Photos : Tajikistan : 4wd To Iskanderkul Gallery Page 09/07
Istarafshan to Iskanderkul – Is That A Pass I See Before Me?
The bush telegraph had reported the road to Shariston Pass was closed therefore we couldn’t make Lake Alexander using that road. Plan B was required. Being the care free intrepid group we were, it was fine with us to go with the flow (hey nothing you could do about it anyway) so Plan B it was. Plan B was to take an alternate route to Lake Alexander via roads not travelled by the 4wd drivers that would take an extra couple of hours to complete plus we would need a local scout to show us the way. Leaving Istarafshan and heading for the hills, the bitumen road soon became less of bitumen and more of pot holes. The road stretched before the car looking like a never ending termite infested plank of wood. I’m used to pot holes and bad roads but this was ridiculous as there was not one line you could pick on the road to drive more than 20m without having to drive like a drunk one legged chicken on spring break. At various points we actually left the road and rumbled along beside it often creating our own track. Zig zagging all over the road for about 60-90 minutes we finally got some relief reaching a small village with unmade roads and the turn off to start of the climb over the mountains.
Heading up the valley the flatter areas, especially along the river are used for farming, and whilst not rain forest lush there are some trees and greenery. Many of the farms along the valley are toiled by hand and subsistence farming for the main. There are reports that over 80% of the Tajik population live below the poverty line of USD15 per month.
As you’d expect, the number of farms, villages and people became less and less the further we climbed. Also as expected, the landscape changes dramatically the further you climb however it almost happens in a heartbeat…one minute you see people farming and the next you’re climbing towards the pass surrounded by shale and no vegetation. Heading up the valley it reminded me of northern Pakistan and the drive from Hunza to the Hopper Glacier so if you’ve ever been there you’ll get an idea for comparison.
90 minutes after heading up the valley we could see the pass looming up the steep mountain. The road to the pass wasn’t too rough but you need a 4wd to make it safely and with the car in one piece. Switch back after switch back after switch back we continued to climb towards the pass. After a good 60-90 minutes we reached the pass and from there had great views either side of the range. The photos don’t do it justice but it was a beautiful sight down the valley. The trip down the other side was similar to the ascent albeit with more debris; debris from trucks and cars.
We finally made it shortly after dark to the M34 road to take us to our overnight stay at a former Russian summer retreat. Darkness was to prove a blessing and a curse.
Tajikistan Roadwork’s – An Example Of Splendiferous Stupidity
The main road from Istarafshan to Dushanbe is over Shariston Pass (3,378m) and Anzob Pass (3,372m), through Varzob Gorge and the entire length is being upgraded. Roadwork’s in this part of the world are necessary but also infinitely more interesting and baffling than other places.
The Tajik’s have outsourced the upgrading of the road to a Chinese company. So what you say? So rather than closing down part of the road to allow traffic to flow then working on the closed section, the Chinese company protects its workers by closing the road to the public throughout the day so the workers have sole use. In conjunction with this, the approach is that the entire road will be widened and graded before bitumen is poured i.e. rather than fixing the road piece by piece it’s being done in one hit. At certain times the public is allowed to travel whilst the workers have a rest and it’s at this time where chaos reigns supreme. Words sort of fail when trying to describe the scene and the quality of this main thoroughfare however I’ll do my best to describe it, with or without eloquence and sarcasm is yet to be determined.
We actually missed the Shariston Pass by taking the back route however we came out onto the same road that runs over it. Imagine if you will an unmade road that’s neither smooth nor wide, winding around high steep mountainsides and through passes with severe, death inviting drops to the side. With that mental picture reduce the width of that road to 1.5 cars, then go get some trucks, 4wds, old Mercedes (as wide as 1.5 cars), wait until dark so no-one can see the precipice down which they can fall/drive/test gravity. One last tit-bit, at many points along the road where it widens, you will find to be a perfect place for a campsite (not us but for the Chinese workers). Their camps seem to consist of large canvass tents that serve as food hall, gathering place and dorm. Immediately outside the tent you will find a great place for al fresco cooking complete with diesel fumes, traffic within 2 feet of you, car horns, dust and general mayhem. Perched in their sanctuary, life goes on around them with reckless abandon.
The camps being on the wider section of the road also means vehicles trying to pass each other are presented with further challenges of avoiding the tents and naturally not running over the workmen. The conditions they live are atrocious. The loud traffic sounds are ever present (from a 4wd to a truck/bus with a bad exhaust), the pollution constant and the threat of being run over at any point only too real. One thing that’s not an issue is speed as it’s impossible to achieve any.
At one particular point we had to pass an oncoming truck however, as I hope you can imagine by now, there wasn’t really enough room. We had the death drop to our right (the side I was foolish enough to sit on) with the workers tent to our left and a large oncoming truck trying to pass. We moved as far right as you could get without disappearing over the edge…looking out the window you could see we literally were 2 inches from the edge. The truck couldn’t get past and although he was about 2 feet from the Chinese workmen’s tent, the truck continued to inch forward and kept calling for us to move forward…so we did…just a little. Inch by inch we moved until I thought we were doomed if we moved any more. Luckily the driver thought the same and although being begged to move forward by the truck driver (read yelling at us whilst waving his hands profusely) we refused.
The drivers of other vehicles were yelling and horns being blown whilst a Chinese workman tried to cook outside and nonchalantly look over his shoulder to see a big truck only feet away from him. The nonchalance disappeared when he realised the truck was going to move forward again and in its way was him, his co-workers and his cooking. I think a plea from the cook to his co-workers to do something roused them from slumber or exhaustion as they appeared from their tent to move what they could from the truck’s path. Despite the Chinese workers protests they shouldn’t have to move, I think they gave into one of the laws of nature ‘rolling big truck downhill will run over Chinese workmen’. Once the cooking area and guide ropes were cleared the truck squeezed passed (literally) and we could move from the death drop edge. Everything from that point on should be easy however we weren’t counting our chickens too soon. From then on the road was less troublesome and as luck would have it we had only a few other calls that weren’t as close and we even found 2nd gear!
We bounced along the road for another hour or so until turning off to a secondary road towards Lake Alexander.
Iskanderkul – Safety At Last
If Lake Alexander was a human you would say “they’ve let themselves go”. You would also say, “Clean yourself you stink!”. Today it’s far from its former glory as a summer retreat and now is more like a Gulag retreat. It’s fair to say the retreat provides basic accommodation with the emphasis being basic. I’m not sure what to say about the toilet facilities except to say they existed. I grant you Westerners are not accustomed to squats but that is absolutely no excuse for the rancid smell caused by poor aim (enough said)! Anyway, a good hosing and some spray would have made a world of difference however this is definitely not in the day to day activities of the staff.
Toilet facilities aside the location is perfect and the views and surroundings beautiful. After a 30 second walk you are on the lake with a view up the valley towards another of the President’s retreats. A short walk (20-30 minutes) in the opposite direction you can find a 30m waterfall. It’s an easy walk to the waterfall and worth the effort and it also provides you with a good warm up to the hike you are about to endure for the Fann Mountain trek.
The retreat consists of small huts that in turn are divided into 3-4 br with a small communal living area. We used the communal as a storage area but you could use it as a meals area. There is a main eating area in which you get another taste of Tajikistan food…you should savour this food as the hike presents you with food not up to this average/bland standard.