Having discovered that the flights from Dushanbe to Khorog had failed to depart for 3 days due to bad weather, on 26th June I left Dushanbe in a 4x4 for the 21 hour journey direct to Ishkashim, the first village on the Tajik side of the Wakhan valley - which divides Tajikistan from Afghanistan (the border runs through the centre of the Wakhan river). The journey was quite incredible - we crossed a 3200m pass into the Badakhshan region, and were constantly surrou...

Back from the Fan mountains now. Had a really enjoyable short hike with another traveller called David, and a local guide whom we hired.To begin, we shared a taxi with some local guys to the 250km and 7 hours from Dushanbe to Penjikent, where we were met by our guide, and spent the night in his basic accomodation in the city. The following morning we set off for Artush - the village which marks the start of the trek - via the '7 lakes'. The alpine lakes, each on...

Since arriving here in Tajikistan on Saturday morning, one thing of signifcance to my trip has struck me...that there are literally no motorcycles on the roads. Realising that this had the potential to impact my trip significantly, yesterday I went to the Girpozem machine bazaar - Dushanbe's car (and hopefully motorcycle) market. The car bazaar is quite a remarkable place, with thousands of cars lined up for sale, all seemingly privately (photos to follow). Sadl...

I've arrived safely in Dushanbe. Largely uneventful flights except I had a man with truly remarkable-smelling breath sitting behind me on the route from Riga to Dushanbe. So powerful was the emitted odour that it prevented me from sleeping at all, for the duration of the 6 hour flight. The centre of Dushanbe very much resembles the new parts of Tashkent - (mostly) ugly soviet architecure, and wide tree-lined avenues. The main difference being the snowcapped Fan ...