it was time for lunch and after that for a relaxing afternoon, which was spent with listening to some music, chatting with Max from England and writing some lines for my blog. Dinner was served at 7 and was delicious as usual. As I was still pretty tired from the day before, I went to bed soon and when the clock stroke 9 pm I was fast asleep already.
Day 4: Day of the expected unexpected
Breakfast was set for 7.30 this morning and that was good. Today Saïd would guide me again and as I didn't want to repeat the other day, I was glad that breakfast was a bit later than two days before. When I had finished with eating, Saïd took me to his side and said: "Marschroute today!" while pointing to a nearby mountain. So we would scale that mountain, descend on the other side to Kulikalon Lake and then come back to our camp. Estimated time on the trail should be around 6 hours. I nodded my assent, got my stuff ready and off we went at about 20 past 8. From our campsite we first took the same direction like when we went up on Alauddin pass, except that we were walking on the other side of the lake. It was a fine morning, although there were more clouds in the sky than the last couple days. Soon enough we reached the foot of the mountain and once again a steep ascent waited for us. This time though, Saïd took care where he was walking and he wasn't as fast as the last time. It seemed as he had learned something out of our adventure the other day. :) After about half an hour, we took a break and sat down in the slope. The view towards Alauddin pass was brilliant and while we sat there, we heard some stones falling in the boulder field next to us. Saïd looked up and it seemed as if he was searching for something. When I asked him, he told me that there were mountain goats, but neither he nor I could see any.
So we kept on ascending and just before we reached the ridge that led to the summit, he suddenly stopped and pointed to a spot far away on the ridge. And yep, right there were two mountain goats, making their way from the ridge down the slope and onwards to the boulder field. It was a great sight to behold and we kept on looking until they vanished from our view. Not much later we were on the ridge and continued onwards to the summit.
While I thought the views from the ridge were marvelous already, it was nothing against the astonishing view from the peak. The mountain plateau with all the several lakes unfolded before us, surrounded by loads of tall and beautiful mountains. It was time for another break to appreciate the beauty of this place and it definitely was one of the best views I had during my time in the Fan Mountains.
While I expected to retrace our steps a little bit for the descent, Saïd kept on walking along the ridge. As there was some scrambling involved, he asked me a couple times: "No problem?" - "So far, so good", I told him, thinking just where exactly would we be going to descend?
We walked along the ridge as far as possible and at the very end where we couldn't go any further, Saïd was waiting with some stones in his hand. "Gold", he said and pointed at one. "Minerals", he added and pointed to the others. "Ahh!", I told him and when he wanted to give me the stones, I explained him that I couldn't take them with me, because of the borders I had to cross in the near future. He understood and throwing the stones away, started with our descent. I should have known, that at one point some crazy part was waiting for me, as this seemed to be normal when Saïd was guiding. The slope he started to go down was super steep and full of loose scree. Especially in the beginning I had to be very careful not to slip on one of the loose stones. So while I took my time going down slowly, he walked down as if it would be a normal hiking path.
Sometimes he stopped and when I caught up, he showed me some flowers or herbs that he found along the way. He certainly knew how to live off the country, so if you ever want to do a bushcraft adventure in Tajikistan, he would be the man to go with. :) As for hiking he might not be the best option, as the descent down to Kulikalon Lake was not much fun and I was pretty sure that I was the first tourist ever to descend that particular slope. At least I was confident that there would be no Czech group around this time. :) Well, we made it down to the lake safe and sound and it was time for lunch. While we ate some fish, sausage, cheese, bread and apples, the clouds above us started to intensify. As I knew we only had to walk back to our camp, which wasn't that far away, I thought we should make it there without getting wet. Following the shore of the lake after lunch, we met a herder along the way.
Saïd asked him something as the herder kept pointing upwards. Of course we couldn't go back the normal way and Saïd ventured upwards again at some random point. All my complaints were useless and so I was scrambling once more through some loose stones. "100 meters", he had told me before and sure enough, when we had ascended about that much, there was an entrance to some sort of a mine. "Ahh, why didn't you tell me before?" Well, obviously he did, but my Russian was still as good as his English. :) We walked into the tunnel and as it was mostly straight ahead, I felt safe to follow him. When we came upon a point with loads of stones and broken wood, I told him that was as far as I would go. He asked me to turn off my flashlight and the darkness was complete. He obviously had a lot of respect, because he turned on his light again just a couple seconds after. Walking back to the entrance, I learned that the Russians had built this tunnel and that they abandoned it after the second world war. Apparently they were extracting some mineral, but I couldn't understand which one. So we descended back to the shore of the lake and right then it started to rain. While I donned my rain gear, Saïd walked ahead. When I followed, I didn't came far and he was calling me from under a tree. I joined him until the first lightning stroke closeby. Telling him I wanted to move on as I didn't feel safe, it took a while until I found the right pantomime to explain him the danger of the situation. :) It was a good decision anyway, as we walked for about 10 minutes and then reached a shelter, where the man was residing that I met on the first day. He invited us inside for some tea and while we snugged up to a warm fire, it poured down heavily for the next 30 minutes. When the rain stopped, we carried on and made our way back to the campsite. It was about 3 o'clock in the afternoon and Saïd had kept his word with the estimated time out on the trail. Wouldn't it have been for that steep slope, it would actually have been a normal decent hike. The rest of the day was spent with resting, eating and enjoying the scenery for a last time. As it was our last night, Saïd started a campfire and when it was slowly dying down, I said good night and went to bed under a super clear sky full of stars.
Day 5: Day of normality
Getting up at 7.30 am, I packed my things together and had some breakfast. Then I waited for Cholig and Saïd to pack all their stuff and when they were ready, we went on our way. Saïd was going by himself with his donkeys, so this time I carried my bag by myself. When we said goodbye he gave me a hearty hug, for I had earned his respect on the two hikes I made with him. Cholig, who had rested the last three days, was guiding me over the last pass back to the Alp Lager of Artush. Sure I had asked him every day how he felt and he told me that he was doing better. Only his cough remained, but it soon appeared that this was no problem as well. Once again we made our way to Kulikalon Lake and followed the shore for a while.
Instead of going straight ahead though, we turned left after we had passed the lake. There a first ascent up to a plateau waited for us and when Cholig made it up there without any difficulties, I felt safe to carry on with him. Today was the first day that the sky was full of clouds in the morning already and when we turned around on the plateau, we could see some dark clouds over Alauddin pass on the other side. Right then it appeared to me, that I had been very lucky with the weather, as it could have been much worse. From the plateau, there was a steep ascent up to the pass. We took our time as he was not super fit anyway and my bones were a bit weary from the hikes before. Reaching the top of the pass we took a break and I enjoyed one last look towards the mountain plateau where I had spent the last 4 adventurous days.
To the other side we could see our descent down into the valley and to Chukurak Lake. The way down was a gentle one and while we could hear the thunder rolling behind us, we didn't had a single raindrop as we walked away from the bad weather.
While I was spoiled with stunning views the last days, it was okay that for once they were not that good. Only when we came closer to the bottom and a first lake appeared they got a bit better. From that first lake, Chukurak Lake was not far away and this one was a beauty again with some crystal clear water and nice mountains around it.
It was the place to be for lunch and we took our time enjoying the scenery until the first rain drops fell and it was time to go. The last part was a descent down to the Alp Lager. Lucky us the rain didn't intensify and we were able to arrive at the Alp Lager dry as a bone. Saïd greeted us there and we had to learn that the taxi, that should pick us up, would only arrive in about two hours. Saying once more goodbye to Saïd, as he went away with his donkeys, Cholig and I spent our time with watching a thunderstorm go by, checking messages on our phones and drinking tea at the house of a friendly local family. When the taxi finally arrived, it was almost 6 o'clock. The ride back to Penjikent passed in a breeze, as I thought about the last 5 entertaining days and so I was back in civilization soon, ready to have a shower and sleep in a proper bed. :)
Well, this has been a real adventure with some of the craziest and wildest hiking I have ever done. Except the last day, which was a "normal" hiking day, every day had some surprises in store for me. Not only in terms of the stunning scenery, but also what happened along the way. If you read this whole blog entry, I'm sure you can understand. :) I was happy that everybody involved made it through without any harm and looking forward to my next hike in Tajikistan, I honestly could do with a little less adventure. :)
Highlights of the hike: the scenery all around and the ultimate craziness of day 2
This hike is for you if:
- you want to get into the heart of the Fan Mountains
- you want to cover every angle of Kulikalon Lake
- you don't speak any Russian and know how to communicate with hand and feet
- you know how to hike on many different surfaces (snow, scree, loose stones, dirt paths, grass)
This hike is not for you if:
- you mind steep sections up and down
- you can't handle camping and basic food along the way
- it's your first multi day hike in higher regions
- you have a hard time to adjust to new situations along the way
Comments