Day 34 187 Km ( 10723 km total)
Today's lesson - read the signs & trust your instinct. If I had done that this morning, I wouldn't have ended up shivering uncontrollably & trying to hug a hot motorcycle engine.
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Out of the bedroom window at the back of the hotel this morning, it looked like something was brewing in the distance. I had a feeling this might be a cool wet ride.
But out the front of the hotel, everything was warm & sunny ... Still, I had the presence of mnd to put my waterproof overtorusers & jacket liner in an accessible place, just in case, before we set off.
Half an hour or so down the road and it was getting cooler & more overcast, with the odd spit of rain. So I stopped for some fuel and put the liners on. Just in time, as I pulled away, the heaven's opened.
The next two hours were probably the most uncomfortable I have ever felt on bike. It was belting down, these were big tropical raindrops like we used to get in Thailand & Indonesia .... but much much colder!
Still the gear seemed to be doing its job, apart from my hands (perforated gloves) I wasnt actually wet inside, just a bit cool. In any case after that petrol station we were on open plains and there was no shelter at all, so no point in stopping.
After about an hour of torrential rain, it started to hail and these were big hailstones - i was worried the lights might get smashed, so slowed right down, even so the noise as they smashed into my helmet was a bit scary. Cars were pulling up at the side of the road, but there was no point in doing that as there was no shelter, so I carried on, hoping to ride through it soon.
Eventually I think I must have broke through the front of the storm, as the hail suddenly gave way to rain & then stopped and I was in sunshine. I pulled over for a bit to let Russ catch up, as he was a several minutes behind me. When I got off the bike, there were still some hailstones left on the seat.
The view back down the road where I had come from (the mountains are obscured ny the storm)
Russ caught up and after a brief exchange we started off again just as the rain caught up with us.
Now, up to this point I was reasonably happy with my gear choice, my legs were fine, the waterproof overtrousers were doing their job. My hands were very cold and wet, but the heated grips just about kept that at bay. My feet were also a bit damp and cold which was a shame as the boots are supposed to be waterproof. My body was dry but quite cool, and here's the thing ....
The jacket I wear is designed to be well ventilated (good for riding in hot climates), but of course, ventilation also lets in water. So the jacket comes with a zip in goretex waterproof liner for when it rains, this is what I had fitted earlier. The liner stops water getting onto your body, but of course the jacket itself and the outside facing of the liner become soaked. What I had'nt fully appreciated was what happens when you take this situation and start riding again back into cold wind & rain.
Under my jacket I just wear a thin nylon sports top. So basically, almost next to my skin was a thin jacket liner, dry but very cold due to its wet outer face and beyond that a completeley soaked outer jacket. Now add cold wind & lashings of cold rain or hail & you have basically created a fridge.
I felt this effect almost as soon as I set off again, but thought nothing of it. As we ascended and were once again on the open shelterless roads and the wind & rain came back on full force, I could feel my body temperature rapidly dropping. After half an hour I couldnt stop shivering & so had to pull over & do what I should have done much earlier - put my thermal gear on.
The reason I had not done this sooner was it was packed inside my panniers, which meant unstrapping the spair tyre, dry bag etc from the top first. The process takes about 10 mintes, which in driving rain is no fun at all, then of course I have to take my jacket off in order to put the thermal gear on.
Anyway, lucklty I saw a small shelter in the distance, so pulled up at thst and put something more suitable next to my skin. Problem solved, but it was an hour or two before I really felt comfortable again.
Lesson learned!
Half an hour or so late things were beginning to look a little brighter
And you could actually see the scenery.
We stopped to discuss what to do next as time was getting on. Our planned destination was across the border into Kyrgystan and to the Talas valley. However that was in the direction of the right hand half of this next picture - yes the bit in the middle of the storm clouds. Neither of us fancied a border crossing in the rain or more mountain roads in hail, so we decided to stop instead at Taraz in Kazakhstan and do the crossing in the mornring.
So after a quick circuit of the town, we found an OK hotel and checked in for the night.
and I finished the day with a hearty kazak soup and meat wrap and finally felt properly warm again.
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