Following the Panj River down the valley, the days were becoming a little warmer and we were beginning to see more people around as we crossed over the halfway point of our time in the Wakhan.
Our next stop was Yamchun Fort, one of many fort ruins which can be found in the Wakhan and date back to the third century BC. Many of them, like Yamchun were built to service the silk route, and although appearing quite deteriorated, Yamchun Fort is actually the most well preserved in the region. We wandered around for an hour or so, taking it all in and tried to imagine what it would of been like centuries ago when it was being used.
Our plans for the rest of the day were to drive to Ishkashem, have a quick lunch stop and continue on looking for somewhere to camp for the night. We kept a lookout for tracks going off down towards the river and managed to find a great spot to set up which was hidden from the road and had incredible views up to the mountains in Afghanistan.
In Ishkashem, if you time your trip to be there on a Saturday you can cross the border to the market which is held on the Afghan side. Unfortunately our timing didn’t work out to go to the market though we’ve heard it’s a great experience!
From Ishkashem to Khorog, which is the end/start point of the Wakhan, the scenery is incredible as the valley walls come closer together and you pass through more small villages. There’s not a huge amount of places to camp so we just enjoyed the drive and continued on.
With no real need to stop in Khorog for anything, we stopped in for lunch and to get some groceries, and continued driving west towards Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan. Khorog is a beautiful town which sits at 2,200 metres and is actually home to the second highest botanical garden in the world at 2,320 metres.
We kept driving, working our way back up another mountain range and found a nice spot to set up for the night on a green hillside with views of the mountains surrounding us.
(Cheers Jerome for the spot!)
Thanks for watching and we hope you enjoyed following our journey through the Wakhan!
Jolie and Mark
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26 авг 2024
