Day 34 Kalaikhum-Shuroabad 175/9.721 km

During the night the temperature dropped below 5 deg (2500 m). It was warm under the duvet but washing in the stream was freezing but refreshing. We filled up all water bottles/tank and went rolling down the mountain. The scenery was awesome. Steep drops next to the cliff hugging road with snow sometimes on both sides. The stream was gaining strength along the way till a roaring torrent in town. There were terraces built over the stream like in Switzerland. On the hillside there were beehives and an imcer checking on the honey production. In town we received the bad news that the next section of the Pamir Highway was closed due to civil unrest. The control posts were told not to allow any tourist pass. The ladies had travelled on the evening before so there was no way we could meet them on the agreed spot today. After much deliberation we had to give up on driving further on the Pamir Highway. Our visa was just not long enough to take the risk of being delayed further along the way. We all decided to drive back down the mountain towards Dushanbe. The ladies were notified and they turned around. We will all meet up again in the course of the next day.
The road down the mountain followed the river border with Afghanistan. On the afghan side there was only a donkey/footpath connecting the various villages. Sometimes you saw a motorcycle but mostly the people were on foot or with a donkey. Life appears a lot different on the other side of the river/border. At one point our road turned away from the border river and crossed a 2000 m pass into a totally different landscape of rolling green hills. We found a nice camping spot with a lovely view on the sunset. Temperature back to 35 deg.