Day 1:

Permits are needed for the Pamir region of Tajikistan so after we secured the permits, we hit the road and were off to the mountains!

Day 2:

We continued the ride on the Pamir Highway which included the Tajikistan-Afghanistan border. Across the river in the photo is Afghanistan!

Can you spot the green watch tower?

Land mines warning sign up on the hill:

There was construction along one section of the highway so we had a few breaks while waiting for the road to open back up.

Sunset views:

Broken light bulb:

When looking for a camp spot, we smashed into a big rock. The crash bar got bent...but it protected the engine as needed, phew! The dirty black bar that overlaps the engine cover should not be overlapping the engine cover. It should be about 3 inches in front of it. (see the next photo to compare)

Austin took off the crash bar and flipped it so now it is back to protecting *most* of the engine! You can see that there is a gap between the black dirty bar and then engine cover.

The u-joint clip and cap came off...not good!!! Thankfully we had spare parts but we did not have the proper tool to assemble it securely.

Late night repairs:

Day 3:

Good morning from our campsite!

Since we did not have the proper tool to reassemble the u-joint and clip, we attempted to make the tool. This was attempt #1, it did not work...

Attempt # 2 was a success: chopsticks made from a broken allen wrench, haha!

Austin reassembling the u-joint and clip using the new tool ;)

The clip (black ring with the 2 little holes) is what we needed the tool for. It is mostly in holding the cap in place but we continued to monitor it while we rode the rugged roads.

Day 4:

We took a detour off of the official Pamir Highway and rode up the Bartang Valley about 30 km. We found a beautiful campsite and posted up there for the night. We had the big river roaring by us and also a fresh water creek near our camp area.

Roasted veggies and noodle-rice combo side is on the menu:

Our personal beach on the river :)

Many animals around too:

We met a group of village kids during one of our breaks. They all loved the sidecar and brought us fresh apricots and cucumbers from their garden, it was so sweet!