Taking the Nomads for a Stroll, Tajikistan.

So the Yagnob was our plan. Expected time, 5 days. Drive as far as you can up a 4×4 road, get to a village, and walk the rest.

Unfortunately that ‘walk the rest’ part meant 25km up over a 3300m pass. Boats, gear, camping equipment, food, the lot…

Time to barter for a donkey.

It turns out in Tajikistan its cheaper to buy a donkey than to hire a donkey. Each with a leg of a donkey (called Shakira) to our name, the four of us set off on the hike. Turns out its not easy to lead a stubborn cheap donkey…

2 gruelling days later and we made it to the riverside.

5km downstream we had our first surprise. A 6km long gorge with a massive entry rapid not portageable at river level greeted us. More walking – not what we needed!

Back down at river level we paddled the rest of the spectacular gorge in the sunshine.

5km downstream of this we had another surprise. Another gorge with a runnable entry but unrunnable exit. This wasn’t supposed to happen!

It was what we all feared – the river was too high!

After a couple of days of long scouts, long portages interspersed with some good paddling we saw our first signs of civilization. Our Phrase book wasn’t much use since they speak an ancient 8th Century language in this valley, however we managed to get a room and some local food for the night.

It was here that Hugh twisted and severely sprained his ankle. After a lot of use of the Sat phone, debate, broken conversation and scouring over maps, Hugh prepared for a long uncomfortable donkey trek to the nearest road.

On the river we were down to 3, but the river gods seemed to throw and apology in our direction. The sun came out and the levels seemed to drop slightly. Everything cleaned up and became runnable with some spectacular scenery.

The next few days were bliss…for those of us on the water.

Danny and Hugh are heading home soon so we’re trying to cram some roadside boating in for the next few days, where we know that the river levels are up to!

Dave Burne

(written on expedition, uploaded post expedition. Less time on the internet means more time on the water!)