At last a town! It has been about 10 day since I left Murghab. It feels like a long time. I’ll stay here two nights, and visit the police on Monday morning to enquire about whether the camera has shown up or not.

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The owner of the guesthouse I stayed in the last two days and where my camera went missing continued to be extremely apologetic this morning. He even offered me his camera as a replacement. It was only marginally better than the point and shoot film camera that I bought at the local store for US$6, so of course I declined.

Today has been tough. I still feel weak and I can’t stand the sight .let alone the taste of the food they have in this valley (unvariably potato and carrot soup with masses of vegetable oil on top).

There was also easily the strongest head wind I have encountered thus far. This along with some very sandy spots in the road.

The diahorrrea, gas, and incessant burps continues today also. What is wrong with my body?

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English Summary: That’s right folks, my digital camera has gone missing. I am sure it has been stolen. It was on my bed at the guest house I am at, and when I went to use it at around 3pm, it was gone. Have reported it to the police, but I have no hope that it will show up. Photos taken on cheap replacement film camera bought at local store.

今日、デジカメが部屋からなくなりました。誰かが盗んだでしょう。間違いない。

今日の出来事を最初から見てみましょう。

朝7時ごろに起きました。朝ご飯は焼卵でした。10個。本当です。10個の卵が出されました。こんなにたくさん食べれるのか？！と思いながら、結局全部食べました。卵そのものはおいしかったですけど、今までのタジキスタンの経験と同じように、油が多かったです。

朝ご飯を食べた後、横の空き部屋で自転車のメンテナンスをし始めました。カメラは自分の部屋のベッドの上においていました。

お昼頃に民宿の息子が学校から帰ってきて、僕と一緒に自転車に夢中になっていました。

昼ご飯を食べた後、僕は民宿の写真を撮りました。民宿のお父さんの頼みで、僕は写真をインターネットに載せてあげることになっていましたからです。写真を撮って、民宿のお父さんと息子にカメラの画面で写真を見せた後、カメラを部屋のベッドの上に戻して、息子と一緒に自転車の維持に戻りました。

そして、午後3時15分ごろに、自転車の維持を終えて、息子と一緒に自転車を持って外に出ました。このときは民宿のお父さんも一緒に外に出て自転車に乗ってみました。

いつもと同じように、周りに大勢の人が集まり始めました。その光景を写真で写ろうと思い、僕は民宿に戻って、カメラを探しました。

しかしカメラがない。どこ探してもない。盗まれたに間違いない。民宿にいる3人（お父さん、息子、僕）が自転車に夢中になっていたときに、誰かが入って盗んだだろうと思います。

結局警察に報告していますが、出てくる可能性はないと思います。ありえない。次の都会まではまだ500km以上ありますから、そこまでは今日小さなお店で買ったフィルム式カメラで写真を撮るしかありません。

本当にありえない。

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Even though Warang is only 30km from Langar, I knew I was only going to do that distance right from the start today. If this was anywhere but the Wakhan Valley, I probably could have stayed in Langar, but my craving for some variation in my diet drove me here.

I was motivated by the fact that there was a ‘big’ bazaar here in Warang. That ‘big’ bazaar turned out to be no more than a few shops selling the same stuff as anywhere else along the road so far. No dairy products or fresh fruit. That is, easy to eat food. The food here very hard to stomach. Today for lunch I was fed the staple potato, carrot, and mutton soup, of course with the compulsory 1cm thick layer of vegetable oil on top. Not good when you’re feeling as weak as I am.

The guesthouse I am staying in tonight is just across from the bazaar in Warang, and is one of the cheapest places I have stayed in so far on this trip. Only 5 Tajik Somoni a night (US$1.30). The meals (aforementioned vegetable oil soup) are only US$1.

As per usual, the Tajik people have been wonderfully friendly. As I rolled into Warang, the chain on my bike got caught between the spokes and the gear cluster on the rear wheel. Nothing serious, but enough to require getting very oily hands as you get things sorted.

So here I am wrestling with the chain, when four or five guys wander over, and begin to ‘help’. Basically, everyone had an opinion on how to get the chain out, and at most of the time for the 30 minutes it took to fix the problem, there were at least three pairs of hands tugging and fiddling with the chain at the same time. I was convinced it would be much faster if they just left me to it, but the situation was quite out of my hands…

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Distance / 距離： 26.68km
Time / 時間： 2h 28m
Average speed / 平均速度： 10.8km/h
Distance to date / 今日までの積算距離： 3584.6km

I don’t know what I ate, but I spewed harder than I can ever remember last night. In three separate ‘movements’, my body produced a symphony of agony. The first bout emptied my stomach of the big meal of pasta and potatoes that I had cooked in the evening. It was here that I started to drink plenty of water to keep myself hydrated. However, the following two bouts emptied any water that I had taken.

By morning, I was out of water, with most of it on the ground, and very little in my system. Of course unable to stomach breakfast, I had to start pedalling with very tired legs and no energy. My situation worsened the further I pedalled. For 15km there was no water flowing in the streams that had at some stage gouged stream beds into the hillside.

Finally, after resigning to the fact that I would have to plod on without water, I came across a small spring trickling water out of a crack in a rock. Here I filtered a litre, added some sweet drink mix, and skulled the lot. It was no miracle cure, and I still felt weak, needing to push the bike at a snail’s pace up the otherwise hardly noticable short uphills where the road would follow the ridges and gullies of the hillside.

I rolled into Langar just before lunchtime and checked into the first guesthouse I could find. At US$17 a day (including meals), it was rediculously overpriced, but I was in no condition to shop around.

I gobbled down the fried potato and onion dish they served me for lunch and promptly passed out until evening. At 6pm, my temperature was 38.0 degrees celcius. I could only stomach the soup for dinner. After my previous experiences with central Asian pasta, I had to try hard not to throw up at the sight of the potato and pasta salad…

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Distance / 距離： 47.27km
Time / 時間： 4h 26m
Average speed / 平均速度： 10.6km/h
Distance to date / 今日までの積算距離： 3557.9km

English Summary: Bad sleep because of dusty hut, noisy rats, and the altitude (4200m) waking me up gasping. Sandy roads again. Khargush military checkpoint did a complete search of my luggage (everything out and on the table). Weird feeling with Afganistan just over the river.

ほとんど眠れませんでした。夕べの小屋のなかの空気はくさくて、ねずみの音がうるさくて、そして標高4200mにあったので、寝れてもすぐに酸素不足で、からだが空気を求めて起きちゃう。テントの中で寝ればよかったです。

今日の道も昨日と同じように、砂に大きな石でした。かなり走りにくいです。何回も自転車を押さなければなりませんでした。そしてハーグシュ峠から下りたところに軍隊のチェックポイントがありますが、そこに荷物の中身を全部出させられて検査させられました。ちゃんとした職務の検査のようだったので、問題ありませんでした。

ワカン谷はアフガニスタンに面するので、川をわたればアフガニスタンに入るわけです。変な感じです・・・

谷は最初は広かったですけど、現在は狭くなって、道路は200mほど登って、山の上にあります。

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Distance / 距離： 40.30km
Time / 時間： 4h 3m
Average speed / 平均速度： 10km/h
Distance to date / 今日までの積算距離： 3510.6km

I woke from a good sleep despite the creepy ruins. I think you’d get used to them. As I was eating breakfast, a local from over the hill wandered over cautiously, and we had a chat. I can’t imagine he has seen too many foreigners camped out in this compound.

This compound has a pipe with running water by the way. The local that came over this morning was coming to get water from it. Sasikol lake is a salt lake, as are the smaller ponds around this area. Therefore it appears that this compound may be the only place to get good water in this area.

As for the climb up to Khargush Pass, this has been the hardest day of climbing I have ever had! Sandy, corrugated, rocky, steep roads For the first time I have had to push the bike up some of the steeper sections due to lack of traction.

From the top I felt sad to start biking down the pass. I am essentially coming down off the roof of the world, and I can’t imagine that I’ll be back. Life at 4000m plus is an interesting and challenging experience that I have enjoyed, albiet acompanied by some tough challenges.

Tonight I am sleeping in a deserted nomads hut. They have obviously left to move further down the valley for summer. It is a bit of a treat however – there is plenty of dry dung around, so I have started a fire, and baked some potatoes in the embers, Rather nice…

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Distance / 距離： 59.95km
Time / 時間： 4h 44m
Average speed / 平均速度： 12.6km/h
Distance to date / 今日までの積算距離： 3419.5km

Engish Summary: Headwind. Strong. Tiring day. Met three lots of foreigners through. An Pamir music researcher, a Brazil travel reporter (http://www.saojosedoscampos.com.br/diario/mensagens.php), and two Swiss guys on motorbikes (http://www.letsgoexplore.com). Camping at an erie Soviet ruin.

やった！湖まで来れました！一日強い向かい風が吹いていましたから、ここまではできないと思っていました。しかしアリチュール村(Alichur)から登ったとっころで湖が見えました。湖のすぐそばにテントを張ることにしていましたが、昔のソ連の遺跡がありますので、ここに野宿をしてます。妙な雰囲気なので、ちょっとだけ怖い・・・

さて、今日はなんと4人の外国人と出逢いました。一人目はアヤさん（女性）でした。もともと日系ハワイ人で、現在はタジキスタンで伝統的なパミール高原音楽を研究しています。2人目はブラジル人の女性で、プロのトラベル・レポーターです（http://www.saojosedoscampos.com.br/diario/mensagens.php)。3，4人目はスイス人の男性の2人。バイクで世界一週しています（http://www.letsgoexplore.com/)。

今のところ、自転車ツーリングの一番難しいところは、自分のペースを測るころです。ようするに、自分はよく走っているのか、遅いのか、もっと早く走っているはずなのか・・・一人で走っているので、ほかの人と比べられないわけです。

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Distance / 距離： 56.40km
Time / 時間： 5h 08m
Average speed / 平均速度： 11.1km/h
Distance to date / 今日までの積算距離： 3409.6km

My homestay host for the last two days had given me rice pudding for breakfast. Great cycing breakfast. But today for some reason she made eggs. Three fried eggs dripping in oil. Not the greatest start to the day…

I left Murghab late at 10:30am, and it felt good to be on the road after the two days of rest. Remembering that there was no water for the 60km or so leading up to Murghab, I filled about three litres into my water bag just in case there was none out of Murghab also. Two kids appeared while I was filtering the water, and they helpfully suggested that I simply dip the bag into the water rather than use ‘that silly pump’. Obviously they were not aware that ‘the silly pump’ was getting rid of nasties as it worked…

At present I am camped just past Nayzatash Pass right next to the road. The wind had picked up in the evening (of course a headwind) so putting the tent up required some effort, especially considering that I needed to pitch it cross to the wind.

I am looking forward to the downhill tomorrow!

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English Summary: Buying up large for the six or so days it may take to get to the next town with food. First along the Pamir Highway, and then down to the Wakhan Valley. Apparently the road is in good condition in the Wakhan Valley. 

この2日間、いったい何をしていただろう・・・本当に何もしませんでした。一日目は寝ていました。今日は、明日からの準備をしていました。

準備といっても、バザールへ行って食料を買うだけです。結局次のものを買いました：

- インスタントラーメン　25パケット
- ジャガイモ　7個
- 人参　7本
- 玉ねぎ 5個
- 缶詰魚（250g） 4つ
- 卵　10個
- raisins 500g
- peanuts 500g

5日間分の食料です。ここから、次に食料が買えるところまで、5日間がかかる予定ですから。もともと、ムルガブ村から直接にパミール道でハログ町（Kharugh)まで行く予定でした。しかし、いくつかのほかの旅行者の話によると、もっと南にあるワカン谷(Wakhan Valley)のほうがもっと面白いですから、ワカン谷に行くことにしました。

ワカン谷の中心はパンジ川（Panj River)です。この川はアフガニスタンとタジキスタンの国境にもなっていますので、今度走る道路はアフガニスタンからわずか200mにあるところになります。

ムルガブ村の観光案内所によるとワカン谷の道路の状況は砂利道だけど状況は良いらしいです。

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