Transport in Bartang Valley

Minibuses run between Basid and Khorog most days (40TJS), leaving Khorog at lunchtime, but there’s little other traffic. The easiest way to visit the Bartang Valley is by hire car. A trip from Khorog to Savnob and back, via Bardara, eats up about 420km. Make sure your driver has a spare jerry can of fuel, as there is little, if any petrol available en route. High river flows often wash away sections of the road in early summer.

Past Savnob, a road of sorts continues on to Kok Jar and Murgab but the road is in very bad condition and only worth contemplating at the end of summer and with a reliable 4WD. Check beforehand whether the road is open. As one local told us, ‘The road to Kok Jar is fine but at the end of the trip both the car and driver will be destroyed.’