This July, a Secret Compass expedition team will explore Afghanistan’s new National Park in the remote and wild Wakhan Corridor. The park celebrates its first anniversary this month.

(TRAVPR.COM) UK - April 14th, 2015 - This July, a Secret Compass expedition team will explore Afghanistan’s new National Park in the remote and wild Wakhan Corridor. The park celebrates its first anniversary this month.

At a million hectares (4,200 square miles), the National Park is 25% larger that Yosemite in the States. It protects endemic wildlife like snow leopards, plus the unique nomadic way of life of the Wakhi and Kyrgyz communities living within its borders. 

Tom Bodkin, director of Secret Compass, said, “This high-altitude trekking expedition is not for the faint-hearted. It involves days of rugged driving and river crossings just to get to the trail head, after which much of the mountainous terrain is at or above 4,000m.

“Two places remain on the team, which will forge a route across the high-altitude valleys of the Central Asian Pamir mountains, a range formed by the junction of the Himalayas with the Tian Shan, Karakoram and Hindu Kush ranges.”

Afghanistan expedition highlights 

·      An exploratory expedition into the new Wakhan National Park

·      Visit semi-nomadic Kyrgyz and Wakhi shepherding communities

·      Forge a unique trekking route through the Little and Big Pamir

·      Experience a side of Afghanistan untouched by war

·      Trek across fertile valley plains and high-altitude mountain passes

·      21 days, 20 July to 10 August 2015

·      £3,099 (all-inclusive except international flights)

Secret Compass was founded by Levison Wood (Walking the Nile) and Tom Bodkin, a colleague from the Parachute Regiment of the British Army. With its military background, Secret Compass offers exploration and adventure in wild, inaccessible and often post-conflict areas.

This pioneering adventure travel company is renowned for its expeditions to countries eschewed by most operators due to their post-conflict reputations or inaccessibility. 2015 destinations include Iran, Burma, Namibia, Siberia, Ethiopia and Kyrgyzstan.

Due to the exploratory nature of Secret Compass expeditions and their destinations, there is scope for the unexpected for which contingency plans are always in place. “If I hadn’t experienced it with my own eyes, I wouldn’t have believed it,” said former team member Mark Soares; “The potential for discovery was like that of epic literature.”

Secret Compass has previously led the world’s first mountain bike expedition in Afghanistan, culminating in the Anthill Films production called Forgotten Dirt. Wood and Bodkin have also run an expedition on horseback in efforts to locate the fabled source of the Oxus in the ice caves of the Wakhan.

For information about the 2015 exploratory expedition to the Wakhan, contact Kerry O’Neill or visit the expedition page at secretcompass.com

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Secret Compass Expeditions

Secret Compass is a pioneering expedition company creating world-first experiences for teams of like-minded adventurers. Through group and bespoke adventures, Secret Compass helps each team member achieve the extraordinary in the world’s wildest places. Founded by ex-British Army Parachute Regiment officers Levison Wood and Tom Bodkin, its expeditions reach the planet’s most remote regions in the spirit of exploration’s earliest pioneers. Find out more at: secretcompass.com.

Secret Compass TV and Film 
Secret Compass provides expert pre-production and in-country location management services to the TV and film industries. Clients to date include the BBC, National Geographic, Animal Planet and Channel 4, in countries from Afghanistan to Uzbekistan, South Sudan to Siberia. Find out more at secretcompasstv.com. 

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