A Trip Through the Mountains - Nate

Last Sunday, March 20th, we all loaded up in Dad's Land Cruiser from work.  He was going out to the mountains to check out a tunnel and brought us along.  We headed out of Dushanbe toward the North, along the Varzob River.  There were many little villages along the river.  We saw lots of decks hanging over the river with tables on them.  These low tables with benches around them are called "topchans".  My dad has eaten in the village of Varzob on a topchan that was hanging over the river.  We hope to go back and eat at one of the restaurants along the river when it gets warmer.  In one village there was a road off to the left that looked interesting.  We headed up the road and it winded its way up a mountain!!  It was very beautiful, but a little scary because on my side of the car there was a huge drop off.  The temperature dropped 5 degrees Celsius.  After coming down the mountain, we got back on the main road.  We went through a variety of tunnels before we got to "The Big One".  The tunnel's name is the Amzole Tunnel.  It is a very long tunnel through the mountain.  It was built by the country of Iran.  It was very dark, very wet, had huge icicles hanging down.  The road was bumpy and had big holes.  It took 15 minutes for us to cross through in one direction.  It was a great adventure.  On the way home, we stopped along the river to climb on the rocks and get some fresh air.  (Grace had just thrown up in the back seat).  I accidentally fell in the river when I slipped on a wet rock.  My dad cautioned me not to jump from rock to rock, I think I learned my lesson!!!  I hope to make many trips to the mountains.

The windy road up the mountain with the scary drop off.

Mountain View

The road through the mountains

A tunnel built by China

Rock climbing at the Varzob River