This isn't the first time we have slept in the car, so why haven't we learned that its not a comfortable solution. Last night we even made the mistake of parking the car facing east so we were promptly blinded by the sun in the morning. It was much easier to light our stove with our new sump guard shaped wind shield; its almost a better wind shield than it was a sump gaurd. Unlike the last time we slept in the car to let us hit the road early we actually left early. While the landscape was busy being picturesque with huge rocky mountains either side, the road was busy being shit with no real surface to speak of. We were getting more confident driving without the sump gaurd as we heard less scraping sounds than before, since the sump gaurd was lower than the base of the engine anyway, so we made good progress to the Afghan border.

The map showed the a bridge crossing the river into Afghanistan, we stopped to investigate as we found a long queue of trucks next to a rusty old bridge. As funny as it would be to accidentally cross into Afghanistan we decided to ask the truck drivers instead. They all agreed that it was just a bridge, but maybe they're in on the trick to catch tourists. Eventually we decided it was probably safe to cross - not the bridge itself, which looked like it had seen better days, but for the lack of Afghanistan on the other side. The crossing was made stress free by the collection of truck drivers and policemen shouting incoherent instructions to simultaneously be moving and not moving. Eventually we crossed the bridge and found ourselves in Afghanistan.

 

Well we weren't in Afghanistan, but we were right next to it. As we drove along the familiar situation, a single lane rocky road with a 100ft cliff on one side and a 100ft drop on the other, we watched Afghanistan pass by across the river. On the other side there was a village of people going about their daily lives, rather unsurprisingly they didn't stop to shoot at the westerners but they did wave at us instead. A quick check in the rear view mirror revealed that we couldn't see through the back window, a problem we've had pretty consistently, but the side mirrors revealed we were alone. We pulled over at the side of the road to let them catch up. As neither of their cars have a spoiler we might spend a lot of time waiting for them since they just don't have the down force we do. I could see silver fox on the horizon but they didn't appear to be moving, after using the time to empty my bladder I looked back to an empty stretch of road. With the radios completely empty, which meant they had finally stopped shouting at us, we had no choice but to head back along the road to find them. Red Lion had successfully got the first flat tyre of the convoy, its a good thing we came to the rescue since we do own the best jack in all of the Pamirs which made light work of their piddly little problems.

 

After reattaching a fourth wheel to the lion's car we stopped for lunch at the next available place. We sat cross-legged around a small table on a raised platform covered in rugs - "When in Tajikistan" and all that. When the man came out from the kitchen we ordered seven plovs and seven meats. Once the lunchtime feast was over a man arrived clutching a watermelon and plopped it straight into the small waterfall next to our table - I should point out that the cafe had a small stream running through it. All eyes turned to the filthy watermelon enjoying its shower, we quickly left the cafe before someone did something they would regret.

 

The afternoon shift was uneventful since the road condition improved as we approached Khorog, we casually rolled up to the Pamir Lodge mid-afternoon. They had one big room that had enough beds to sleep all of us, this convoy is getting cosy. While some of the guys went to play football at the park next to the hostel I sat in the slow moving queue for the shower. The shower was definitely worth waiting for after so many disappointing showers; some had no hot water, some had had no pressure, and some had no showerheads. The best showers combine all three for a magical combo, where you crouch beneath a tap and let the cold water dribble over you. This one achieved the trifecta of normalness, it was hot had some pressure and came through a shower head. After my shower I was on top of the world and had even heard rumours that a burger shop was open in town, everywhere else was shut due to it being a Sunday. Eventually we couldn't withstand the rumour mill anymore and set off walking to 'Cafe California' on a dark desert highway. Once we got to where it should have been we found a closed restaurant, not exactly the open one we had been promised. I don't think I've ever seen ten grown men look so disappointed standing on a street outside a burger shop. Luckily the corner shop was open as we passed by on the disappointing walk home, that meant we all could all have a nutritious meal of minute noodles instead, delicious burgers are for losers anyway.