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Behold Tajikistan

Writer's picture: Simon DeSimon De

Entering Tajikistan, Karakul Lake & the Road to Murghab



Kyzl-Art Pass

Arriving at Kyzl-Art pass and getting the car to enter Tajikistan was an amazing feeling, until of course I was nearly sent back to Kyrgyzstan on account of a typo on one of the forms for the rental car… Fortunately, that issue was successfully navigated, and I was able to take the vehicle and drive onwards alone into Tajikistan via the first section of the Pamir Highway / M41. The sense of freedom was magnificent, and that was enhanced the sheer emptiness of the place, particularly once the views of the magnificent Karakul Lake, my first major destination in Tajikistan, came into view.


Kyzl-Art Pass - 4280m:


A first glimpse of Karakul Lake heading south and descending from Kyzl-Art: 


Karakul Lake

By contrast with the experience at Peak Lenin base camp, the view to Karakul Lake was broadly unobstructed, and the sun had come out, it was grand. I will let the unedited photos do the talking.

Karakul Lake is an endorheic lake some 25km in diameter, thought to have been formed by an asteroid impact, hence the relatively circular crater and island/peninsula roughly central in the lake formation. It sits at an altitude of just shy of 4000 meters. It is surrounded by mountains providing magnificent vistas in every direction one might care to look.


My first stop at Karakul Lake was the north side. The lake itself is obviously an amazing view and very large. However, the rest of the landscape is also highly interesting. The sand and dust which covers everything until one gets to the marshy and salty lakeshore is itself rather amusing as well. Many areas are blanketed in what appear to be billions of tiny rock fragments, as though many thousands of rocks have been smashed to pieces and scattered. This bleak landscape is punctuated by small hardy shrubs which dot the landscape as far as the eye can see. The ground around the lakeshore and/or prior water levels is caked in a crust of salt, which in some cases appears as though it were snow.


The other-wordly landscape/ground around the lake:


Karakul Lake itself, with sun rays peaking through the high clouds. Note the island/peninsula in the middle of the lake:


The salt-covered lakeshore, looking back towards my car and the North (where I arrived from):


After driving around and exploring the north side of the lake, I headed south, through Karakul Village (where my car key broke, foreshadowing the debacle the next day), and drove on to the base of the peninsula in the middle of the lake to find a camp site. I eventually found one I thought was suitable, alas, it remained windy for the duration of my stay - I never did find a better spot.


The drive to the camp site and Karakul Village:




My humble camp site, also featuring some drone shots:


During my stay at Karakul Lake and being in an isolated spot I managed to take the drone out for a spin, winds permitting. I think I am getting better at it and have added several photos taken using it, below. As with prior blog posts however, Central Asian internet and my poor editing abilities mean that the associated footage will sadly need to wait.


Taking the drone for a spin (I suggest opening these to view them better):



I found Karakul to be quite cold unless one was standing directly in the sun and/or moving about, and it seemed to be perpetually windy. As a result of the incessant winds, it was rather dusty at times, as my camera, car and virtually all my gear can attest to. I found that this wind did make camping a challenge, as the temperature dropped considerably at night, wet hands quickly would go numb unless dried and returned to gloves promptly.


I camped for one night at Karakul Lake, however, I had intended to do this longer, however, car trouble and difficulty finding a camping spot sheltered from the wind put an end to that notion.


As for car trouble, well, after my rather cold night camping I had a lovely morning and a lengthy breakfast. After packing my gear, I was going to try to moving camping spots but I realized that not only was the back left tire flat, but the battery on the Land Cruiser was completely dead. The former was just bad luck as I am a rather cautious driver, but I was to find out later that the battery was in fact my fault, for shame.


The Land Cruiser being looked after in Karakul Village:


Apparently, on that model/year of Land Cruiser, after turning off the lights and engine, one must press the key in and turn further anticlockwise to then raise the steering column. Inexplicably (I think poor design) failure to do this results in battery drain – there were a couple signs, such as the car refusing to lock, but I erroneously attributed this to the key that had broken the day before (requiring me to turn it in the ignition with my Leatherman pliers…). Oh well, lesson sorely learned! There was no cell service to speak of so I used my Garmin GPS to message the rental company who would send some chaps out to assist. Thinking them a few hours away, and not sure whether they had received the message, I loaded my hiking bag with a few valuables and some water etc., and started the 3-4 hour walk towards Karakul Village. Fortunately, I met the repair chaps about 2.5 hours into my walk as I had reached the road finally. Of course, this was only after a rather lengthy detour through a brackish swamp that reminded me of the swamps adjacent Mordor in Lord of the Rings. It was an interesting experience nonetheless and at least showed me that I could handle some significant physical exertion with a heavy pack at ~4000 meters after little sleep.


Given the debacle with the car and being satisfied that I had taken in enough of the magnificent vistas of the lake, I decided that after the car was fixed, I would drive onwards to Murghab, rather than stay another night in Karakul Village. I have since slightly regretted this decision as I would have liked to use the drone a bit more, alas, I was worried about the time it would take to drive the Pamir Highway generally, as the going was rather slower than anticipated given road quality, and I would need to perhaps be more cautious with the driving than I had been (lest I face more dreaded car trouble, which I was not keen on).

 

With that I decided to head to Murghab, a great drive along the Pamir Highway which I will share details of in a separate post.


The magnificent road to Murghab:


Cheers,

Simon

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