After some amazing days in the mountains of Kyrgyzstan and a break from Nina, it was time to get on the road. We packed the car fully and had everything we needed but there was one small problem. There was no petrol in Sary Mogol at any of the petrol stations, so we would have to fill up in Sary Tash before heading south on the Pamir Highway to the border with Tajikistan. 

As mentioned the fuel gauge on Nina has never worked and I had the feeling we were running low. It was only a 30 minute drive to Sary Tash and we ran out of fuel about 10 minutes from town. Alice hitched a ride into town with our petrol canister and we waited on the side of the road. After not too long a couple of friendly Kyrgyz men appeared on a motorbike with our petrol canister filled up! Alice had struggled to find a car to come back in so she had asked these friendly men to help and they drove it to us. It was very trusting from her, but thankfully the people in Kyrgyzstan are so friendly and helpful!

At the petrol station in Sary Tash (where we were filling our tank plus a few spare jerry cans) we got chatting to a lovely Australian couple, Ange and Ben, who were also about to start the Pamir Highway. They were driving a very big and tough looking rental Landcruiser which was affectionately called Sunny. I think Nina had a bit of a crush on Sunny from the get go. She would never admit it though. We joked with Ange and Ben that they will probably see us broken down on the side of the road later on today… and all left feeling stoked we had met some new friends on the same journey as us. 

With a full tank and 40L of extra fuel we got on the road, taking the southern turn off towards the Tajikistan border. The first stop was the Kyrgyz border control at 3500m altitude. It was a quick process getting stamped out and one of the more beautiful border controls we’ve visited so far. From here we were driving in no man's land between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan for a couple hours, and this stretch of road included our first big test for Nina, Kyzyl-Art pass at 4600m altitude. Unfortunately, this was a little too much for poor old Nina and she ran out of power on the way up the pass, so we stopped on the side of the road halfway up a mountain pass, in no man's land, between two countries... At this point we were all in a bit of a panic as we thought Nina must have some serious problems at high altitude, which we thought the wizard had fixed! This felt very similar to the issues we had had driving up towards Travellers Pass, and on the road between Osh and Sary Mogul. Most of the next two days on the Pamir Highway would be at over 4000m so we were not feeling very optimistic. There was some brief talk of giving up and turning around but credit to Tommi who had a very positive attitude and said we would find a solution. 

And only a few minutes later who turned up? The lovely Australian couple we had met before in their big Landcruiser 'Sunny'! They found it very funny that we hadn't even made it to Tajikistan before breaking down. But they were super happy to help and we got our first tow the rest of the way up the pass. Nina definitely had a crush on Sunny now!!! From the top of the pass at 4600m we unhooked the tow rope and coasted down in neutral to the Tajikistan border control. This was the first time in my life driving a car over a country border, and we did it in style literally pushing her over the border. The Tajik border guards found it very funny while also looking rather concerned for us. 

After a quick process getting our passports stamped and paying a fee to bring a car into the country we hopped back in Nina and started down the hill coasting once more. From here it was mostly all downhill to Karakul Lake, where we would camp for the night, so we hoped we would make it cruising in nuetral. On the way down the hill I decided to try and start Nina again while coasting and she came to life!! We were surprised and a bit confused because our leading theory was that she didn't work at high altitude. Regardless we were VERY excited. From here we managed to drive her all the way through to the lake. The scenery was amazing and the road was mostly sealed with a few potholes. We arrived at Lake Karakul right on sunset and it was truly beautiful, a vast blue lake surrounded by snowy mountains. Reminiscint of Hāwea or Wakatipu, which made us both feel very at home. The town near the lake was clearly very poor and seemed to be mostly built from mud which makes sense as it is too high for trees to grow anywhere in this region.

We found a nice spot by the lake to set up our tents for the night and by this point we were all exhausted as it had been a very long day with a 5 AM start. We had a very quick dinner of cheese, salami, and crackers inside the tent to hide from the wind, and then went straight to bed for an early night. We spent the night dreaming about if Nina would survive the next day and another 4500m mountain pass..