So once again the team is back in Dushanbe after another five days out in the wilds. We set out last Sunday and headed up into the Fann mountains again, aiming for the Zerafshan river, which lies close to the border with Kyrgyzstan. Our original plan had been to drive first to Romit, a town about an hour north-east of Dushanbe, and to paddle the Salvo Darya. The evening before setting out however, we learnt from our driver that the group of prisoners who had escaped from Dushanbe prison at the end of August, had been tracked down to the town of Romit and were now fighting gun battles with the army in its streets. We therefore decided that the prudent approach would be to avoid Romit, bringsaid goodbye to Umed and the Commander and set up our camp for the night surrounded by fantastic scenery.

We woke at first light the next morning, had a leisurely breakfast, packed our boats and were on the water by about eight forty five. For the first hour or so we were paddling through flood plains and the river was fairly shallow and braided, but with constant gradient providing continuous, fast flowing grade 2 and 3 rapids. Before long we reached the start of the gorges and the river became a lot narrower, but the gradient remained roughly the same, producing fun grade 3 rapids and flat but fast flowing, sheer sided, boily canyons. Every once in a while narrow dirt tracks would make their way down to the