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The Pamir Mountains |
Introduction
I've undertaken a number of European bikepacking trips in recent years and have become quite adept at planning, preparing for and undertaking these trips. But bikepacking the Pamir Highway is a different proposition altogether. The fundamentals are the same, yes. Bike. Tent. Pedal. But there are lots of differences between this and a European trip. This post highlights some of them.
Visas and permits
As a UK citizen, to visit Tajikistan I needed to obtain a visa. This was accomplished via the official online
eVisa application website. The visa allows a visit of up to 60 days and cost USD $30. But the Pamir Highway passes through an autonomous region of Tajikistan called the GBAO and a separate permit is required to pass through it. This too was acquired via the eVisa website as part of the general visa application process and cost an additional USD $20.
Getting Started
It's been my habit in previous years to start and end bikepacking trips at the front door of my home, cycling as close to every metre of the trip as I can. I live in the UK and so getting to continental Europe involves cycling to a UK port and catching a ferry. But I also have the option to take my bike on a train to the port.
My planned Pamir Highway route starts in Tajikistan. I could cycle there from the UK but at a distance of over 4000 miles / 6500 km, this would take me several months and I don't have that amount of time available to me for this trip. So, the only option is to load the bike onto a plane and fly to Tajikistan.
Mountains
The Pamir Highway takes its name from the Pamir Mountains, a large mountain range that the road climbs over.
In previous European trips I've crossed various mountain ranges and mountainous regions. This includes the Swiss Alps from Switzerland into Italy, the Pyrenees from France into Spain, the Ligurian Alps in Italy, the tail end of the Jura mountains in Switzerland, and cycling within and across the Spanish Picos de Europa.
Crossing the Swiss Alps took me two days, cycling first from Lake Lucerne to the ski resort of Andermatt at an altitude of 1400 metres and from there, completing the remaining climb and peaking at 2100 metres before descending on the other side down to Bellinzona.
In contrast, crossing the Pamir Mountains will involve climbing from an altitude of 800 metres at Dushanbe to a peak altitude of 4660 metres before descending and crossing into Kyrgyzstan. It will take several weeks of almost constant climbing to reach the highest point of the road. It's to be expected that this will be physically challenging, more so above say 2500 metres where we're likely to start to feel the effects of the high altitude.
The Pamir Mountain range is big. There's no other way of putting it. Crossing the Alps or the Pyrenees is a piece of cake compared to the Pamirs.
Altitude
The Pamir mountains are relatively high mountains and at altitudes above say 2500 metres, altitude sickness can become a risk. There are numerous sources of information on this. I generally referred to information provided by the
UK National Health Service (NHS) as well heeding words of wisdom from K1 who knows a thing or two about the subject.
According to the NHS website, symptoms of altitude sickness include:
- a headache
- loss of appetite
- feeling or being sick
- feeling tired or exhausted
- dizziness
- difficulty sleeping
And sometimes, the symptoms can develop into more serious symptoms that can be life-threatening.
The general recommendation is that when you're at altitudes of 2500 metres or more, you should take care to climb slowly and not increase your altitude by more than 500 metres each day. Note that what's meant by an altitude increase is the difference between your altitude at the start of a day and your altitude when you stop cycling at the end of the day and spend the night at that location. It's not a measure of the amount of climbing you do during that day.
Of course, we're likely to feel exhausted much of the time anyway and I rarely sleep well, so two of the symptoms on the list aren't that useful to keep an eye open for!
We'll be being very careful with this issue and take rest days every so often, less often at lower altitudes, more often at higher altitudes. This will help us adjust slowly. In the event that one of us is exhibiting symptoms, we'll descend and spend the night at a lower altitude.
Vaccinations
Several vaccinations were recommended for this trip and acquired a few months ago. If you're planning a similar trip, check with your own healthcare provider. But here are the vaccinations I needed:
- Rabies
- Tetanus
- Hepatitis A
- Hepatitis B
- Typhoid
The rabies vaccination required a course of three injections spread out over about six weeks. I learned at the time that there was a severe shortage of the vaccine in the UK so I was lucky to get mine done when I did. It's worth planning early for this given the time needed for the course of three injections, if nothing else.
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| Dangerous |
Climate
We're expecting to experience a wide variation in temperature. Right now in Dushanbe the temperature is in the low to mid thirties (Celsius). It's early summer and those temperatures are likely to increase.
In contrast, at higher altitudes we're expecting nights to be chilly or even freezing. From my research, it sounds as though below zero temperatures, maybe as low as -5 Celsius are possible. I watched a video on YouTube of a couple cycling the Pamir Highway in July and they were having to break the ice on a stream (flowing water!) to get to the water underneath.
The wide temperature range we're expecting has had implications for the packing list. We need to be able to handle low night temperatures and sweltering heat in the day. Consequently, for this trip rather than my usual lightweight, compact summer sleeping bag, I'm taking a heavier, bulkier 4 season down sleeping bag that is supposed to keep its user comfortable (or at least alive!) in temperatures as low as -9. I'm also taking a down jacket and winter mittens. If it's -5 C at night, I assume it will still be bitingly cold when we start cycling early in the mornings.
Food and Water
Food and water could both be problematic. I've read countless rather graphic accounts of food poisoning that travellers have experienced. Part of the problem seems to be that in the more remote parts of the journey, electricity supplies are not completely reliable and so neither is refrigeration. Whatever the root cause, food poisoning seems to be an above average risk.
I considered including a photo here but decided against upsetting readers with too graphic a visualisation of food poisoning :-)
There won't be a bakery around every corner like there is in Europe, so it's unlikely we'll be living on Pain au Chocolat (PaC), more's the pity!
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| We're unlikely to be eating these! |
To add to the complications, I don't eat meat and it would appear that meat is a fairly common part of the local diet. I'll be trying to avoid meat both because I'm not a meat eater and because I see it as a riskier food with respect to food poisoning. We'll probably try to self cater as much as possible (and we're taking stoves so we'll be able to cook) and so have control over how our food is prepared but when saying in "home stay" accomodation, we may just have to use our judgement and be selective about what we do and do not eat.
The general advice given is that travellers should not drink the tap water. We're going to need to though! We'll also need to be able to drink water collected from streams and rivers. So, we're each taking a water filter, an ultraviolet water purification "wand" and just for good measure, water purification tablets. Sometimes we'll be boiling water and anything not used in cooking will be retained for drinking.
More information on equipment will be included in a future post on the packing list.
When Things Go Wrong
Things are going to go wrong. We know this. It's pretty much guaranteed. To that end, during planning, I performed a formal risk assessment, supported by K1 with his medical knowledge.
Many of the risks identified are common to your average European trip except that the high Pamirs are remote and so there won't be a bike shop within easy reach or much of the time, a hospital. Therefore it's even more important than usual to be able to deal with problems personally no matter where we are.
To ensure I can deal with potential bike problems, I'm taking far more tools, spares and bits and pieces for repairs than I usually would. This has contributed to the bike being much heavier but I'd rather have these things and not use them than have a serious mechanical failure at 4000 metres altitude and not be able to mend it because I left something at home rather than carry an extra few hundred grams.
But it's not just bike problems that are a concern. We humans, myself M1 and my partner in crime, K1 could each have accidents or suffer from a variety of illnesses. In recognition of this, I did a First Aid course a few weeks ago, provided by the St John Ambulance charity. I'll be bringing a more comprehesive first aid kit than usual, too. K1 is a medical doctor and so can draw upon his knowledge and experience. He's also planning to bring a range of medical supplies.
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| This is how I learned to deal with a "hurty head" |
In the worst case, if we hit problems we cannot deal with ourselves, we'll seek help from local people or other travellers. The high Pamirs are remote but the Pamir Highway does carry traffic including trucks and other adventure travellers. We may need to sit tight for a few hours while we wait, but there's good reason to be optimistic that someone will be able to help eventually.
Accomodation
There are no European style campsites on the Pamir Highway as far as we know. So, we'll be staying in the homes of local people (this is known as home stay), in guest houses where they exist and the rest of the time, wild camping. It is to be assumed that the further from Dushanbe we get and the higher we climb into the Pamir Mountains, the fewer will be the opportunities to stay in homes and guest houses and the more we'll be wild camping.
Novel Gear, More Gear
Various factors, including the fact that we'll be wild camping, that temperatures will vary so much, the risks relating to food and water, and the general remoteness of the high Pamirs all mean we have to carry more gear than usual and that new gear has had to be bought for this trip. We'll also need to carry food supplies and water to keep us supplied for as much as a few days during some stages of the route.
All of this means I had to find ways of carrying more gear. I usually use two Ortlieb panniers and an Ortlieb "rack pack", a large bag that sits across the two panniers. Last year though, I added a handlebar bag and for this trip, I've also fitted two fork bags.
We're taking multi-fuel stoves and will need to carry liquid fuel for them, typically petrol (gasoline).
The bikes when fully laden are going to be heavy!
Money
Tajikistan is largely a cash society. Certainly, once we leave the capital we don't expect to be able to pay with cards again until we're in Osh, Kyrgyzstan. There are supposedly ATMs in Khorog and Murghab but these small towns are hundreds of kilometres apart and travellers report that they are not always working or only work with certain cards. So the only safe choice is to carry a lot of cash, enough to last for up to say six weeks!
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| Khorog and Murghab are marked in blue on this map |
Not surprisingly therefore, we've been thinking about how to keep our cash safe.
US dollars are apparently accepted in both Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan so as well as local currency, I'll have some USD as well.
People
The people of this part of the world have a reputation for being hospitable. We're expecting most of our encounters with people to be of the most positive type.
But there are also reports of people in official positions sometimes seeking to extort money out of tourists using various approaches. In particular, airport customs and immigration sounds like a place where this happens frequently and there are a few slightly worrying reports about the behaviour of some of the armed guards at the check points that exist at intervals within the GBAO region.
It is what it is and perhaps the reports in various internet forums are exaggerated. There's only one way to find out of course. That said I will only be taking a relatively small amount of cash into the country and through the airport. The rest of the cash that I anticipate needing will be transferred in using Western Union and collected from an agent somewhere in Dushanbe.
Language
The local language in Tajikistan is Tajik but Russian is apparently commonly spoken too. I don't speak Tajik or Russian and neither does K1! There's evidence that some English is spoken here and there but we're not expecting this to be very common. So, pointing at things, perhaps imitating chickens and the laying of eggs and of course, using Google Translate on our phones will be the way we will hopefully get by.
Conclusion
There are certainly some major differences between the European bikepacking trips that I have experience of and cycling the Pamir Highway. We've done our research and we've prepared as best we can. But we expect the unexpected and to have to think on our feet and perhaps improvise solutions. All will be well. Hopefully :-)
Photo CreditsPamir Mountains: CC BY-SA 2.5 es, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=399858
Croissant: By I, Luc Viatour, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=986493
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