Map browsers are often intrigued by the odd, thin bit of Afghanistan that snakes eastward from the country’s north all the way to the Chinese border. Called the Wakhan Corridor, this long valley (or pamir) is a relic of the Great Game. As John Keay tells the story in The Gilgit Game, after decades of high-altitude jousting on their respective Central Asian frontiers, Russia and Great Britain finally decided to petition the Amir of Afghanistan to take control of what was then—and in many ways still is today—a small world unto itself, separating the two feisty empires with a buffer. “In 1895 a joint Anglo-Russian boundary commission marked out its eastern extremities and, separating [what became] Pakistan from [what was until recently] the Tadjik S.S.R., [the Wakhan Corridor] survives virtually untouched today.”

Keay was writing in the late 1970s, but the Wakhan—through the vagaries of history, the Russian occupation, and the reign of the Taliban-—remains virtually untouched, and very few outsiders have made its acquaintance. Two who have are our old friends John Mock and Kimberly O’Neil, who have spent much fruitful time up in these wild and beautiful parts, and who have created this groundbreaking trip for us. (Rest assured, we venture into the Wakhan with all t’s crossed, i’s dotted, eyes open, yaks and horses well bundled.)

We begin in Tajikistan’s capital, Dushanbe, then work our way south to the Tajik-Afghan border, then drive east through the snowpeak-guarded pamir to Sarhad-e Broghil, about halfway into the Wakhan. We begin trekking just out of Sarhad. For the next ten days we hike through the wildlife-rich valley (Marco Polo sheep are common, as are Siberian ibex and snow leopard), up and downing from high, barren uplands to lush seasonal meadows and vivid blue lakes, meeting up occasionally with Kyrgyz nomads at their summer camps. Our end point is Bozai Gumbaz, a cluster of Kyrgyz tombs in the Little Pamir. We retrace our route back to Ishkashim and Dushanbe and home, having explored one of the world’s remotest and most exquisite regions.

Days 1-3: USA to Dushanbe, Tajikistan • Day 4: drive to Kalaikhum • Day 5: drive to Khorog • Day 6: cross border into Afghanistan at Ishkashim, continue to Qazideh • Day 7: drive to villages of Qila-e Panja and Pakuay • Day 8: drive to Sarhad-e Broghil • Day 9: acclimatize in Sarhad-e Broghil • Days 10-18: on trek • Day 19: drive from Sarhad-e Broghil to Qazideh • Day 20: drive to Ishkashim and Khorog • Day 21: drive to Kailakhum • Day 22: drive to Dushanbe • Day 23: Dushanbe • Day 24: depart.

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