This site is a narrative of our trips into the mountains and plains of the country in search of its elusive wildlife. It is a testament of our encounters with the people of the land, their culture, folklore and how they cope with the rigors of life.
It describes our experiences in Afghanistan during the 1970s as we were engaged in the starting of a natural resources conservation program and the setting up of national parks and reserves. We traveled to different parts of the country, met and mingled with people of the high country of the Wakhan and the Pamir mountains in northern Afghanistan and the central regions, and leaned about their lifestyles and how they coped with the rigors of harsh climate in the Hindu Kush highlands.
Our journeys took us from the towering peaks of the Wakhan corridor to wetlands where we encountered thousands of waterfowl and waders during their seasonal migrations using the wetlands of Afghanistan as a resting location before crossing the high mountain country.
It is a tribute to a time when the ravages of war had not torn the country apart along ethnic fault lines. A time when one could travel freely without the fear of being maimed by mines.
The 1970s were auspicious years in our lives as we were able to travel to some of the most isolated parts of the country and experience the exhilarating closeness of Afghanistan’s wildlife. Our keen mutual interest in wildlife conservation and the urge to explore the mountains of Afghanistan formed the start to our adventures and secured our bond of friendship over the years. We traveled to some of the remotest parts of the country several times over and became well-acquainted with the land and its people as our reconnaissance journeys grew bolder and our careful observations expanded to cover conservation targets as diverse as Marco Polo sheep in the Pamirs and the world’s highest breeding places of greater flamingos in the saddle of the Koh-e Baba range. Our journeys were well-documented as we recorded our travels in thousands of color slides and black-and-white photographs. Our scope of work increased over time and with the growing interest and involvement of government agencies, we were commissioned to undertake biological and ecological surveys in different parts of the country to assess which areas merited protection as nature conservation areas and national parks.
In 1978, violent political turmoil brought abrupt changes, making it all but impossible to return to Afghanistan to continue our work in the dangerous atmosphere that prevailed over the countryside. Afghanistan was little known and of less concern to the western world at the time, but as tensions mounted, the country became a focal point for international politicians and the world media. Newspaper articles about the Afghan conflict began to appear in the press almost on a daily basis; books were written focused on the warfare and suffering which the Soviet invasion brought. With the departure of the Soviet army, civil war between different factions continued for another decade and the country became a forgotten story once again, an object of international intrigue and manipulation that has continued to this day.
In time the number of color slides and black-and-white photographs taken in the field increased to some ten thousand which upon leaving the country were left in safe storage in New Jersey for years. In the 1990s we met in the United States during a short visit and began reviewing the many color slides so long in storage and the idea for a book began to germinate. Afghanistan was our home during those golden years and we still carry those fond memories of adventure, friends and privileged travel close to heart. Although separated by continents and oceans, we began to slowly write about our experiences, coming together from time to time to examine thousands of photographs and edit text that we had both written from our notes and memories that were unique to each of us. It’s been a long haul but we pressed on devoting time and effort to the undertaking between our busy professional schedules and other commitments. We wanted to share our experience, offer a glimpse of the many wonders of this incredibly beautiful, diverse and special country in a small selection of our photographs. For a long time we’ve wanted to tell another side of Afghanistan’s story, not of the misery of the war, which portrays the country as an unruly tribal people in constant conflict, but of the awesome beauty of its imposing mountains and pristine valleys, where wild sheep and goats live in the remote hinterlands and eagles soar freely riding thermal currents in search of prey, and where melting glaciers generate torrential glacial streams forming the rivers that bring life to the country.
This book is a personal testimony, a narrative of the land, its wildlife, its people and our travels in Afghanistan over an eight-year period between 1971 and 1978. We have included excerpts from the writings of historians, observations of famous travelers, and the journals of adventurers and pilgrims of centuries past.
Our experiences reflect times of peace, when it was possible to explore the deepest reaches of the mountains, deserts and wetlands without fear of being maimed by mines, when battle lines had not been drawn among ethnic groups, and when fratricidal warfare was not the order of the day. We hope that it demonstrates our gratitude to so many people who gave us encouragement and assistance through all those wonderful years. Afghanistan was our home for so long and it changed our lives forever. We fervently hope that with this book readers may better appreciate some of the many wonders of this fascinating and enduring country that, enshallah, may one day be at peace again.
Khushal Habibi, Clarksville, Maryland
Ronald Petocz Manila, Philippines
