Silk Road Cycling Central Asia

Pamir Highway, Tajikistan to Kyrgyzstan · Kyrgyzstan

Extreme30 daysAsia~£3,000 est.

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Overview

The Pamir Highway is a ride measured in weeks, not days: the M41 from Dushanbe to Osh crosses the roof of Central Asia, topping out on the Ak-Baital Pass at 4,655 metres of thin air and broken tarmac. Most cyclists take about a month — climbing out of the Panj gorge with Afghanistan a stone's throw across the river, detouring through the Wakhan Valley beneath the Hindu Kush, then rolling the high desert plateau past Karakul lake to the Kyrgyz border at Kyzyl-Art. Daily life is the adventure: homestays with bottomless tea in Wakhi and Kyrgyz villages, hundred-kilometre gaps between water sources, and a week straight above 3,500 metres. Acclimatise deliberately — strong riders regularly get turned around on Ak-Baital by going up too fast. The GBAO permit for Gorno-Badakhshan comes with the Tajik e-visa; check it is currently being issued before you commit, as closures happen. June to September is the window, and even then snow can dust the passes. Finish or start with the Silk Road cities — Samarkand and Bukhara connect by train from the Fergana Valley. A month self-supported runs about £3,000 including homestays at a few pounds a night and a mountain of plov.