Panjshir Valley

A village on the way to the Valley. There's that peculiar walk again.

The driver (L) who works through the A4T guesthouse and the student who moonlights as interpreter

Miners actually cross this stream in this improvised device. It gets pulled by hand. The cable is thick and seems safe

This trip was all about Ahmed Shah Massoud, the 'Lion of Panjshir', ultimately assassinated by suicidal Taliban

Someone who does not care much about all of that Soviet hardware that is scattered throughout the valley, Massoud's legacy.

Here the old Tajik, who still remembers it all, prays at the grave of Massoud, who also had become the defense minister, after the Taliban war was over, under President Rabbani, just recently assassinated himself, by Taliban, while the young boy is innocently playing with a toy car on the glass surface.

One of many such vehicles in the area. The Valley continues for many miles and not long ago was subject to a Taliban attack

We had stopped at a restaurant in Panjshir Valley for lunch and for this sneaky shot, my camera sat on a rocky table. I wish I had carried my remote with me, but I seem to have lost it. Of course it's men only, that's a given.

 

Two amusing Tajiks who had been praying in the meadow behind the restaurant and afterward..	..started to joke around with me, in broken English and via my interpreters.

 

The return trip

 

What we have here are hundreds of abandoned Soviet tanks and other military equipment, left behind

 

 

I noticed this nomad camp and asked the driver to please stop. He asked one of the nomads who was walking by the road if I could go up there, but he declined. He did permit pictures from where we stood. I said 'fine' and thanked him and then grabbed my stabilized tele lens out of my bag and took these pictures. Good enough for me.

 

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