POST17: Trip to Sarez lake (I know if I don’t get this post finished soon, I won’t publish it later 🙃)

There are two kinds of trips. First one is a kind you fall in love with the destination🏁, the second is the one you love the 🛣️journey, not so much with the destination. Trip to Sarez lake for me is of the second kind. That doesn’t mean it wasn’t worth visiting or it is not beautiful. It is absolutely a must visit if you are into lakes that are high up in the mountains. I know I love it.

My memory of Sarez lake comes from my high school years when our geography teacher always praised it by sheer amount of water it contains and the dangers associated with it in case if the lake breaks. I vaguely remember teacher saying half of Tajikistan would be under water if it did break. What an astounding place to visit, I thought back then.

Life rolled on and it never came to fruition up until recently (mid August) when a friend, fellow runner, Parviz, asked if anyone wanted to join him to visit Sarez lake. At the time, I was in Istanbul for a vacation and I replied him saying I am likely to join him if there are no urgent matters arise. Couple other people from our DAV.TJ running club wrote they also wanted to join but topic just faded. Then in the beginning of September, Parviz asked again to double check if we were serious with our intensions as he planned to visit for more than 2 years ago. I knew I wanted but needed to sort our some family occasions like my son’s birthday and etc.

I called a very close friend of mine, Jafar, who runs his own travel and hiking community called “Daidushki” (I think they recently registered as a travel company Dourgard Adventures) and I remember seeing Jafar’s Instagram stories that he recently visited Pamirs and on a separate occasion also took tourists to Sarez lake. If you are not aware of Daidushki, go and check them out on Instagram and Telegram. Jafar and his team are doing fantastic work to provide good quality hiking experience (unlike some other guys taking bunch of people without proper safety rules and accountability) for locals and foreigners in the mountains.

In a brief phone conversation Jafar shared summary of their visit and what to pay attention too (like getting permit from government office since it’s a natural reserve area, homestay contacts and trip details). I knew my brother Firuz would agree to join as he loves mountains and hiking|running, so without a second thought I called him. There were four of us by now - Parviz, Isfandiyor, Firuz and me.

DAY 1. We gathered in downtown near Barakat trading center and drove toward Darvoz. Ride was smooth. Drive to Darvoz (county in GBAO region) is covered mostly by asphalt. Only in some places there were constructions going but all in all, we arrived safe and not so much tired (~340km and 7.5 hours driving). Parviz’s aunt family in Patknov village (still Darvoz) were very kind to host us for our first night. Delicious fruits like apples, grapes and fig tasted so good.

Parviz’s relative Suhrob and his neighbor (forgot his name) saw that we were going to Sarez and we love mountain adventures. They told us about their several day hiking to nearby valleys and mountains and how recently they got lost on their way back home. They showed us video from their hunting, a service they provide to foreigners, and how he encountered bear in several occasions. We asked if bears attack humans in this part of the region because lately me and my brother Firuz are doing one day trail running|hiking for about 20-30km passing one or two mountain passes. This increases our chances to encounter bear and it’s good to educate ourselves. They told bears rarely attack because they come down to eat fig, not the other way around, people going into bears’ territory. We told them about our trail running and hiking experiences in other part of Tajikistan, like Fan mountains, Varzob area and Shahriston and it was all so interesting for all of us. We showed them how we navigate and run while in the mountains with services like Fatmap (company bought by Strava) and other offline electronic maps.

Before hitting the bed, Jafar texted me to see if we were okay. He warned that some parts of the roads are being constructed and that it’s better for us to pass that section as early as possible. He also told me to get some fuel if we wanted to drive the boat in Sarez lake. I tried to figure out which part of the road will be closed, how long it is and what time we should get up so we don’t get stuck. I couldn’t because I wasn’t able to find Khikik village in GBAO on my map due to misspelling and partly because I was tired too. With all that we went to bed around 11PM.

DAY 2. Early morning, Isfandiyor wakes me up after his morning prayers around 5AM. We quickly gather our items and hit the road. We know it’s going to take long time before reaching Barchidev, the last village toward Sarez in Bartang valley) and we decide to skip breakfast for the sake of saving some time. Asphalt road ends and unpaved road starts. After couple hours of driving, at 8AM we reach Kurgovard village of Darvoz where Chinese company is excavating road. They tell us that the road will open at 11:30 AM. Isfandiyor and I try to ask the Chinese guy if he can make an exception as we need to drive too long. We get a strict no answer, which is what to be expected otherwise they will never finish construction.

We come back to the car, inform Firuz and Parviz and they decide to rest while I think it’s a good idea to finish my daily running streak. Who on earth decides to run on a bright sunny day in one side of the road while the other side is Afghanistan? Jokes aside, i get some water and my windproof jacket to attempt to run 25K 😅 locals look at me like I am a crazy foreigner 🙈 as I run for about 1.5km into my run, couple border patrol solders stop me and ask me why I am running in this area. I explain them I don’t want to sit for 3 hours and I need to run because, well, I love running. They look at me like I am crazy and let me continue.

As I continue, I approach another local security personal (some random person from the village) without any guns and he tells me to stop because road ahead is closed and just some minutes ago they exploded part of the mountain and big stones blocked the road. I ask him if I can try to bypass for which I get another weird look toward me by the local guy 🙈 He let’s me go but warns to be super careful. In 200 meters I approach a huge stones with about 10 centimeters sand covering the whole road. I stop and hear small (relatively small) coming off from the top. I decide I am not going to risk my life because I am not idiot runner and turn back to the car. Weather is getting hot and it’s getting unbearable to run. I call my brother, he drops his location and I finish my run with a sweet 5K.

When I returned to my brother’s location, I couldn’t find the way the route from the map. It involved some river and stones jumping, so I called Firuz to come and show me the way. Indeed they struggled to find a good place to rest and in turn after river and stone jumping, they found orchard with full of fresh apples, fig and some pomegranate.

We napped for and hour and came down to our car to find out road was open 30 minutes earlier, bummer.

We reach Rushon county of GBAO at around 5PM and stop for a local cafe to eat something. By this time, we have two options. We continue driving before the dawn, park somewhere and set up tent to sleep or we continue until reaching Barchidev and sleep there. We aren’t sure about neither of them. So we continue driving. Jafar send a message reminding us to take some fuel, I clarify which type of fuel cause we had plenty of diesel but no regular 92 mark gasoline (benzin). We decide we will take on our way, if we find one.

We are another 3 hours into our driving and in these mostly one-way roads, we are driving 20km per hour because it’s a very bumpy unpaved road though we have 4WD. It’s dark and Firuz who is mostly checking his map on his phone gives direction to Parviz which road to take. It’s around 9PM-ish that we suddenly find our car stuck in sand. It won’t move. We get out and see that it is not our road and we are actually 500 meters away from the one-way road that supposed to take us to Barchidev.

We get out of the car. Parviz tried to steer the wheel with no luck. We are thinking what to do. I take my and Firuz’s foam mattress to try to dig the sand from the bottom of the tires and put the mattress. Firuz and Isfandiyor object as they just bought their mattress before this trip and they don’t want to damage it. We get some stones and put it under the tires and in couple of tries we get out into a less-sanded area and return to the main road.

It’s almost 10PM, we are all tired. Music is helping a bit to stay entertained but not so much any more. It’s super dark and we can barely see 20 meters ahead, driving very attentively without looking to far out. We make a turn and go head uphill. All of a sudden, we see a huge white circle far out because it’s shining so light. Firuz says it looks like a giant projector. It’s not up, it’s almost in our level of sight. We drive another couple hundred meters and make another turn and view opens and we see a bright full moon lighting up our way. It was beautiful. A proper word to use here is “wow”. Fairly, I would say. We are used to see the moon up in the sky not very big but here it’s full, it’s huge and so bright. We joyfully continue our drive slowly to the Barchidev village.

In Rushon, I call to a guy called Rashid (+992935232020) from Barchidev which Jafar gave me, to inform him we are coming tonight not sure what time but coming. Jafar in his visit stayed in Rashid’s place that’s how we got in touch. Rashid said just reach Barchidev and ask anyone where is boboi Mavlodod’s house (his grandfather). He was up in Sarez lake and told me he will come done the next day.

It’s midnight, we reached Barchidev. We park right at the end of the road and start looking for our guesthouse - Rashid’s house or boboi Mavlodod’s house. No cell reception to call and clarify which house. We knock several houses. One neighbor shows us the direction. We finally find it and a man in his late 80s (87 years old, to be exact) comes out and greets us. They thought we were coming in the morning and weren’t expecting us that late. We apologize, chit chat for a little bit and go to bed.

DAY 3. Next morning we wake around 7 AM, have breakfast (for those interested it’s 150 TJS|night around $15, includes dinner and breakfast) and pack our items. We hire a person with a donkey to make our journey easier for us. To rent a donkey cost 250 TJS per day, around $25 here which is about the same price as in Fan mountains. Very nice old man, Navruzsho, the owner of the donkey comes to help us load our baggage. It wasn’t as cold as we planned, hence, we decided to leave some of our clothes and items needed for colder condition here in Barchidev. Moreover, on our way to Barchidev, we had two big gasoline canisters (20 liters each, to refill our car) one of which had loose cap. One of my shirt which I was wearing and left on top got soaked and everyone else’s luggage were also exposed to diesel, especially Isfandiyor’s clothes.

A person comes and asks if we have acquired permission to visit Sarez lake. We ask if it possible to do it here because we didn’t quite have time to receive it in Dushanbe. He was kind enough to give us paper permission (total cost 80 TJS for 4 people, $8) he had ready printed. Now it’s 9:21 AM and we are ready to embark into our hiking.

The route is roughly 20km road to Sarez lake from Barchidev village. Trail covers most of the route. The mountains here are a bit rocky reminding me Ayni’s mountains. In some places mountains are straight steep which looks like of that Saratoq village in Iskandarkul area. The first bridge is located right at the end of the Barchidev village. You pass it and there is a small uphill.

The whole track is not difficult if you are used to hiking, total elevation gain is little over 1km. First 11 kilometers is mostly flat, going up and down the hill here and there. But mostly not difficult. We pass the first bridge which is before a place called “Choykhona” which at 10th km (around half way). We stopped there, had a lunch and continued our way.

I am in awe with the beautiful Murghob river which derives its water straight from Sarez lake. It’s mix of green and blue, not so loud but loud enough to give you your peace of mind.

From 12.5 until 16.5km (around 4km, there is an uphill) with beautiful mountains opening up it’s its trail views to Sarez lake.

We reach Sarez 7 hours at around 4PM. From the start we had a wish to take a dive in Sarez. It’s beautiful, gorgeous and so clean.

Firuz proposed to not waste time and dive straight into the water when we were warm after our hike. So, Parviz, Firuz and I went down to the lake for a cold shower, so to say.

We talked to local personnel who guard the lake. They told us their stories and how lake formed how in 2005 due to stronger earthquake they were afraid the lake would break. Just a quick fun fact:

To my surprise water was clean and drinkable. We had a dinner and set up our tents. We discuss whether to say another day or leave next day. There is not much around Sarez lake. You can’t make a loop for fun or hike, other than Shadau mountain pass. So we decide to take a boat tomorrow, have some fish and head back to Barchidev.

It’s 8PM and dark already. Isfandiyor decided to sleep in one of the constructed tents which had durable plastic walls. Parviz, Firuz and I in our tents in the open air. There is a bench right in front of us. We decide to sit and gaze at the sky full of bright stars. We then decide why sit in the bench while we can take our sleeping bags out put them in the mattress and sleep in the open air. We saw falling comet, blinking airplanes and talked about Milky Way we had no deep knowledge about. It reminded us our childhood years when we used to sleep on the ground in the open air in our house. This time, sky is closer, stars are shining brighter and we notice falling comet more often.

Around 10PM we are falling into sleep. Due to wind blowing the rain cover of the tent, Parviz can’t sleep. He decides to go to his tent. Firuz also goes to Parviz’s tent. I am in my tent, I feel my head being squeezed by the out layer of my tent. Either I am getting tall or my tent got small. Anyway, 10 minutes later, I decide to rotate my position and open the door of my tent and stick my head out of the tent. Now, I enjoy the dark sky again and fall asleep. It’s not that cold (around 9 degrees Celsius) and we all sleep well.

DAY 4. We get up at 6 AM, have breakfast and wait for Rashid to bring some fish. The day before, he said he will come back from the other side of the lake no later than 8am and if his net caught fish, we would eat fish. Navruzsho asked if he can leave earlier because donkey takes around 7-8 hours to reach the village before we get there. He requested one of us join him as there are couple places along the route he needed help unloading the backpacks from the donkey and reloading them back. Otherwise, due to it’s narrow path, donkey might fall or our items get damaged.

It was past 8:30AM and Rashid didn’t come. We decided to return since there was no sign of the fish or a boat. As we hiked up the mountains for 10 minutes Rashid’s boat came into sight. We came all the way here and leaving without eating fish (though we weren’t sure if he caught or not) or getting a ride in the boat would be pointless, we thought. So, three of us got down to the lake, Firuz decided to accompany Navruzsho.

If you are visiting Sarez, make sure to get into the boat. Normally, people bring 10-20 liters of gasoline with them to have a ride. We didn’t but Rashid was kind enough to give us 10 minute ride around the lake. His net also caught some fish, so we enjoyed both.

We started hiking back at 11AM and reached back the village at 4PM. Firuz and Navruzsho came 30 minutes prior to us. In our way back, we missed some road stones and rejoined the main route, as I was rechecking my map from time to time. Compared both routes, 95% same. So there are no way to get lost here if one is attentive. Also, a good thing to note that there is a cell coverage on the way back in the last mountain looking at the village. Tcell - cellular provider has 2G coverage. So in case you need, you can call your loved ones to let them know you are okay.

We drive from Barchidev at around 5PM and reach Tomghay village of Darvoz at 4AM the next day, 11 hours. Everyone is exhausted. We find local mosque where we sleep in our sleeping bags and in “kurpachas” (local mattress made from cotton).

DAY 5. We get up at 10AM because we know roads along the route that is being constructed are open from 11AM until 1PM because workers go for lunch. We pass all unpaved road and back into asphalt road. After having lunch in Kalai Khumb, Parviz drops us off in Chorchaman recreation area in Darvoz and goes to visit his relatives and gets his car washed.

Beautiful place for family visit or teambuilding.

We had back home, having dinner in Kulob.

We reach Dushanbe just before midnight and in total in took us 5 days. Below is table showing departure, arrival destinations as well as duration and distance.

As for cost, it averaged roughly 1000 TJS per person ($100). Here is breakdown:

As I mentioned in the beginning, I enjoyed the journey itself compared to Sarez lake itself. I find the landscape leading to Sarez lake so much more beautiful than the lake itself. I am absolutely happy that we got a chance to visit this place and check off my bucket-list. If you ask me if I wanted to go again, I would probably not, unless it’s a different route. I prefer hiking with my own backpack with all those weights on my shoulders for several days. I think carrying my own stuff with me and leaving comfort behind give me more joy than being in the comfort.

Anyhow, I hope you enjoyed the reading as much as I did, writing it. Until next time, cheers.

- Night Runner