In the end, the quest was not entirely successful; the waterfall I found was not the big Gusgarf waterfall that people usually talk about, but I did find it eventually. In a computer game, for example, when completing a quest, I would probably receive some amount of virtual currency, gear, or weapons, that is, rewards for a drawn adventure (quest). Let's see what I got in real life:
• I wandered the mountains for about 10 hours, that is, breathed clean mountain air: + to health.
• During that time, I kept walking with short breaks, which is 10 hours of continuous walking: + to endurance.
• By getting lost and then finding my way, I improved my skill in orienteering in mountainous terrain: + to orientation.
• To get to the right trail, I climbed over rocks: + to rock climbing.
• Overall, a general plus to the skill of tourism: + to tourism.
Another bonus was the fun time spent, that is, I want to say - go to the mountains, gentlemen!
The path to the waterfall begins with crossing this bridge over the Varzob River.
After which you find yourself in a resort area, rest houses, country clubs, elite cottages are concentrated here - I did not take pictures here, you are not interested in deaf fences with signs ... The road, rising above, leads us to the village of Gusgarf, along it you have to go for a long time, leaving the village, the path to the waterfall begins.
And, this path leads us to this unfortunate place. I, as a decent person, went right along a very obvious path. And the right way was to the left, simply, the tree hid the path here, not otherwise, the mountain spirit beguiled...
I'm coming, so I admire the views...
And somewhere, at the fourth hour, I notice that the trail is getting steeper and cooler, and no longer a hike and some kind of climb.
And this path leads to some thickets, it’s becoming harder to go, in short I feel that the tourist route didn’t begin at all.
I went to a viewing place and, having studied the situation, remembering what the locals told me when I asked them for directions, I understood, and then I saw where I had to go. In the photo in the middle of the lower ridge you can see the path serpentine, approximately under the house, the house, by the way, is on the other edge, just, from here, so it is seen. Yes, just on this track... :)
But I almost climbed a mountain, although it’s deceptive, distances are hiding in the mountains, so I could still cut and saw, I could reach it, but other goals were set in front of me.
I did not want to go back, that is, down, and I went directly. Having reached the cliffs, for some reason I decided that there is a path, a barely noticeable path, this mountain spirit of yours mocked me plenty.
On check, it turned out that this is not a path, but simply sections overgrown with grass.
But returning back is no longer an option either.
While climbing these rocks, sometimes I got to small areas where you could calmly take a picture of the opening view.
Well, finally, the last jerk is at your fingertips, as they say.
Having embarked on the trail, took a couple of shots, back and forth, respectively. This place, that is, where the path passes over the edge, is called the Pioneer pass.
Seeing the river, on which the waterfall supposedly should be located, I decided to go directly along it, for sure to get to it. The river is colorful, all in small waterfalls, stones along the bottom with large veins.
Life here is in full swing, and this is manifested as usual in the fact that someone is eating someone. An interesting moment, the frog has a bigger head than a snake, curious how it all ends.
Finally, the long-awaited waterfall seemed, as I thought at first, the same.
Waterfall near ... I walked up so that it was too lazy to swim, just washed.
To the right of the waterfall, there is a dry bed, apparently when there is a lot of water, a waterfall also flows along this bed. Now, I used it as a ladder and went upstairs. See the view of, say, the upper knee from the waterfall and the top view of the lower bowl.
Having climbed up and going around in a circle, I did not find anything interesting and went along the upper path back, at the same time taking a picture of the waterfall from this path, though it is almost invisible.
Again he climbed the already familiar crossroads. And it was raining in Dushanbe, by the way, how much I wandered, and there were clouds above my head, I never got rain, miracles. I think so, in the end, the mountain spirit realized that I would not give up and replaced anger with mercy...
This waterfall is not the one large Gusgarf waterfall, at least that is usually spoken of, that is here, but I found it, then the truth.
P.S. Based on this trip I wrote a story: "In Search of the Gusgarf Waterfall - Short story"
P.S.S. Later I visited this waterfall in spring.: Spring hike to waterfalls in Gusgarf, Varzob gorge, mountains of Tajikistan
