Site visited in May 2008, a pretty long time ago, so probably many things have changed and the access to the park could be easier than it was before. I was only in the eastern part of the park. At that time a special permission was needed to enter Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region; this was issued together with the Tajik visa at the embassy in Brussels for an extra fee.

After spending few days in Khorog and around, we continued to Alichur where the road to the southern lakes (Yashikul) starts. We have not planned anything before and arranged the transportation in a homestay in the village. It took one long day to go to the lakes and back – of course there are only rough roads there but the pickup we rented with the driver was very brave! It was pretty cold and still some snow around.

After that we went on to Murgab – there are many interesting places about this provincial capital but it is located outside the park itself. We’ve chosen two day trip towards Sarez but after few hours of driving the car broke up and we had to walk to the nomad camp for 5 hours. It was a pretty nice and exhausting experience – to be lost somewhere in the middle of nowhere. We stayed there 2 nights ‘cos our driver and guide (one person) took a horse from the camp to get back to Murgab for a new car. We have not reached the lake…

The third time we crossed NP border was on the way to Kyrgyzstan. We stopped for one night at the Karakul Lake. Our accommodation – military base.

From every place in this part of Tajikistan the views are amazing! But you should be very patient! There were organized trips/tours to Pamir even from Murgab where they had a professional tourist agency, but very expensive. Organizing everything by yourself with local people takes time and could be risky but in our case turned out to be funny and rewarding!