Afghanistan

It was a crazy feeling when we first looked across the Panj River that divides Tajikistan and Afghanistan. We were almost speechless, just thinking, "Wow, that's it..." That scary place that we hear so much about in the western media. Yet across the river, in the small villages full of simple mudbrick homes, miles of hand-built stone fences and deciduous trees in a full palette of fall colors, there were no bombs flying, guns firing, buildings burning. There were just people going about their daily lives - herding livestock, moving along footpaths between homes and between villages, playing soccer on the flats by the river. Many of the people on the Afghan side in this area would have been Tajik enthnicity and I found it crazy to think of how different their lives must be from their neighbors; how their fates were sealed by the arbitrary drawing of a line on a map by politicians so far removed.

On the Afghan side of the river, there were no roads. For hundreds of kilometers, as we rattled and bounced along Tajikistan's main highway, we looked across at the footpath in Afghanistan. I was completely fascinated by it and found it hard to take my eyes off of it. In flatter areas (of which there aren't many), the trail was paved by hundreds of years of donkey caravans, sheep and cattle herds and pedestrians moving back and forth between villages and towns. The small villages were spread about a day's walk apart and we never did see a large town where one might buy supplies. We did see a few small donkey caravans carrying heavy loads, probably walking for several days in each direction to the nearest market. Along the cliffs that ran alongside most of the Panj, wood and rocks were used to build narrow bridges between ledges in the cliff and headspace or extra width was chisled out of the rock by hand. The entire length of it that we followed was an incredible feat of engineering, made all the more impressive by the knowledge that it was 100s of years old.

We couldn't help but think of what an amazing trip it would be to travel along this network of paths by foot but don't worry, we won't be buying tickets to Afghanistan anytime soon!

Christine