Big and Brown in the Pamirs, Tajikistan

It has been a week since we arrived in Tajikistan, and through all the red tape and driving we’ve met some great people and found some cracking runs.
The ‘usual’ (if you can call it that) season for kayaking in Tajikistan is between September and November. We decided to go a little bit earlier to try and kayak some tributaries that are usually too low later on in the year.

  After a quick warm up not far from Dushanbe we took the long scenic journey over to the Pamirs in the East. We were hoping to paddle some of the major rivers and explore some of the tribs.

 Plans have had to be flexible as some rivers are too big and some insignificant tribs have turned out to be well worthwhile! There have been uncountable generous offers of riverside chi and bread which have also added to the requirement of fluid plans!

We have brief river notes for many of the rivers, and due to water levels grade 4/5 rivers are out of the question. The only real disappointment so far is that the power of the Gunt was a bit too intimidating for us! With a huge lack of eddies individual rapids lead into one another meaning scouting your line a km at a time. No thanks!

  After spending some time in the Southern Pamirs, we headed along the impressively huge Panj river (the border between Tajikistan and Afganistan) to the Vanch (by road, not river!)

After driving half way up the spectacular valley the river started to become braided and looked unlikely to gorge up again. After paddling a fun fast flooded trib we paddled about 5km of braided grade 2, before things picked up. And they really picked up! In the limited translated river notes it was grade 2 with bits of 3. They’d obviously not been there in August! Huge crashing waves with many a pourover to keep you on your toes. The best grade 2 I’ve ever paddled!

We’re now back in the capital Dushanbe getting ready for a 5 day multiday. Bring it on! Lets hope the levels are lower than in the Pamirs…

Dave Burne

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