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| Lake 7 |
June 24-27
Our final destination on this long journey was Haft Kul, “Seven Lakes”, a string of stunning lakes in equally stunning mountain scenery. Several tour operators offer planned treks out of Dushanbe for a few hundred USD per person, but we decided to DIY. After hopping off the bus at the shared taxi area in Dushanbe around 9:00 am we stated our destination (Penjakent) and were swarmed by drivers offering to drive us. One enterprising driver held up his cell phone up with a number (120, or $12), so we tied our bags to the top of his station wagon and squeezed in the back behind the other 4 passengers. The road to Penjakent was very windy through the mountains, but paved the entire way and we made it into town around 12:30. Along the way we passed through the Anzob Tunnel, a 3 mile long monstrosity built by the Iranians as part of the New Silk Road connecting Iran to China. The tunnel was put into use in 2006 before it was finished (no pavement, lighting, drainage, or ventilation), and was updated in 2015 with pavement and apparently lighting, though still no ventilation. It used to be called the Tunnel of Death, and is still pretty horrendous even with the improvements. The length of the tunnel is filled with thick brown smog which the headlights (if people were using them) barely penetrated and I couldn't see any supposed lighting. However, it cuts off 4 hours of travel time between Tajikistan's two largest cities and the old route meandered through Uzbekistan, so the tunnel is of major strategic importance for Tajikistan. Hold your breath!
The next morning we climbed into the back of a dilapidated Soviet car heading to the Seven Lakes. We stopped by the bazaar so the driver could stock up on 50kg bags of flour (tied to the roof), salt, potatoes, onions, and one more local gentleman passenger before getting on our way. For $4 each we couldn't complain too much, although we did have to stop every thirty minutes to add water to the radiator.
The lakes are beautiful, such vivid blues they almost look fake, and the valley is a great place to just wander around and take in the views. There are homestays spread throughout with food, water, and beds to sleep ($10/person for B&B and $5 per lunch or dinner), so it makes it easy to go as far as you'd like and then relax in the afternoons. We had to be flexible with our plans, as we arrived later than intended and got dropped off farther down the valley than we hoped.
The driver dropped us in Padrud, a village just before lake 5, and we grabbed lunch at a nearby homestay before hiking up to lake 6, about three miles and a few thousand feet up the valley. There were the ubiquitous local kids shouting “Hello! How are you? What is your name?” and fantastic views. We could see a mean storm brewing over the mountains and hustled up to the guest house, arriving just as it hit. We settled gratefully into bed as a fierce wind blew outside, forming whitecaps on the lake. Dinner and breakfast were filling enough (soup and bread, bread and eggs), and the next morning we commenced our 11 mile hike up to lake 7 and then down to a homestay at lake 4. When we arrived we were invited to lunch with a raucous group of Uzbek men, who offered us food and vodka and didn't take no for an answer. We communicated through google translate and they had a great time as we fumbled through the guest/host etiquette. Once the vodka was finished the most gregarious one threw the bottle into the woods so it would “grow more vodka”.
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| Local kids |
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| Windy!! |
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| Michi, our Uzbek "host" |
Our intent on day 3 was to hike the 9 miles past the first 4 lakes to the village of Shing and catch the 11am marshrutka back to Penjakent. That didn't quite work out, primarily because there isn't an 11am marshrutka. We covered the first 5 miles in record time (hiking downhill) and stopped to take pictures at lake 1 which was shaded but still spectacular. We took too long with photos and were tight on time, so decided to try hitchhiking. The first car we saw looked like a tank, or some kind of military truck. The German couple driving ended up letting us hop in to what ended up being an incredible custom RV built by the husband. They'd driven overland from Germany for 6 weeks and were en route to the Pamirs. We dismebarked off at Shing and thanked them profusely for saving us time, only to realize that there were in fact no marshrutkas or taxis to be had, and we were pretty out there in the boonies. We walked on to the next village where we saw a bus stop but managed to learn from the local there (also headed to Penjakent) that there were no marshrutkas here either. We watched as he tried flagging down a few passing cars that were full before eventually a dump truck stopped and let him in. They started to drive off but took pity on us and let us squeeze into the cab. We didn't know exactly where we were going but it was generally in the right direction!
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| The Germans' Mad Max RV |
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