The Great Game
The Silk Road through the Pamirs & Karakorum Mountains
with Roger Williams
Our grand Central Asian odyssey links some of the most far-flung and spectacular destinations of “The Great Game,” as the 19th century diplomatic rivalry between the British Empire and Tsarist Russia was known. With long-time Central Asia explorer Roger Williams, we visit the Silk Road outpost of Kashgar, with its world-famous Sunday market, the awe-inspiring Hunza Valley in the mighty Karakorum Mountains, then head to Kyrgystan and cross the spectacular 12,840-foot Kyzyl-Art Pass into mountainous Tajikistan. We journey a remote road across Tajikistan’s spell-binding High Pamirs, with its lakes, canyons and massive glaciers, visit the legendary Wakhan Corridor and ancient Mazar-I-Sharif in northern Afghanistan, and complete our amazing journey in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. Along the way, we soak up phenomenal mountain scenery and meet the friendly Uighurs, Tajiks, Hunzakuts, and other peoples whose cultures are deeply tied to this desert and mountain realm.
Highlights
- Kashgar’s famed Sunday bazaar, the largest in Asia
- The mountain people of Hunza, the nomadic Kyrgyz with their herds
- Breathtaking scenery of the mighty Karakorum, High Pamirs, and Wakhan Corridor
- Mazar-i-Sharif and the ancient ruins of Balkh
Details
- 26-day trip begins in Urumqi, China, and ends in Tashkent, Uzbekistan
- 25 nights in best-available hotels, guest houses, and yurt camps
- All meals included
- Cultural exploration and walking tours, rugged road travel
Tour Costs
$10995 (10 members)
$11495 (8-9 members)
$11995 (6-7 members)
Single supplement: $1200
Internal airfare: $375 (subject to change)
Departures & Leaders
May 28-Jun 22, 2010 Roger Williams
Jun 25-Jul 20, 2010 Roger Williams
Suggested Reading
Reading list, click here.
Itinerary at a Glance
Days 1-10
Urumqi, China / Kashgar / Hunza Valley, Pakistan
From Urumqi in western China we fly to Kashgar, an isolated Silk Road oasis with an end-of-the-world feel. After roaming the bazaar, we make a spectacular drive across the Karakorum Mountains to legendary Hunza Valley, a mountain-ringed enclave that was for centuries an independent princely state.
Days 11-20
Tashkurgan, China / Irkeshtam, Kyrgyzstan / Murgab, Tajikistan
Traveling the great Karakorum Highway through the high country of the Tien Shan Mountains, we enter Kyrgyzstan and begin to see the yurts of Kyrgyz nomads with their herds. We switch to 4WD vehicles to cross the Kyzyl-Art Pass into Tajikistan. Continuing across the beautiful lake country of the Pamir Plateau, we follow a road along the Panj (Oxus) River, the natural border between Tajikistan and Afghanistan, and visit the scenic Wakhan Corridor, where the Oxus River marks the boundary between Afghanistan and Tajikistan, then continue to Dushanbe, the Tajik capital.
Days 21-26
Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan / Tashkent, Uzbekistan
We cross into northern Afghanistan at Kunduz and continue along scenic roads to ancient Mazar-i-Sharif, near the Uzbek border. Nearby, we visit the ruins of Balkh (Bactria), a Silk Road town that was once a base for Alexander the Great. We fly to Tashkent on Day 24 and depart on Day 26.
This is the Itinerary-at-a-Glance. For the complete trip description, Download Full Trip Brochure