An hour's drive north of Dushanbe, through the Varzob valley, leads to the village of Ziddi. From there, the road continues north towards the Tajik city of Xujand and to Uzbekistan, climbing up from Ziddi to the 3500m (12,500ft) Anzob Pass over the mountains and then down into another valley.
There is a tunnel now that allows drivers to bypass the Anzob Pass, which is closed from October to May, making the trip much shorter and easier. The tunnel was finished last year, is a few miles long, and is, unfortunately, constantly flooded with water up to 1m deep. Until someone figures out how to pump water out fast enough, or keep it from leaking in, the tunnel is closed to all traffic, and drivers must cross the Anzob, a dusty, single lane path winding its way up the mountainside. Oftentimes there is not enough room for two vehicles to pass each other in opposite directions, so one must back up and let the other pass, then continue its own trip.
Two weekends ago Diana and I traveled up to Ziddi with Goulya's weekend hiking trip, along with about 50 other expats, for a nice hike up the Ziddi valley. By stopping in Ziddi, we avoided the bumpy, dusty, Anzob Pass road, and still got in some great hiking.
Diana did some hiking in Armenia, though since then she's met me--a gearhead. A gearhead is someone who is fascinated by the latest outdoor equipment and feels a proper American materialistic urge to purchase the 'coolest' gear available, but only after analyzing the technology and materials used for a product, and reading all the hype and reviews about it. Therefore, Diana had a lot of new gear to bring to Tajikistan, and this was a good hike for her to use and test some of it, before we head off into the mountains for multi-day trips. If Diana wasn't happy with her new stuff, I'd have a lot of questions to answer, and my gearhead status would plummet among REI employees and climber dirtbags everywhere.
On the road into the Ziddi valley, just after passing Ziddi town.
Looking back out of the window of the marshrutney (Russian mini-bus) towards several of the expat caravan vehicles.
The huge group at the start of the hike.
The group heads into the valley.
At the beginning of the hike, after we had just entered the narrow part of the valley.
Diana crossing one of the bridges over the river. They were very well constructed, most likely because herdsmen bring animals up the valley to graze in the summer.
Diana and I at the meadow where we all stopped for lunch. The guides bring tea, coffee and cookies with them for everyone to share (that's what you get for paying a guide--that and transportation). At this point, Diana had no complaints about gear, and had even said that the backpack was comfortable!
A shot of the valley that we had walked up. This is on the way back, as we were descending the valley.
Diana and Manijeh (another Fulbrighter) coming down the valley.
Diana and Manijeh. Manijeh is teaching an economics class at one of the local universities. In the winter she'll head back to her home near Albany, NY. Look at that smile on Diana's face--the backpack is obviously quite comfortable, no?
Diana near the exit of the valley, at the end of the hike. All of the gear comparisons that took so long in the States paid off, as everything worked out great on the hike! (Phew!) My pride intact, we headed back to Dushanbe relaxed from a day in nature.
This looks like the sort of country in which Moses might have handed down his tablets. I doubt though, that he would have been caught dead in a Red Sox hat.
ReplyDeleteThe Red Sox have been around for a while, but of course not for that long. Moses was a climber (to get the commandments, remember?), though, so we know he was cool. And those whom God has spoken to recently (Theo Epstein, the guy in the bleachers, people in Maine) are Red Sox fans. So the chances of him having known about the future superiority of the Red Sox are high.
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