When we woke up we got to see our riverside campsite in the light, and it was just as beautiful as we expected. We enjoyed a slow morning riverside soaking in the views. We had filled up with petrol in Murgabh yesterday, and last night the whole cab and tray had an awfully strong petrol smell. There are many stories of people finding terrible quality petrol along the Pamir, and we had just had our first experience of it. It truly felt like everything we owned smelt like petrol, including our breakfast!! We did some airing out that night and it seemed to help, but we were well and truly “petrol people” now.
The plan today was to drive to Bulunkul Lake, which was about 145km away. We got on the road at 10AM, blasting Taylor Swift and enjoying the impressive arid landscapes. We were at pretty high altitude here and it felt like we were driving on the moon in places, very sparse and dry and isolated. The road was mostly unpaved and it was very corrugated, making for bumpy travel and a constant game of trying to find the smoothest path for Josh. After about two hours, Nina started to make a bit of a noise, coming from the front left wheel. It was a really bad noise, and our hearts dropped as we pulled over to investigate. We waved down a friendly truck driver who jacked her up and had a look underneath. I don’t know the technical terms, but there was definitely something wrong with the front wheel, and the entire drive train was moving in a bit of a weird way. He tightened a few things and told us to find a mechanic ASAP. Feeling defeated, we had to decide if we continued on to Alichur, or turned back to Murghab. We were pretty much in the middle of both, but we knew that Murghab was the bigger town and we had been pretty happy with the work the mechanic there had done for us yesterday. So, we turned around and undid the two hours of progress with an increasingly worrying banging noise coming from the drive train.
When we pulled into the Murghab mechanic, who did we see?? That’s right - Ange, Ben and Sunny!!! We hadn’t had reception all day to catch up with how they were doing, but had assumed they were ahead of us on the road. Turns out Sunny was having issues too, so it did reassure us that these roads were hard on even the most sturdy Toyota Land Cruisers! We spent most of the day in Murghab, and the lovely family of the mechanic let us use their house for lunch and to stay out of the heat. We were entertained by their gorgeous kids, who drew us many pictures and insisted on us all taking a photo on our phones of each one. Every time they finished a picture they would parade around the room showing all four of us individually! Josh and I went for a walk into the bazaar in Murghab, and were pretty confronted by how hard of a life it is up here. They are so far away from Dushanbe, and all the money, infrastructure and support of the government, and it really shows. It seems to either be snowy or incredibly hot, it was a harsh and unforgiving environment. Everyone was happy to see us and so friendly, we watched kids playing soccer, riding bikes and running around in packs just like you do anywhere.
It took the mechanic another couple hours working on Sunny, and then by the time he started on Nina it was 3:30 PM. We were all pretty over it and ready to get on the road, and luckily it was a reasonably quick job. By the time he finished, the friendly mechanic had mixed news for us. The good news was that he had made the car driveable again, but the bad news was that his method for doing so was removing the faulty front drive shaft (he didn’t have the part he needed to fix it here in Murghab. And thus, our trusty Nina was no longer 4WD. I’ll admit I was a bit panicked, as I was sure we would need a 4WD on the Pamir, but the mechanic assured us we would be okay with 2WD, we just needed to make sure we drove slowly and carefully, and maybe avoid the Wakhan corridor…
We got on our way, both cars going in a convoy as we had a long drive ahead of us through to Alichur (the lake had been scrapped hours ago). I think looking back this was probably our hardest day on the Pamir. We didn’t really know that much yet about all the quirks of the car, so it was hard to understand what was a big deal and what wasn’t. I felt like I was constantly listening out for new noises and problems which made me really on edge. We were all pretty anxious and concerned about the quantity of problems we had had so far and what was to come. We didn’t leave Murghab until about 6:00 PM so we knew we would be driving in the dark, and there were more high passes ahead of us. We needed a number of tows from Sunny over the course of the night, and we were eternally grateful for Ange and Ben’s love, patience and willingness to help us. Everytime we stopped I cringed having to get out of the car, do the “blowjob” or ask for a tow, and every time they were there with snacks, support, and more than happy to give us a tow. When we pulled into the small town of Alichur at 8:45 PM we were pretty exhausted, but so happy to have made it.
We treated ourselves to a guest house for the night, and must have looked (and smelt) a mess when we arrived!! They were so kind, and had hot tea and dinner which we really enjoyed. Sleeping in a bed was a treat after lots of nights in tents, and safe to say we all slept very well that night.