The lines on the map that separate the countries of Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Kazakhstan all twist and turn and get tangled like a child’s drawing but in reality they were drawn by the Soviets who were trying to spread the limited fertile land of the Fergana Valley between all the countries.  But since mountains and rivers are the real determining factor to where the roads go it means you are constantly crossing borders and changing countries, whether you want to or not.

We took a taxi from Samarkand to the nearby border with Tajikistan and dragged our bags through the stretched-out immigration process until we entered this mountainous country for the second time.  Again, our intention was to see more mountains, as if the Pamir Mountains and the Hindu Kush we drove through on our drive along the Pamir Highway in southern Tajikistan wasn’t enough.  After hopping in a clapped-out old minivan and quickly noticing how the standard of living and the standard of driving had dropped by half compared to Uzbekistan, we headed off for another one of Tajikistan’s jewels – the Fan Mountains and the Seven Lakes district.

The Fan Mountains take up the western-most portion of Tajikistan and feature high jagged desert mountains topping out over 5,000 metres and beautiful turquoise lakes nestled in between them.  Our plan – or more accurately, Dave’s plan – was for us to spend three nights at a Tajik guesthouse near the fourth lake of this string of seven lakes and spend a couple of days walking amongst this grandeur and generally chilling out.  And as a bonus we were looking forward to cooler mountain air after the scorching heat of the Uzbek desert.

The drive to our guesthouse followed a narrow and winding dirt track up into the mountains and long a snowmelt river which actually starts it’s journey at seventh lake and slowly flows down between the lakes until it is released for the last time from the first lake.  We stopped at each lake for photos and to breathe in the cooler mountain air, something we had been craving lately.  Our guesthouse, curiously named Jumaboy Guesthouse, near the fourth lake, took us back to the accommodation standards we had on the Pamir Highway. 

The guesthouse had very simple but clean rooms, shared toilets, dribbling showers and the warmest and friendliest hosts you could imagine.  Tucked up at the edge of a remote little village with towering mountains all above us, we were guaranteed to get as much mountains, walking and relaxing downtime as we wanted.

Julie and I spent a couple hours in the afternoon exploring the stream flowing into the fourth lake and a couple of the small clusters of homes that perch themselves above the lake.  It was a relaxing and thoroughly enjoyable walk around the area which brought us back from those crazy bustling cities to the great outdoors.  Beers that night were Russian and the dinner was Plov but none of us cared – we were back where we felt the happiest.  Tajikistan is very addictive.

The next day we jumped into a couple of local cars which we had hired for the day and followed the rough four wheel drive track up to the seventh lake. Along the way we passed the small fifth lake and the giant sixth lake where the single lane road is carved into the side of the vertical wall above the turquoise water and the rampaging driver in his rust bucket of a car caused all of us hold our breath.  Three of us walked from the sixth to the seventh lake and we were all rewarded with wonderful views of the high jagged mountains enclosing the beaut blue waters of the lake.

A few of us followed the ancient track along the lake to it’s source at the very back before re-joining others for a lunch of cold plov.  As we piled into our cars to retreat down the mountain Julie and I decided to walk along the precipitous road above the sixth lake and enjoyed the stunning views of the near vertical mountains around this seemingly bottomless lake.  Sometimes the only sound we could hear was the braying of a distant donkey echoing off the canyon walls. 

I then opted to walk all the way back to our guesthouse, including through a local village seemingly lost in time and past numerous examples of how the locals ingeniously channel the water from the river to provide running water in their homes and to water their modest fields.  All in all, an absolutely fabulous day in the mountains, very special.

As good as this setting in the Fan Mountains was, the group was getting a little tired of Tajik guesthouses and the basic Tajik food.  In what would later prove an absolute stroke of genius we decided to leave this idyllic setting one day early and move on to Khujand, the large regional centre in the Fergana Valley of northern Tajikistan. 

The next morning I woke up to belly pains and a fever only to find at brekkie that Jan had the same symptoms but much worse.  Pushing on, we all piled into the same clapped-out old mini van that delivered us here and embarked on a seven hour trip out of the mountains, up and over a dramatic mountain range via a series of long sweeping switchback turns that topped out at over 2,500 metres and finally arrived in the Fergana Valley and Khujand. 

The nice hotel in Khujand and access to all the mod-cons and decent food made a world of difference to those in the sick bay. The next day Julie and I were firing on all cylinders and were keen to see what Tajikistan’s second largest city had to offer.  Unfortunately there were more casualties overnight so the group was still not at full strength.  Whatever bug was going around was hitting us hard.

Julie, Nichole and I took off on a self-guided walking tour of Khujand and found this major regional centre to have more on offer than we had expected. Of course we started off at the large bazaar, complete with a full range of food choices, clothing, household items and general other stuff.  We followed a couple back alleyways and broad leafy streets and after a mosque and a statue we made it to the Khujand Fortress.

Originally built 2500 years ago and ravaged by many forces over the centuries, including Genghis Khan, it still retained some of it’s original mud brick walls and fortifications. The fortress today is otherwise completely rebuilt with new supplemental buildings, mostly to show off the proud history of this region.  The three of us explored what was on offer before having lunch in the café within it’s walls.  We rated the fortress.

We finished our ‘walking’ tour by taking the cable car up and over the river, finishing near more statues and broken unused fountains.  It had started to rain and we retreated to the hotel with some satisfaction we had seen what Khujand had to offer.  We had only seen one western tourist all day and it was nice to wander through a genuine city without any pretense or tourism infrastructure.  That night Dave rousted himself from his sick bed and joined us for dinner at a Turkish restaurant. 

Our time in Tajikistan was coming to an end as the next day we were taking a taxi to the border with Uzbekistan.  Tajikistan has been our favourite country in this region so far, particularly because of the magnificent Pamir Highway but also the highlights of Dushanbe and the Seven Lakes area.  But there were stacks more ahead of us and we had an early start the next day.