One summer day, taking coffee in a thermos and packing sandwiches, I set out to find this waterfall. At first, everything went well. I arrived at the right place, asking the driver of the suburban minibus where to go. I followed the directions I had received earlier, and the waterfall was supposed to be located behind the village, after some uphill climb. The village was not located along the road, but a little further down the valley. Along the road, there were several rest areas, country clubs, and huge cottages belonging to the local wealthy. After passing through all of this, I walked another couple of kilometers and reached the Gusgarf village.
In the village, I asked one of the locals how to get to the waterfall. He explained, "Go straight along the road, climb up, cross the pass, then go down, and you'll reach the waterfall." "Okay," I thought, "I haven't heard of the pass before, this is getting complicated." But I had no choice but to keep going. After some time, I asked another local, this time in a different context, if I was going the right way to the waterfall. He made it even more confusing. "Yes," he said, "you can go straight, or you can turn left and follow the river." I thanked him and kept going, thinking to myself, "Another turn to the left? But if I can go straight, I'll go straight."
The village is located on a slope, so the ascent has already begun. Beyond the village, the climb became steeper and the road turned into a well-trodden path, so I confidently walked along it. Especially since the path followed the river, I just had to stay close to it, then I would definitely meet this waterfall. Earlier, I asked various people several times how long it would take to get to the waterfall, and they all gave different answers, but in general, it was about three hours.
After a couple of hours of climbing along the river path, the river began to worry me as it became smaller and smaller. They also mentioned some kind of pass, and as I walked, I thought that something was not right here. But the path was good, so it would definitely lead somewhere, I encouraged myself, confidently stepping forward. Eventually, the river disappeared completely, although the path still looked good. At this point, I finally started to think, and my previous confidence disappeared. I decided to look for a comfortable place to sit and drink coffee. I found a place not far away, something like a meadow. One of those clearings where locals chop and stack wood, then tie them into bundles to make it easy to transport them on donkeys.
As I sat there drinking coffee, I slowly realized that it was precisely these woodcutters who had made such a good path, and this path would not lead me to the waterfall. I looked at the time and realized that I had been climbing for four hours, and there were no waterfalls in sight. Something had clearly gone wrong, and I began to feel like "Captain Obvious." I searched for a more open place from which I could see the entire path I had taken from the village. The picture that appeared before me clarified everything, revealing the depth of my mistake.
I was on the slope of a mountain, having already hiked about two-thirds of the way up. If I continued to climb, I would reach the summit, which I didn't really need to do. From the summit, to my left and across three gullies, ran a long ridge all the way to the village. As I could now see, there was another trail leading up to this ridge from below the river, which was actually the one that crossed over to the waterfall, not the river I was on. I remembered the place where this trail started; I had taken a short break there before the climb but hadn't noticed the trail because I was convinced that I needed to go straight ahead.
Now I had two options: to descend to the point where the trail started, or to continue along the slope to avoid losing altitude. The problem was that I was already above the pass that I needed to cross, which had led me astray in the first place. I thought that if I descended, I would waste the whole day climbing back up again, so I decided to walk along the slope. I thought I saw a trail heading in the direction I wanted to go, but it turned out to be just my imagination. I didn't want to descend and climb again, so I convinced myself that there was a trail there.
That wasn't the end of my problems, though. For some reason, I had decided to go on a hike in shorts, which I don't usually do. I had thought that I would only walk on trails, but I completely forgot about it when I started walking along the slope. At first, everything seemed fine, but when I got into the thickets between the rocks, there were no trails, and I scratched myself everywhere I could. I also climbed during the hottest time of the day, without any shade, and my calves and shins got sunburned, not too badly, but still. Besides the overgrown areas, in some places, I had to recall my rock climbing skills.
Eventually, I, angry, exhausted, and burnt, finally reached the pass. Later, I found out that the pass, like the waterfall, was also called Pioneer. And why they were called "Pioneer," I dare not judge. Beyond the pass, down below, the river flowed several dozen meters away. Apparently, the waterfall I was looking for should have been there. I descended to the river, but again, I was faced with a dilemma - should I go up or downstream? It was unclear. On that day, I was simply a champion at making wrong decisions. I decided to go upstream, thinking that I would not miss the waterfall if I walked straight along the riverbank since the trail seemed to deviate from the river. And then, yet another unexpected event occurred on the river.
As I made my way along the riverbank, the river was mountainous, which made it difficult to navigate. I had to jump from rock to rock, sometimes walking along the bank, sometimes in the water. I happened to be in a dark, shady spot and was jumping onto the next rock when, between the rocks, I saw a big snake trying to swallow a frog. I'm not exactly afraid of snakes, but like any normal person, I'm wary of them. And then, I jumped so close that I landed half a meter away from the snake, and to make things worse, it looked terrifying since the frog was bigger than the snake, and its head was stretched out to swallow its prey, which was still alive.
The sight and the unexpectedness of it made me feel like my burnt legs were covered in frost. I had encountered snakes before, but usually, I was wearing high boots and thick pants, which made me feel much more confident. Here, though, in shorts and trekking shoes, I felt like I was naked. I jumped onto another rock far away and began to observe. It turned out that the snake was not that big; fear truly does exaggerate things. But its bloody, swollen face still looked disgusting and scary. After inspecting everything and feeling some unease in my heart after such a meeting, I continued on.
I walked just a few meters when a waterfall opened up before me. I approached it, sat on a comfortable rock, and pleased with myself, started admiring the waterfall. When the euphoria finally passed, I noticed its height. The waterfall consisted of two sections. Firstly, a four-meter drop, then a bowl and another section, no more than five meters high. Despite my efforts, I couldn't make it more than thirty meters in total. "Captain Obvious" I joked, "Something clearly went wrong again." But I wasn't in the mood for laughter. In addition to all the troubles, fatigue and a sense of doom came over me as I realized that I probably wouldn't find the right waterfall today.
I sat and rested for a while, regained my strength, and decided to continue up the river, thinking that maybe all was not lost. I climbed the rocks next to the waterfall, walked a little further along the river, and then crossed over to a trail. The trail veered away from the river, apparently to avoid the waterfall, which, by the way, couldn't be seen from it. As I walked, I noticed that this stream was now also shrinking. On the left slope, there were paths leading higher, so I went up to see what was ahead. I climbed up to a shack with a garden, but there was no waterfall in sight.
I heard someone shouting from the other slope and saw a man waving at me. I listened and found out he was asking where I was going. I replied that I was heading to the waterfall. He waved his hand down and yelled, "There's a waterfall down there, nothing higher!" At least it was some information, so I turned back. And then, for the umpteenth time that day, I managed to make the worst decision. The slope was full of animal trails, but instead of taking the normal trail along the river, I followed these paths, thinking that I would go down later and enjoy the views from here. After a while, the slope became steeper, and before I knew it, I was on a ram's forehead.
"The Ram's forehead" is a bare, rocky, crumbling place on the slope where it is either difficult or impossible for a person to pass through, of course. The paths that were cut into the slope are used by herds of domestic animals that usually follow one another. Such places are not impassable for them, with their small hooves, but a person has nowhere to put their foot. And I was walking precisely on these animal paths when I found myself unable to move forward or upward. What to do? The most amazing thing was that going back was not an option either, so I had to steady myself and look around.
The only way was down, not far away, about twenty meters to the path below, but if I slipped, it would be enough for disastrous consequences. But I had no choice and slowly, using my fifth point as a support, began to descend. Halfway through, I realized I had to drop my backpack, I was going there anyway, but it didn't help much, it was already light. A couple of times I slipped a little, barely managing to grab onto something. After half an hour of agony with scraped palms, torn shorts, and completely exhausted, I reached the path. All of this was further aggravated by the fact that the guy on the other slope, saw everything perfectly, that bastard was sitting there and watching. He was probably laughing, like, "oh, tourists, so stupid..."
At that moment, I finally decided that I had enough adventure for today and, without turning off the path, headed home. The return journey did not bring any trouble, now I knew exactly which path to take and where to go. When people find themselves in such circumstances, they usually say that the devil confused them or mention some other evil spirits. But I think that there are enough of our own demons. Specifically, foolishness, combined with stubbornness and inappropriate self-confidence, leads to such consequences. But there were also positive results, at least now I knew exactly where not to go.
I decided to find the Gusgarf Waterfall on my next attempt, possibly next week, when I lick my wounds, so to speak. But circumstances worked out in such a way that this next attempt only happened in the autumn. The plus side was that it wasn't as hot. This time, I decided to take a different path, as the second man I had questioned the first time suggested, which was to turn left in the village and bypass the ridge on the other side. On this trip, as I walked through the village, I caught up with a group of tourists heading to another waterfall in the area. They were experienced and knew where they were going, so I decided to go with them and learn more about how to get to the Gusgarf Waterfall.
The hike with knowledgeable people brought only positive impressions. We safely reached the "Echo" Waterfall, also known as the "Eagle's Nest" by other sources. But the essence of it doesn't change with the name; it was a beautiful waterfall, pleasant company, and, in addition, I learned exactly how to get to the waterfall I was looking for. A week later, now knowing exactly where to go, I finally found the large Gusgarf Waterfall without any unnecessary detours. As I looked at the waterfall, sipping coffee under the sound of water cascading down from a thirty-meter height, I thought that these impressions were worth all the effort. And all the events that happened during my first attempt to find the waterfall, I now remember with humor, but probably more with gratitude, for the experience that I gained in abundance.
P.S. This story is based on a hike with a photo review:
Hiking-Quest - Waterfall in Gusgarf, Varzob Gorge, Mountains of Tajikistan
