a bartang walk

Location:
Tajikistan
Created:

Covered in rocks though it is, this also happens to be the valley's defining feature, lingering inescapably on one's mind wherever foot is set. Myriads and myriads of rocks, stones in shapes and sizes. A meticulous working of the land however, next to glacier fed rivers, removing from the earth stones and pebbles, has yielded a soil fertile for year-around settlements.

A handful or so of hamlet/villages lay dotted along the Bartang valley.

A few cars arrive and depart weekly, carrying inhabitants, visitors and goods from the nearest town, a 12 or 18 hours drives away, depending. The heat of summer see melt of ice flood the roads and trigger avalanches; the cold of winter leaving it covered in snow and ice.

But it's a precarious place to live.