Day 69. From Lake Iskander-Kul to Dushanbe

A disturbed night. The first night in the land Rover for ages, it seems. A cool night but goddam dogs barking at the moon all night!

Jen mentioned us arriving at the lake edge last night and pulling in near another Land Rover Defender. A Swiss registered vehicle with a lift top conversion. It was raining when we arrived and getting dark so no time for pleasantries as there was camp to establish and meals to prepare, for some of us.

This morning however we got to meet the occupants of the other TD5. Fabio and Andrea a young couple from Zurich doing a round trip of the Pamir Highway and back to Switzerland. Their Defender is the same year and very similarly prepared in many area’s, to ours. They have only had it about a year. It is a much travelled vehicle having done the America’s with it’s previous owner. It was great to compare notes with Fabio, as I was worried our vehicle didn’t seem to have legs going over the high passes but he assured me his was the same. The trouble with small capacity (2.5L), highly tuned motors. One of the reasons too that the Japanese vehicles are so popular with Overlander’s. Wont change my mind! I can see a 3.2L TD5 conversion coming up though.

Fabio and Andrea and their beautiful 2001 TD5

Fabio and Andrea are enjoying their Defender. However their fridge has packed up and they are finding that a bit of a pain. They departed the lake this morning for Uzbekistan. Good luck..:)

The drive back from the lake and onto the main road south to Dushanbe has been stunning. Spectacular scenery of arid mountainous countryside with deep gorges and aquamarine snow melt water coursing through them. The road zig zagging up and over  passes through a number of dusty winding tunnels under massive scree slopes. The photo’s don’t do it justice as the air was heavily laden with dust from wind blown dust.

Scree slopes that the camera can’t capture the full extent.

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