The M41

Location:	Khorog
Mileage:	6,093

With brand new knobblies fitted to all the bikes, we leave Dushanbe. The new road is hopefully called the M41 but shed any motorway imagery. This main road disintegrates into gravel and river crossings only 60 miles out of the capital. We stop at Tavildara overnight before the main high pass, in some basic bunk rooms. I’m relieved I’d advise the group to get some decent 3 or 4 season bags with liners as it’s not warm. Most of us sleep in our thermal underwear – my Icebreaker Merino Wool stuff is snuggley. It’s raining hard and it’s only 70 miles to do tomorrow, but I warn everyone that it’s going to be tough.

As suspected the rain makes going very tough the next day, lots of mud and we have the mother of all river crossings facing us. Mark (my number two guide) manages to take Adam (our cameraman) across two up. Adam is clutching the precious camera in a waterproof Ortlieb bag and is praying.

This river took out a few riders, but with no more than bruises and one R1200GS which ended up in the van having got submerged in water and the rider trying to crank it up straight away. A few Touratech parts certainly saved the day on a number of bikes – hurray for crash bars and bash plates! (http://www.touratech.co.uk/). Amazing two up river crossing also went to our only remaining two-up couple – gutsy one, Lorraine and Ed.

Yes, it was a very hard day, but hats off to the riders - days like this give them a huge buzz, rather than complaints. Each challenge they face, they tackle, bond and keep going. Kailikum has a decent enough home-stay – everyone is shattered so it’s an early night.

We’re following the Afghan border now with the river on our right and today gives us some respite from the rain and the road conditions ease up. After its water dunking, Simon’s bike, the R1200GS, is in the van and we’ve had to order a part in to meet us in Kashgar. Simon’s naturally a bit peeved to be missing the Pamir. This section is awesome, with single track dirt roads clinging to the cliff faces and massive views of huge jagged green mountains wrapped in white misty clouds. Probably the best bit of dirt road riding on the trip so far.

Our destination is Khorog and we have found a hotel there run by an Indian family that has a great restaurant attached. Indian, of course! The group can’t quite believe they can get a serious chicken curry here – no more meat on a stick! We’ve got a day in Khorog to recheck the bikes – the F800GS bikes have developed a taste for fork seals but the R1200’s are holding up well (except for the water logged one . . . . ) HOWEVER! It is in Khorog that we find an old Yamaha Tenere abandoned here about 3 years ago.

For Simon, it is a golden day! Jeff look over the bike, fixes it up and gets it running! Simon now has a ride to the border, where upon, Ali, our Pamiri guide will ride it back to Khorog. I love it when a “plan” comes together.

Kevin Sanders