Home >> Afghan Wakhan Trekker >> Day 4-13, 14, 15 & 16

Days 4-13

We will take our yaks and horses and begin our trek into the heart of the Wakkhan corridor. The route takes us into the Wakhan valley, past the Big Pamir and into the valleys surrounded by the Small Pamir, populated mostly by Kyrgyz nomads. We will walk along the length of the valley to Afghanistan's furthest easterly outpost at the foot of the mountains that form the border with China. This is the place where the Kirghiz nomads have their summer camping grounds in the Small Pamirs.

Wildlife in the Pamir mountains, and specifically in the Wakhan Valley, is drawn from four biogeograhical subregions: Mediterranean, Siberian, West Chinese, and Indian. There is abundant wildlife in the Wakhan Valley, and you will be delighted to see the famous Marco Polo Sheep (Ovis ammon poli) and Siberian Ibex (Capra ibex sibericus). Although sightings of the elusive Snow Leopard (Uncia uncia) are quite rare, this is one of the few habitats left in the world where you will see evidence of these beautiful felines. In the region you might also catch a sight of urial sheep (Ovis Orientalis), brown bear (Ursus arctos), the grey wolf (canis lupus), fox (Canis vulpes), and lynx (Lynx lynx).

The Wakhan corridor was given to Afghanistan as a buffer between the expansionist empires of Czarist Russian and British India as a means to keep a neutral space between themselves, and is considered one of the remotest, and least visited valleys in the world. It has been the goal of many a Western explorer and traveler, yet few have ever made it to this dramatic and awe-inspiring valley.

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