Taking the Nomads for a Stroll, Tajikistan.

posted by on 2010.09.17, under Gear, Whitewater
17:

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.

One of the better bridges in the area

Up the valley to the bottom of the pass

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.

Only another 24km to go...

Starting the Stroll

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…

Shakira leading the way

Shakira doin her thang

High altitude Walking

Its a long way up!

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

before things got a little too large...

The calm before the storm

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.

One of many

Yet another portage

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!

Big portages interspersed with a few nice rapids

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.

Hugh, Fat Kankle

Only a Sprain?

High speed rescue

Donkey to the rescue

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.

Ben Boofing...and gurning

Beautiful weather..

..Amazing scenery

Dave on a big landslide rapid

and some tasty rapids to compliment!

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!

they all took a shine to Ben (the Predator)

An audience on the Fandraya

Intimidatingly steep! No escape

The steep sides of the Zerafshan

Follow the leader...if the river will let you...

Dave Burne

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

comment

Looking great guys, do you plan a video of this trip? We are currently looking for presentations for this year’s Gene17 Adventure Paddler’s Weekend 3/5 December at the RDCP in Devon.

Contact us soon

Regards

Simon

Gene17 ( September 17, 2010 at 10:57 am )

Hey guys – Nice work.
Do you have larger photos you can upload – the landscape looks awesome
Tim

HQ ( September 17, 2010 at 12:35 pm )

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