ROARR - Rythm of a Road Rallies

Showing posts for 2011 - Show all posts

• 21

  JUL
  2011

  Posted at 00:32

  On the Great Game - the Pamir Highway

  Dear All

  Just back from Tajikistan and Afghanistan meeting with Jim to drive the Pamir Highway. The highway is poor, and this section of the Great Game Rally will test our endurance from Dusanbe to Osh in Kyrgyzstan, but what we give up in road condition it is more than made up as one of the most stunning, and fascinating, drives I have done. To drive so close to the forbidding land of Afghanistan, following the raging Panj River, so close you could hit a tennis or golf ball across, is one of experiences of the rally.

   

  The mountains of Afghanistan tower across the other side of the river and we will follow this road for two days before crossing over into Afghanistan herself.

   

  Even more impressive is the view across the river into Afghanistan seeing the cliff hanging walkways that hug the rock face. Just tree trunks strapped together and strapped to the rock face supporting a pathway running for hundreds of miles along the Hindu Kush.

   

  The Tajikistan side now has a road, the Afghanistan side there is no road, just this mountain way of old, connecting villages along the valley. It is a biblical sight to watch the local people, women in burqas, men in turbans, leading their donkeys along the precarious mountain pathways. It is a formidable sight and I have been researching the history of this continuous mountain walkway. Incredible this is the same walkway, the only path left, that Marco Polo walked 1000 years ago. And before the war ends, and this mountain path becomes a 'must do in a lifetime', I will return and walk this land with the people not the tourists. Those coming bring your binoculars to see into Afghanistan. The same with the bleak crossing into Afghanistan from Tajikistan into the

  valley of the Wakham. It has an incredible austerity and a sense of driving to the end of the world. The Wakham is between the two great mountain ranges of the Pamirs and Hindu Kush, and they both tower above this very narrow valley with the Panj River, once known as the Oxus, flowing fast between the two mountain ranges.

   

  Our visit to the Wakham will be short, but those coming will change their perspective of Afghanistan, and as it did with me, and I hope as to return within the next few years to make my way along the complete length of the Wakham. The land where the Russians and the British came so close to war.

   

  All the best Conrad

• 26

  APR
  2011

  Posted at 09:00

  India and Bhutan Rally 2012

  For the second time we are back from driving our classic cars the full route of the greatest survey ever undertaken. Cochin in the south, to Mussoorie in the foothills of the Himalayas. The route, with its unique experience of rural India, much unchanged since the days of George Everest and William Lampton in the early nineteen century, was a great joy to those who 'love to drive'. Fort hotels and old palaces welcomed us at interesting night stops. For one month we travelled this route until on the final drive through the woods, amidst silence, we reached Sir George Everest's house at Hathipaon, Mussoorie. It was here that Sir George, from his residence and observatory, worked on conclusions of the Great Arc - the height of the Himalayas, the shape of the Earth. His colonial bungalow is a must, with the finest views of any house in the world; situated between the Himalayas of Kashmir and Tibet to the north, and the 6000 ft drop down into the Doon valley, Indian, to the South. Quite extraordinary and breathtaking.

  With India behind Jim is now driving the Team Landy along the route of the Great Game Classic Car Rally in preparation for next August event. As I write Ranjit-Jim is driving towards Lhasa in Tibet.

  I am meeting with Ranjit-Jim in Kyrgyzstan to prepare for the adventure into the Wakhan Valley, Afghanistan.

  The Wakham is the last untouched land Marco Polo travelled across in 1276. It is an Ismail oasis with the Arga Khan as their spiritual leader. The forgotten land. Only once has the Wakham had fame, at the height of the Great Game between the Russia and Great Britain. The final meeting between the Bear and the Lion.

  The Arga Khan has funded guest houses along the only track / road in the valley and Jim and I will be checking out both the road and the accommodation in due course.

  I have just finished reading the wonderful story of Peter Somerville-Large, A shaggy Yak Story. The story of the authors attempt to get into the Wakham back in 1954. More to the point it is his story of getting Yaks to Turkey to assist the Kirghiz who moved from Wakham as refugees after the Russian invasion. 

  Incredible as it may seem, I was telling Livy about this amazing story of adventure Peter Somerville-Large, quite remarkably Livy tells me this is her Uncle!

  The story does not end there, as the Kirghiz of the Wakham are now living along Van Lake with their Yaks, we stay in Van on our adventure and so I am now researching the Karghiz of Van to try and meet with them and their Yaks on our way to the Wakham. If anyone is looking for a co-driver we could take home a Yak back to the Wakham.

  A few places remain for this adventure, and if anyone is interested contact me.

  Moving on.............

  Our next event after the Great Game, and ROARR’s eleventh rally, will be Bhutan Rally in February / March 2011. Follow the same route as the Himalaya Rally of 2007, except from Calcutta to Udaipur onto Delhi, and adding in Bangladesh, as well Bhutan, Sikkim, Nepal and the hill stations of India.

  First offers to those on the Great Game as their cars can stay in Calcutta for the winter and then will be ready for the Bhutan Rally in mid February 2012.

  Is this the perfect rally escape from next year’s winter weather? - Interested?

  Details to follow shortly.

  All the best Conrad

   PS – Update to my last newsletter. We crossed the lands of the bandits, the Naxalites, on our travels during the Great Arc, all without incident.