Tajikistan

Khorog

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Khorog is the capital of the GBAO or Gorno Badakhstan Autonomous Oblast. It lies at about 2100m and has about 30.000 inhabitants roughly. In 2003 the Aga Khan invested a lot and setup a university here. Unfortunately Khorog was last years also in a bad picture because of political unrests. Now the situation seemed ok, but there were many checkpoints to maintain control.

In the city we had a look around, and visited the tourist info, which was good. You can do so many things in this country. Not only riding a motorbike, but especially hiking and climbing. We walked through the park and there many people. We didn’t  know first, but it was a national holiday today! We also passed the Afghan consulate. But as I had a single entry for Tajikistan, it was no use to go. Larisa did not want to go also as it was not a stable country at the time.

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We visited the war memorial and local market.

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There was a Lenin statue as well, but it was moved outside of the town. At this point you could also see the two rivers coming together, the Gunt flowing into the Panj river.

We went looking for a nice mountain to climb the next day. It was simple, just walk 500m behind our guesthouse. It was the son of Lalmo who showed us the start of it. He was an athlete and told us he used to run on the mountain almost every day until he broke his leg.

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We rode by the local gas station and started walking in the mountains.

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In the evening we had diner in the guesthouse and talked to our new friends. It was Olivier, the biker from Switzerland who we had met under the way, and also Jean-Pierre from Holland. Unfortunately JP had a problem with his bike and he had to fly back to Holland to get some parts. JP and Olivier, I wonder where you guys are now?

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We stayed a few days in Khorog. The weather stayed pretty bad, and even the locals said it was not normal for this time of the year. Normally it is a lot warmer. There was also quite some rain.

To proceed, there were two options, the Pamir Highway, or ride south and keep following the Afghan border to Ishkashim. We chose the first option.

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