Kazachstan & Kyrgyzstan - Report and pictures
Kazachstan - Asy-plateau - Karakol (Kyrgystan)
After 6 days in de heat of Kazachstan (up till 45 degrees C!) we arrived in Karakol on a day full off clouds en from time to time rain. Kazachstan was astonishing. Road quality was issue of concern, which resulted in a lot of walking, even downhill. But the country en the people easily make up for that!
Pizza Margarita and Döner Kebab, these words are the first we understand from the Cyrillic language. It looks and sounds like abracadabra to us and only by translating letter by letter (just as learning to read in First Grade) we decipher some of the basics. Benzin should be clear, just like Magazin for getting food and Apteka, which we hope we will not need while cycling through Central Asia. What is it that we are looking for here? That is also the question of the first Kazakh we speak on the street outside the airport. Adventure, nature, landscape, people, ex-communism, tough cycling or good food? To cut this story short, we find it all, except for the good food ;-). Kazachstan and Kyrgystan are not the first countries on most peoples lists for a relaxed holiday. There is not a holiday culture here at all, besides some Russians and locals. The language barrier is huge and the countryside is desolate, not to speak from the mountains which will give us great views but great pains as well. But most of my anxiety actually comes from humans, what is a life worth here in the former Russian republics? Of course we did not show any of this to our family and friends when they all said 'take care' with a little more emphasis than on our previous tours. Our confidence comes from the good equipment and earlier travels. We know that things you expect to go wrong do not and usually everything that does go wrong will be solved one way or the other. Our ultimate Almaty experience is going to a bus stop and hop in bus 32 with unknown destination (we chose the one which most people take). When everybody gets out we follow them and get to a fairly large permanent market. Sunday clearly is shopping day, which is good for us, because we need some supplies. Besides vegetables (quit a lot) we mainly see watermelons and for the rest almost all things you can image. There is a street with cookies and sweets, one with rice and macaroni and sauces, one with ironmongery, household items, pots and pans etcetera. There is enough to get our usual meals for the first days in the mountains. Here we buy the chicken soup that we later find out is so salty that we should (have not) use(d) not more than a teaspoon per meal. Sunday is also an excellent day for marriages. In the park next to the Orthodox cathedral we see at least 7 pairs of newly weds with family and friends, camera crew, white doves and photographers making pictures and film next to all the old Russian army and war memorials and statues. It'll probably bring them lots of luck???
On the bike
Creaking and shrieking sounds as we come to a stop. Mark signals to Mandy the Michael Boogerd saying: "t Nekkie is eraf " (literally a Cut Throat, saying by Dutch cyclist that the best of him has gone in a race). We begin in Kazakhstan with 60 km of reasonably flat cycling, a bridge missing (but a new word learned, Mos is bridge) and 450 height meters into the gorge along the Türgen river, raging down along our camp site so we have to speak with hands even between us now. The road continues into the narrowing gorge and just like the new trend in cooking (slow food) we now experience something which we could call Slow Holiday. It is a mix of an astonishing landscape, a gravel road with 20% up or down (usually up) and a heavily packed tandem and means nothing more than taking it slowly and walk. But not for nothing, because when we reach the Jailoo (sort of Alp) we see the first Yurt (traditional nomadic tent) and the view is overwhelming. Each step comes with hard work, but after each step and "pfieh it is heavy" we hear ourselves say "pfieh it is so beautiful". A lonely shepperd guides his horse besides us to check us out, but without a common language we do not get to know much of him. People here live from the livestock, sheep, cows and horses graze and wander about in the green fields a bit higher up the mountain. It is too hot for them in the valleys during summer. We roll along the Asy plateau with lots of grass, cattle and no real road, just some muddy tracks. A few scattered Yurts stand as pearls along the small stream, we pitch our tent in between for a real night in the field. Again we are paid a visit by a horseman, Mourad, we speaks three words German and together with our Russian phrasebook we find out he is a wealthy horse shepperd (400 horses must be a small fortune here), with 2 children en 5 grand children. Again we are paid a visit by a horseman, Murat, we speaks three words German and together with our Russian phrasebook we find out he is a wealthy horse shepperd (400 horses must be a small fortune here), with 2 children and 5 grand children. He brings some wodka and invites us into his home. unfortunately, that would mean another tour on the bike, which is too much after this long day. Getting through the mountains to Kirgyzstan, our original plan, seems either impossible due to the tough climbs and bad roads or illegal, because no official border post exists. This means we will have to go around the mountains, over the steppe into the heat of Kazakhstan. Getting off the Asy plateau is even harder than getting on it, the road is hardly existent and there is no water available after a last small stream. Some crazy climbing is followed by a real down hill towards the lake, the temperature rises to over 40 degrees and only sand is left from all the green we passed earlier. A truck comes up from behind, Mandy ceases the opportunity and asks in sign language if our bike and we can go into the truck. This is the start of a very nice encouter with a whole Kazakh family and one sheep, all sitting in the back of the truck. We stop for some fresh water melon (mmmm, cool and watery, a very smart conservation method) and a picture needs to be taken. The family is super friendly, some of the younger girl and boys speek some English and are really exited to learn that we are not brother and sister but husband and wife (to make things easier). They drop us off close to a small village where we stay in the local Yurt hotel annex restaurant. It serves as a truck stop for megatrucks on their way from China to the West. We continu our trip very early the next day to avoid some of the heat as we pass the Charyn gorge, which of course only helps us through the first 2 hours, after which temperatures rise to over 42 degrees! The tarmac melts away, but after two days, about twenty 12% signs and twice as much bends in the road, we reach the gravel that will lead us into Kirgizstan. Crossing the border can be difficult we heard, so we expect a long wait. But things actually go very smooth, the customs officer just wants to know if we intend to sell the bike (how would we get on with our trip if we did?) but does not want to check the rest of our bags, after seeing the first layer of dirty clothes on top of it.
Karakol
We arrive in Karakol after 8 days of cycling and camping, and it rains. So we really want a nice place, which we find with a very nice family. They even have a hot shower! Down in Karakol we can relax en prepare for the next round. The town itself is rather simple, do not expect anything fancy, but we can by food, eat out in a restaurant and get money from an ATM. After three days of rest (and a lot of clothes washed by hand) we leave for Naryn.
To Naryn
The first part of the trip to Naryn is very relaxed, we paddle along the lake over the tarmac and even see some (local) tourism at the beach club. Everybody here is even more relaxed than in Kazakhstan, nobody tries to sell us anything, which can even have a down side if you would like to buy something. But on the other hand, people even stop with their car to give us food and drink, because they think we must really need it. Even explaining that we buy our own food does not help, we have to take the only bottle of Sisi the man has...
At the Yurt camp along the lake south of Tosor we stay for a night in the camp and some relaxing in the afternoon. The afternoon tea is served for the whole family and all the guest and includes the traditional tea, bread, jam, sweets and more. In the safety of the Yurtcamp, a political activist gives some insight in the 'democracy'of the country. Very interesting for us, but a long way to go for this country.
The path up the Tosor pass is in a really bad condition and very steep as well, we have arranged a car + trailer to bring us up to make up for some lost days and save some energy for the coming days. Even in the car it is a crazyman's ride. The view is spectaculair, at 3500 m we see some snow on the tops and the valley itself is again beautiful. The river winds through and will be our guide for the coming 3 days. We have to cross side streams about every half an hour or less (I think we counted over 20 crossings this afternoon alone, some we can bike through, some we can not. We spend the night over 3000m altitude, between the small gravel path and the river with only one vehicle that passed us today. The next two days follow the same pattern, we get very quick at removing shoes and socks and walking over stones and through the streams. The valley does not seem to have inhabitants, we do not see any yurts or houses for 2 days. The only people we meet are fellow cyclists going the other way, about 2 groups per day which is more than we expected. On the second day we are warned that a deep river crossing is soon to come, so deep that even some cyclists (in particular one single Dutch man!) have turned around on the spot. We do not want to go back!!! When we reach the river it is not the depth that scares us, although it is knee-deep, but the power with which it flows. If you'll fall in it, it will drag you along through the icecold water to the main river. We reach Nary after a day in which we have to climb again (which is not easy after 4 days going down hill most of the time) and even have some rain. Some of the bridges form the Sovjet era have not seen any maintenance for over 50 years and we hardly dare to pass.
Naryn to Son Kul
We leave Naryn on a very quiet sunday morning, the best time to cover a stretch of very busy road. Normally it is loaded with very high and long trucks heading for The West from China, but on this hour there are only a couple of them during our climb (again 12%) over the tarmac in the direction of Son Kul. This mountain lake is famous for its views and definely needs to be in any trip of Kirgizstan, so we've heard. After a few hours we leave the road and head straight up into the mountains. Within 5 minutes all sounds from the road have vanished and the views are back, another beautiful valley. We can not get enough of this stuff! we find the best camping spot along a road ever. In the middle of the night (so it seems, it is just after dark) we hear sounds, voices, what is wrong? Nobody have shown up here all day, why now? Mark takes a look and finds out that a car broke down just 50 m from the tent. They are trying to fix it and because our tent was dark and behind a small hill, no-one noticed us. We do not bother them and after a few hours we here the engine running again. A very common thing here, cars breaking down. They must be excellent mechanics here, because they always manage to get it going again.
Just around the corner is something we have been worried about for a while, the road into Son Kul. This road is called the "32" and guess why? It has 32 hair pin turns and not for nothing, the 'road climbs 500m in just 5 km. We hoped the 32 corners would help keep the overall slope down to cyclable averages, but the road is so bad, just stones that it is impossible to cycle here. Son Kul is close now, the rest of the climb is generally better and easier. The clouds pack closer together and at this altitude it gets pretty chilly. Finally we see the lake most photographed in Kirgizstan. We are not exactly overwhelmed by it, we can hardly see it due to the weather. We were told that several Yurt camps can be found along the lake and that it is very touristy, so do not camp we were told. We do not feel like it as well, we want something hot! After a while we see a small yurt camp with only 4 tents. We ride to the tents and a very suprised family welcomes us. Yes, we can stay here and the yurt we get it wunderfull. It even has a stove and better: they have a hot shower? How they do it? Just make a fire under a big tank of water and you have a very small sauna with shower. The best shower in the world! This is not all, the family is fully self supported, we get freshly baked bread with the full afternoon tea again. The little girl pours the tea and laughs about our first Kirgiz words. She gets to ride the back of the tandem with Mark, wow, she likes it! Dad shows how tough life is in the mountains by chopping some wood from a big lump after he returned from bringing back the cattle to the camp. At sundown we finally understand what people say about the view of the lake, now it is all glowing pink and the cattle give the pictures the depth we did not see before. We see how a carry-on yurt looks like unassembled, it is supposed to be carried on 1 or 2 horses only! We have a fantastic stay and really feel bad we can not speak more in their language. One mistake we make is that we tell them not to lit the stove, no, not necessary. Well, we should have known better. Even with Goga and Hypna, we are freezing.
Final stretch to Bishkek
We leave Son Kul via a mine road. A surrealistic view with old and closed down pits and truck and gear left about. The sand blown road leads into the valley. We spend the night along the man made water channel (first we carry the bike over it so that we are not seen from the road). Next day we pass Chaek and continue along the gorge to Kizil oy. The temperature rises to over 45 degrees and no trees are present to provide shade. The road is horrible, the water in our bottles has gone into hot tea water, just lacking the leaves. Mark starts to fall apart due to overheating. We stop under a lonely tree to reconsider our options, shouls we stay here until sundown? Luckily we see a small cemetary, this usually means the village is within 1-2 km. We try for the last time and end up in the village just before meltdown. We would kill for a cool drink now. Not available of course, but the local shop has something which is not boiling, so we settle for it. Staying in this village means you have to use CBT's and the 'tourist office' will tell us which house is the first on the list to receive guests. Our family own a rather big and newely painted house. First we do not get much contact but when we present a small gift from Holland the next day before leaving, they open up and get going after all. We go for the next bit of cycling with a new supply of very important home made apricot-jam! We do not want to melt again so after a lazy morning we get going late afternoon for a short stretch into the mountains again. We feel the legs have improved over the first two weeks and we are going well now. Around 8 o clock we arrive in Suusamyr, just in time before dark to find a nice CBT with an elderly couple. We get a shower (bucket of water), hot meal and nice traditional bed. Life is simple but very pleasant here!
Getting to Bishkek is rather simple from here, just follow the gravel onto you cross the main road from Bishkek to Osh and chose the right way. This is something else however, a lot of trucks all of a sudden. The main attraction here is the Tunnel, we now it is the final bit of the last climb into Bishkek. At an altitude of 3100 m the tunnel crosses the mountain and the climb is finished. But how far is it to the entrance? Nobody seems to be able to tell us, the answers vary from 2 - 20 km. The climb is steep, the trucks loaded with stones or other heavy stuff are going so slow that it seems possible to grab them. Our cycling computer suffers as well, do we really go 4 km/hour? The good news is that the tarmac and the rather gentle climb (designed for the trucks) help us reach the tunnel in a couple of hours. We rest before going in the tunnel, this is want we have been a bit scared about. The tunnel is 3 km long, pitch dark and has a very bad or no ventilation system. Will we survive? We fix the head light to the BOB and hope for the best as we enter the tunnel. The first meters are scary, but soon we find that the road descents in the tunnel, so we do not have to do anything but sit and wait for the end. It takes not more than 10 minutes, it's over, we made it. But this is just the start of a very long descent, the next 60 km is down hill, starting with some steep hair pins. We team up with some of the trucks as they have to slow down all the time and we have to do the same to cool down the disc brakes. They are glowing red and we can not blame them. At this moment, we would like to have our drum brake back. A few stops and some water is enough to keep going and we reach the more gradual part of the descent, 30 km with an average percentage of 3% downhill and still tarmac. Can you imagine this is cyclists (or Mandy's) Heaven on the bike? We do not have to use the hands (no bends in the road) or the feet, so all the more time to enjoy what we have passed so far. Reaching Bishkek feels like we could go on for weeks, but the strange noice the bike has been making lately turns out to be the other bolt connecting the rear pannier to the stay... we're glad we made it.
End
What we never expected was that these two countries have proved us more relaxed and safe (as far as we have experienced) than any other we've went before. Its people show genuine hospitality in everything and even at the busiest market of Central Asia nobody showed any sign of wanting to make a profit of us or worse. Thanks to the low number of tourists and long lasting history of travelers on the Silk Route, traveling here has been nothing but a very special and memorable experience!
Practical stuff Our bike went on the same flight as we, Lufthansa has a great and clear policy. We paid 80 Euro for one way and did not use a carton box (we never do). No damage both ways.
Photo- album
You can view the pictures in the photo-album.
Route
The route is available in detail! Including stats and GPS-route logging!!!
After 6 days in de heat of Kazachstan (up till 45 degrees C!) we arrived in Karakol on a day full off clouds en from time to time rain. Kazachstan was astonishing. Road quality was issue of concern, which resulted in a lot of walking, even downhill. But the country en the people easily make up for that!
Pizza Margarita and Döner Kebab, these words are the first we understand from the Cyrillic language. It looks and sounds like abracadabra to us and only by translating letter by letter (just as learning to read in First Grade) we decipher some of the basics. Benzin should be clear, just like Magazin for getting food and Apteka, which we hope we will not need while cycling through Central Asia. What is it that we are looking for here? That is also the question of the first Kazakh we speak on the street outside the airport. Adventure, nature, landscape, people, ex-communism, tough cycling or good food? To cut this story short, we find it all, except for the good food ;-). Kazachstan and Kyrgystan are not the first countries on most peoples lists for a relaxed holiday. There is not a holiday culture here at all, besides some Russians and locals. The language barrier is huge and the countryside is desolate, not to speak from the mountains which will give us great views but great pains as well. But most of my anxiety actually comes from humans, what is a life worth here in the former Russian republics? Of course we did not show any of this to our family and friends when they all said 'take care' with a little more emphasis than on our previous tours. Our confidence comes from the good equipment and earlier travels. We know that things you expect to go wrong do not and usually everything that does go wrong will be solved one way or the other. Our ultimate Almaty experience is going to a bus stop and hop in bus 32 with unknown destination (we chose the one which most people take). When everybody gets out we follow them and get to a fairly large permanent market. Sunday clearly is shopping day, which is good for us, because we need some supplies. Besides vegetables (quit a lot) we mainly see watermelons and for the rest almost all things you can image. There is a street with cookies and sweets, one with rice and macaroni and sauces, one with ironmongery, household items, pots and pans etcetera. There is enough to get our usual meals for the first days in the mountains. Here we buy the chicken soup that we later find out is so salty that we should (have not) use(d) not more than a teaspoon per meal. Sunday is also an excellent day for marriages. In the park next to the Orthodox cathedral we see at least 7 pairs of newly weds with family and friends, camera crew, white doves and photographers making pictures and film next to all the old Russian army and war memorials and statues. It'll probably bring them lots of luck???
On the bike
Creaking and shrieking sounds as we come to a stop. Mark signals to Mandy the Michael Boogerd saying: "t Nekkie is eraf " (literally a Cut Throat, saying by Dutch cyclist that the best of him has gone in a race). We begin in Kazakhstan with 60 km of reasonably flat cycling, a bridge missing (but a new word learned, Mos is bridge) and 450 height meters into the gorge along the Türgen river, raging down along our camp site so we have to speak with hands even between us now. The road continues into the narrowing gorge and just like the new trend in cooking (slow food) we now experience something which we could call Slow Holiday. It is a mix of an astonishing landscape, a gravel road with 20% up or down (usually up) and a heavily packed tandem and means nothing more than taking it slowly and walk. But not for nothing, because when we reach the Jailoo (sort of Alp) we see the first Yurt (traditional nomadic tent) and the view is overwhelming. Each step comes with hard work, but after each step and "pfieh it is heavy" we hear ourselves say "pfieh it is so beautiful". A lonely shepperd guides his horse besides us to check us out, but without a common language we do not get to know much of him. People here live from the livestock, sheep, cows and horses graze and wander about in the green fields a bit higher up the mountain. It is too hot for them in the valleys during summer. We roll along the Asy plateau with lots of grass, cattle and no real road, just some muddy tracks. A few scattered Yurts stand as pearls along the small stream, we pitch our tent in between for a real night in the field. Again we are paid a visit by a horseman, Mourad, we speaks three words German and together with our Russian phrasebook we find out he is a wealthy horse shepperd (400 horses must be a small fortune here), with 2 children en 5 grand children. Again we are paid a visit by a horseman, Murat, we speaks three words German and together with our Russian phrasebook we find out he is a wealthy horse shepperd (400 horses must be a small fortune here), with 2 children and 5 grand children. He brings some wodka and invites us into his home. unfortunately, that would mean another tour on the bike, which is too much after this long day. Getting through the mountains to Kirgyzstan, our original plan, seems either impossible due to the tough climbs and bad roads or illegal, because no official border post exists. This means we will have to go around the mountains, over the steppe into the heat of Kazakhstan. Getting off the Asy plateau is even harder than getting on it, the road is hardly existent and there is no water available after a last small stream. Some crazy climbing is followed by a real down hill towards the lake, the temperature rises to over 40 degrees and only sand is left from all the green we passed earlier. A truck comes up from behind, Mandy ceases the opportunity and asks in sign language if our bike and we can go into the truck. This is the start of a very nice encouter with a whole Kazakh family and one sheep, all sitting in the back of the truck. We stop for some fresh water melon (mmmm, cool and watery, a very smart conservation method) and a picture needs to be taken. The family is super friendly, some of the younger girl and boys speek some English and are really exited to learn that we are not brother and sister but husband and wife (to make things easier). They drop us off close to a small village where we stay in the local Yurt hotel annex restaurant. It serves as a truck stop for megatrucks on their way from China to the West. We continu our trip very early the next day to avoid some of the heat as we pass the Charyn gorge, which of course only helps us through the first 2 hours, after which temperatures rise to over 42 degrees! The tarmac melts away, but after two days, about twenty 12% signs and twice as much bends in the road, we reach the gravel that will lead us into Kirgizstan. Crossing the border can be difficult we heard, so we expect a long wait. But things actually go very smooth, the customs officer just wants to know if we intend to sell the bike (how would we get on with our trip if we did?) but does not want to check the rest of our bags, after seeing the first layer of dirty clothes on top of it.
Karakol
We arrive in Karakol after 8 days of cycling and camping, and it rains. So we really want a nice place, which we find with a very nice family. They even have a hot shower! Down in Karakol we can relax en prepare for the next round. The town itself is rather simple, do not expect anything fancy, but we can by food, eat out in a restaurant and get money from an ATM. After three days of rest (and a lot of clothes washed by hand) we leave for Naryn.
To Naryn
The first part of the trip to Naryn is very relaxed, we paddle along the lake over the tarmac and even see some (local) tourism at the beach club. Everybody here is even more relaxed than in Kazakhstan, nobody tries to sell us anything, which can even have a down side if you would like to buy something. But on the other hand, people even stop with their car to give us food and drink, because they think we must really need it. Even explaining that we buy our own food does not help, we have to take the only bottle of Sisi the man has...
At the Yurt camp along the lake south of Tosor we stay for a night in the camp and some relaxing in the afternoon. The afternoon tea is served for the whole family and all the guest and includes the traditional tea, bread, jam, sweets and more. In the safety of the Yurtcamp, a political activist gives some insight in the 'democracy'of the country. Very interesting for us, but a long way to go for this country.
The path up the Tosor pass is in a really bad condition and very steep as well, we have arranged a car + trailer to bring us up to make up for some lost days and save some energy for the coming days. Even in the car it is a crazyman's ride. The view is spectaculair, at 3500 m we see some snow on the tops and the valley itself is again beautiful. The river winds through and will be our guide for the coming 3 days. We have to cross side streams about every half an hour or less (I think we counted over 20 crossings this afternoon alone, some we can bike through, some we can not. We spend the night over 3000m altitude, between the small gravel path and the river with only one vehicle that passed us today. The next two days follow the same pattern, we get very quick at removing shoes and socks and walking over stones and through the streams. The valley does not seem to have inhabitants, we do not see any yurts or houses for 2 days. The only people we meet are fellow cyclists going the other way, about 2 groups per day which is more than we expected. On the second day we are warned that a deep river crossing is soon to come, so deep that even some cyclists (in particular one single Dutch man!) have turned around on the spot. We do not want to go back!!! When we reach the river it is not the depth that scares us, although it is knee-deep, but the power with which it flows. If you'll fall in it, it will drag you along through the icecold water to the main river. We reach Nary after a day in which we have to climb again (which is not easy after 4 days going down hill most of the time) and even have some rain. Some of the bridges form the Sovjet era have not seen any maintenance for over 50 years and we hardly dare to pass.
Naryn to Son Kul
We leave Naryn on a very quiet sunday morning, the best time to cover a stretch of very busy road. Normally it is loaded with very high and long trucks heading for The West from China, but on this hour there are only a couple of them during our climb (again 12%) over the tarmac in the direction of Son Kul. This mountain lake is famous for its views and definely needs to be in any trip of Kirgizstan, so we've heard. After a few hours we leave the road and head straight up into the mountains. Within 5 minutes all sounds from the road have vanished and the views are back, another beautiful valley. We can not get enough of this stuff! we find the best camping spot along a road ever. In the middle of the night (so it seems, it is just after dark) we hear sounds, voices, what is wrong? Nobody have shown up here all day, why now? Mark takes a look and finds out that a car broke down just 50 m from the tent. They are trying to fix it and because our tent was dark and behind a small hill, no-one noticed us. We do not bother them and after a few hours we here the engine running again. A very common thing here, cars breaking down. They must be excellent mechanics here, because they always manage to get it going again.
Just around the corner is something we have been worried about for a while, the road into Son Kul. This road is called the "32" and guess why? It has 32 hair pin turns and not for nothing, the 'road climbs 500m in just 5 km. We hoped the 32 corners would help keep the overall slope down to cyclable averages, but the road is so bad, just stones that it is impossible to cycle here. Son Kul is close now, the rest of the climb is generally better and easier. The clouds pack closer together and at this altitude it gets pretty chilly. Finally we see the lake most photographed in Kirgizstan. We are not exactly overwhelmed by it, we can hardly see it due to the weather. We were told that several Yurt camps can be found along the lake and that it is very touristy, so do not camp we were told. We do not feel like it as well, we want something hot! After a while we see a small yurt camp with only 4 tents. We ride to the tents and a very suprised family welcomes us. Yes, we can stay here and the yurt we get it wunderfull. It even has a stove and better: they have a hot shower? How they do it? Just make a fire under a big tank of water and you have a very small sauna with shower. The best shower in the world! This is not all, the family is fully self supported, we get freshly baked bread with the full afternoon tea again. The little girl pours the tea and laughs about our first Kirgiz words. She gets to ride the back of the tandem with Mark, wow, she likes it! Dad shows how tough life is in the mountains by chopping some wood from a big lump after he returned from bringing back the cattle to the camp. At sundown we finally understand what people say about the view of the lake, now it is all glowing pink and the cattle give the pictures the depth we did not see before. We see how a carry-on yurt looks like unassembled, it is supposed to be carried on 1 or 2 horses only! We have a fantastic stay and really feel bad we can not speak more in their language. One mistake we make is that we tell them not to lit the stove, no, not necessary. Well, we should have known better. Even with Goga and Hypna, we are freezing.
Final stretch to Bishkek
We leave Son Kul via a mine road. A surrealistic view with old and closed down pits and truck and gear left about. The sand blown road leads into the valley. We spend the night along the man made water channel (first we carry the bike over it so that we are not seen from the road). Next day we pass Chaek and continue along the gorge to Kizil oy. The temperature rises to over 45 degrees and no trees are present to provide shade. The road is horrible, the water in our bottles has gone into hot tea water, just lacking the leaves. Mark starts to fall apart due to overheating. We stop under a lonely tree to reconsider our options, shouls we stay here until sundown? Luckily we see a small cemetary, this usually means the village is within 1-2 km. We try for the last time and end up in the village just before meltdown. We would kill for a cool drink now. Not available of course, but the local shop has something which is not boiling, so we settle for it. Staying in this village means you have to use CBT's and the 'tourist office' will tell us which house is the first on the list to receive guests. Our family own a rather big and newely painted house. First we do not get much contact but when we present a small gift from Holland the next day before leaving, they open up and get going after all. We go for the next bit of cycling with a new supply of very important home made apricot-jam! We do not want to melt again so after a lazy morning we get going late afternoon for a short stretch into the mountains again. We feel the legs have improved over the first two weeks and we are going well now. Around 8 o clock we arrive in Suusamyr, just in time before dark to find a nice CBT with an elderly couple. We get a shower (bucket of water), hot meal and nice traditional bed. Life is simple but very pleasant here!
Getting to Bishkek is rather simple from here, just follow the gravel onto you cross the main road from Bishkek to Osh and chose the right way. This is something else however, a lot of trucks all of a sudden. The main attraction here is the Tunnel, we now it is the final bit of the last climb into Bishkek. At an altitude of 3100 m the tunnel crosses the mountain and the climb is finished. But how far is it to the entrance? Nobody seems to be able to tell us, the answers vary from 2 - 20 km. The climb is steep, the trucks loaded with stones or other heavy stuff are going so slow that it seems possible to grab them. Our cycling computer suffers as well, do we really go 4 km/hour? The good news is that the tarmac and the rather gentle climb (designed for the trucks) help us reach the tunnel in a couple of hours. We rest before going in the tunnel, this is want we have been a bit scared about. The tunnel is 3 km long, pitch dark and has a very bad or no ventilation system. Will we survive? We fix the head light to the BOB and hope for the best as we enter the tunnel. The first meters are scary, but soon we find that the road descents in the tunnel, so we do not have to do anything but sit and wait for the end. It takes not more than 10 minutes, it's over, we made it. But this is just the start of a very long descent, the next 60 km is down hill, starting with some steep hair pins. We team up with some of the trucks as they have to slow down all the time and we have to do the same to cool down the disc brakes. They are glowing red and we can not blame them. At this moment, we would like to have our drum brake back. A few stops and some water is enough to keep going and we reach the more gradual part of the descent, 30 km with an average percentage of 3% downhill and still tarmac. Can you imagine this is cyclists (or Mandy's) Heaven on the bike? We do not have to use the hands (no bends in the road) or the feet, so all the more time to enjoy what we have passed so far. Reaching Bishkek feels like we could go on for weeks, but the strange noice the bike has been making lately turns out to be the other bolt connecting the rear pannier to the stay... we're glad we made it.
End
What we never expected was that these two countries have proved us more relaxed and safe (as far as we have experienced) than any other we've went before. Its people show genuine hospitality in everything and even at the busiest market of Central Asia nobody showed any sign of wanting to make a profit of us or worse. Thanks to the low number of tourists and long lasting history of travelers on the Silk Route, traveling here has been nothing but a very special and memorable experience!
Practical stuff Our bike went on the same flight as we, Lufthansa has a great and clear policy. We paid 80 Euro for one way and did not use a carton box (we never do). No damage both ways.
Photo- album
You can view the pictures in the photo-album.
Route
The route is available in detail! Including stats and GPS-route logging!!!
Pictures
