Day 35 393 km (11116 km total)
A bit of everything, village roads, bad roads, great roads, border crossings, sunshine, mountains & snow!
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After leaving Shymkent town, the roads through the adjacent conutryside were quite interesting,
fruit sorting by the roadside
Children going to school
But soon after the roads became unsurfaced, pretty straightforward, but I was constantly looking out for sand pits and so was travelling a little slower than normal.
Nice views opening up and a lovely fresh feeling to the air
The road continued for miles through open countryside
A few muddy patches from yesterdays rain, I was really glad we didnt attempt this In the storms yesterday. It would have been difficult riding and no scenery.
Feeling good, and there is snow in the hills we are heading towards, so time for a selfie!
The track continued enticingly towards the mountains
And then started a climb that would continue for the next hour as we climbed up more than 3000 metres.
getting closer ...
More people on horseback than in cars here - about 2000m now
By 2500m the snow was pretty close
A great riders road this - but quite a few pot holes and gravel waiting to catch out the unwary around the hairpin bends
Now we are getting really high, and its becoming quite nippy
Beautiful though ...
Approaching 3000m and the snow was starting to appear bythe roadside
The great road continued
A herder with his horses, these guys must be really tough
A roadside eatery ..
And some apparently unattended horses
Snow well & truly at road level now, this must have been horrendous yesterday.
A quick look back at the road I had just come up, before the final push to the summit of the pass
A herder with sheep
Loving this !
Such a contrast to the desert lanscapes of a few days ago
And here I am at the top, time for a quick snowball
The local bus stop!
And then its down the other side - wow!
Lots of hairpins
And scenic yurts
the valley became steeper as it got lower
More sheep
Pretty shear sides - need to keep an eye open for fallen rocks
Dramatic stuff
And back down at 500m ... What a great ride that was!
A look back at where I had just ridden from
the rest of the ride into Bishkek was mundane by comparison. In fact Bishkek was one of the more unpleasant cities to ride through, dusty, lots of traffic lights & traffic, really heavy fumes, and bonkers drivers everywhere. Stayed at a nice cheap quiet hotel in the outskirts of town.
Day 36 20 km (11136 km total)
The following day we stayed in the town, attandimg to various domestic jobs & work in the bikes.
i rode out to a 'container city' to find a guy caled "Dima Biker" in container 25 R who had a veritable treasure trove of bike bits & pieces plus what I was after, first grade motorcyle engine oil. 4 litres of Castrol Power 1 Racing - just what tnhe Triumph manual specified, in my panniers cor the 6000 mile oild change.
Dima reccomended a good mechanic, who would change the oil & have a look at a couple of other things for me. He was lovated a few km away in a local back street.
A good guy, Ronin (I think) who services, bikes, ATV's & jet ski's from his small but well kitted workshop. He is an off road rider & ex champion of Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan in his field.
The guard dog!
he made short work of my oil chamge & other jobs, and did a high quality job, cleaning everythimg carefully nefore reassembly, all the right checks etc.
Back at the hotel, it was time to reorganise the packing. Climate & altitude change ahead as we head navk into the high mountains and head towards the chinese border.
My blog may be a bit spasmodic or delayed for a while for a while now until I figure a way to get past limited wifi and chinese blocks Placed on some social media sites.
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