Pamir Highway: Day 4 Khorog – Ishkashim – Hisor

From Khorog we got to drive along a paved road towards Ishkashim. We first made a stop at the Garam chasma hot spring. The white terraces here resemble the ones in Pammukale in Turkey, and seemed like a smaller version of them. The day was incredibly hot and we gave taking a soak in the hot spring a pass and instead opted to take a dip in the refreshing cold gushing stream nearby. We were again a source of curiosity among the locals and a few of them walked up to us and inquired our where abouts and handed us bread and fruits. 

Driving on, we pass by the small no man island in pamir just a couple kilometers before Ishkashim where on saturdays, the Tajik and Afghan trade food and goods freely like it was meant to be from Silk Road Times. It wasn’t Saturday when we were passing by, so we just snapped pictures of the blue sheds and the tiny stores that would turn into a buzzing market once a week. The bridges leading up to the market on both sides are heavily guarded. We are told that one could leave their passports with the officials and get to the market and collect the passports on the way out. 

After lunch at Ishkashim we head east along the Pamir looking for Qha Qha fortress. We arrive at the small village of Namadgut to a group of very eager looking boys, who let us in on their secret treasure. We get to pluck ripe apricots straight from the trees, wash them in the nearby stream and relish all the juicy bits, with a view of the Qha qha fort. Here on, we make multiple stops at unnamed places each time we see a snowy peak on the horizon.

Our driver is really humble and doesn’t deny us of any of the pullovers we insist him to make. We saw rivers from Tajik side flow through narrow granite slot canyons into the Pamir. There were then sand dunes, yes piles of fine soft sand at this altitude. At this point the wind picked up and blasted all the sand directly onto the car’s windshields. The Mountains to our right seemed untouched by all that we were put through down in the valleys.  The peaks of Hindukush stretching out to our right were in fact in Pakistan and sure made for a great natural barrier in the past. Except for a couple roads at such high altitudes now, most of the mountain range is still very inaccessible. 

As we climb up a narrow dirt track clinging on to the mountain  edge, we get to peer into the glaciated peaks of Hindukush. Despite us driving at such high altitude already, the entire Hindukush range seems to be many many folds higher. The scale is really hard to put into words. The views explain the charm that these peaks surging upwards above the clouds to blue skies have on mountaineers.

We arrive at whatever that remains of the Yamchun fortress, the views from here extend beyond the Pamir river and the  Afghan mountains all the way into Pakistan. The Bibi Fatima hot springs aren’t far away and we pay a quick visit before heading down to the river level again. We stop at Dawalatkhana in Hisor for the night. Hot showers and clean beds in this remote part are like luxury and Dawaltkhana delivers very well on them. Our host also helps out with planning the Engels peak meadow hike we intended to do the day after. Dinner was the usual meat and for the vegetarians, a soup and salad. We head to bed early to get an early start on the hike for the next day.