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Ever since the very beginning we established
tight relations with the Pamir's dust.
We woke up with it, we rode with it,
we talked, ate, drank, washed our teeth,
even went to bed with it!
Generally speaking ó
an overall-penetrating friendship!
From the local people we learned later
on that this phenomenon has a name of its own
Afganetz.
Afganetz is a wind which despite
the high mountains ridges carries sand from
of Turkmenistan that covers everything around.
We met on the road two participants
in the crazy rally for low-fuel-consumption cars:
London - Mongolia.
As Tom and Jerry enlightened us
this noble competition is made in aid of charity.
On the 205th kilometer or on the 13th date
we opened officially the field-hospital!
The first patient we welcomed was me.
Whether it was because of the water,
the food, the heat, the dust or all in one,
but within 2 hours the virus struck me quite nasty.
This happened in the middle of an oasis
with healing spring, where the story goes
that the water healsÖ night blindness,
thigh muscles inflammation and "other delicate deceases".
Luckily for us right then a GAZ truck
full of aunties stopped by.
The driver agreed to take us
to the city of Rushan.
And then, what happened and how it happened
but finally I lived up and at this moment
the aunties started singing love songs to me.
Because of the passion level increase,
suddenly the truck got a flat tire.
With entering the valley of Bartang river,
started the most difficult and dangerous
part of our journey.
In order to get away from the river
we had to ride the distance of 280 km.
And at the beginning ó it was easy,
joyful and still almost green,
if we hadn't looked only up the hill!
In Shiponch village we got acquainted
with Kamardin and his brigade.
Kamardin set the doors of his home
wide open for us ó he gave us to eat,
he gave us to drink, we watched even television,
we got informed about the war in Georgia as well.
In Basid village we got into a big
family celebration ó birthday.
We hadn't the chance to meet the birthday man,
but in return we became participants in a great
blow-out party ó there were live music,
young wine, short fist fight,
everything!
A complete experience as a whole!
This is the day of the "great carrying".
The river had prepared us a slight surprise
for a change.
On exactly four spots, the river had taken away
bank and the road.
We were lucky that we weren't carrying
grand pianos, but bicycles and saddlebags,
because for a mere 5 to 10 meters of collapsed road
we spent an hour or two in tramping
on steep and dangerous paths.
Although the way was taken away,
the contacts between the kishlaki hadn't stopped.
The Pamir people managed with the hard road conditions
moving either on foot or on mules
and at extreme occasions ó with bicycles.
And what we were doing there ó
nobody knew.
After Yapshorf the things got even tougher.
The road took us on a walk
on old river precipitations ó fooling us up and down
for 300ñ400 meters.
It set our nerves to the edge!
There were no fillings left in our teethÖ
In the kishlak of Savnob the local men
(because anyhow we didn't see any women),
welcome us as austronauts.
Probably we had disappointed them
for not having stayed with them
to drink tea, but we had landed
with the sole idea to have some ***.
There is some *** here,
but in the plastic bottle.
The question is to buy 1 or 2 litters.
One.
One? We gona drink it for 2 days.
EehhÖ
Let's take oneÖ
It's not badÖ
We could not cycle on dry.
This is a very slight nuance which madeÖ.
the road lookÖ
more exciting!
Even bigger excitement took hold of Stoyan
when the ear which supported
the back luggageñcarrier broke.
Has someone heard of the golden fingers
of Yavor?! Well, the time is now.
Kishlak Gudar appeared to be
a turning point in our journey.
The hand trauma of Mr Penchev
reminded painfully of itself.
The exhaustion started to have its say.
The time was getting on.
That's why we decided to find a transport to Karakul Lake.
At first we drew blank since the three UAZ in the region
were either without gasoline or the whole quantity
of gasoline could not get us anywhere.
The faith smiled on us, however,
in the face of the student of law ó Shirin,
who drove a car right from Yapshorf.
After intense bargaining, from which our pockets
quite empty, it appeared that we would share the UAZ
with four more people.
That's the way it is here ó
you bargain a car along with all relatives.