The canyon at the 22nd kilometer of the Varzob road is sometimes called "Mulberry Canyon" or "Snake Canyon". At the beginning of the canyon, there are indeed many mulberry trees, but the season for them has already passed. However, there are many other berries, such as blackberries, apricots, and grapes, and they literally cover the ground deep inside the canyon. Fortunately, we did not encounter any snakes as the weather was cloudy and they usually do not come out of their burrows in such conditions since there is no sun to warm them up.

The path to the canyon begins from this bridge at the 22nd kilometer, past a country house that is visible from the road. You can bypass this house by taking a trail on the other side of the bridge that leads into the canyon. However, we went through the house because the stairs were more convenient.

At the very beginning we are met by a plane tree grove with a clearing.

Among these plane trees there are also unusual ones, for example, there is only one bark left of a tree, but it continues to grow.

Mulberry trees are found at every step, especially at the beginning of the gorge.

This is how the path looks like, which leads us deep into the gorge.

But the rivulet here is quite small, I will say more, in a rather long section of the gorge it completely disappears, goes underground.

And such views surround us at the beginning of the gorge.

The trail led us to this cleared meadow, as the experienced say, rallies, tourism competitions are held here, well, not directly in the clearing, here is, as it were, the main place, and the competition takes place around, on the slope, along the gorge.

Behind this clearing, the trail begins to deepen into thickets, which at times turn into almost a forest.

And here in these thickets is full of all kinds of berries - blackberries, cherry plums, grapes. There are apples.

Or it often happens like this, and grapes and cherry plums.

There are so many grapes that I was even tempted and collected a little.

The grapes grew here like vines in the jungle. At the end of the gorge, the trail makes its way through rocks, thickets, which here actually resemble a jungle.

And the views around are corresponding ...

As a result, our path reaches this small waterfall, in which, despite its small size, we had a great swim. Right there, nearby, in a small clearing, we had lunch, rested and went on our way back ...

Wish you all the best!
Until next time ...

Source in Russian: "Поход в ущелье на 22 километре, Варзоб, горы Таджикистана"

Hiking in the canyon at the 22nd kilometer of the Varzob road, in the mountains of Tajikistan