Thursday 29 October 2015

Day 474-484: To Taşkomur, Kyrgyz

It was already snowing when I woke up and didn't know why I still set off.


Brake pads were frozen and stuck, icicles were forming... horrible times ascending and descending. My pads were completely gone in a day. All I can think of was... its was bloody cold... I can make it down, I can do it...


Taldyk Pass @ 3615m


Nearing Uch-Tyube I was invited to stay with a family due to the bad weather and that its getting late. Father and son were taxi drivers and Papa insisted that I was sent to Gulcha in their car the next day as they were dropping customers off there. They insisted to put my bike on the car and the pressure of 5 other passengers already waiting resulted in a lost fight to go off on my own. Papa said it was too cold... road up and down etc.... then I realised it was a stretch of beautiful landscape towards Gulcha that I can only enjoyed in the car :(

After the crazy ascend and descend in heavy snow, I'm glad to sleep in a warm room with a full stomach

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After this pass, it was easy descend and almost flat to Osh



Coming down Chyiyrchyk pass I thought I heard my name between their conversation on the other side of the road, we waved and they came over my side to realise that they were my brother's friends and have been expecting to cross path with me and hopefully camped together but unfortunately we met at the wrong place. This is Luke and Flora from England, they are probably the last to cross the Pamirs in Tajik, gosh it gonna be so cold for them (http://www.180degreesfromhome.com/) and it was here I got another puncture which Luke pointed out... ya I didn't even noticed during my descend



And then I met another British tourer, Dave from Liverpool. Due to work and family commitments, Dave was unable to do long tours like us but this never stopped him... he has been splitting them in sections and joining the dots every year!

Arriving at Osh. Whoopy!

 It gets abit cramped when 2 cyclists started spreading their stuff around hehe
At Tes Guesthouse... they say its too cold outside and moved me indoor for the same price. Coincidently Tara (first met in Tajik) and Jochen (first met in Kyrgyz then Tajik) were here too! Then Jean arrived and before we left, David whom I met before Osh arrived back here too!

My latest addiction - Laghman

Jean from France cycling towards Japan (http://jeanjeanenroueslibres.blogspot.com) cooked us dinner

Tes guesthouse's breakfast... there is something new everyday

Left over coffee from Tajik. Cheap but very very bad coffee FYI. Yucks.

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 Rode out of town with Jean before we split up into different directions





Around Jalal-Abad Bazaar




Whats Morrison Plastic bags doing here? 


Melons - season over soon hope they can sell them off quickly
Someone share one with me???



Sheep heads

The fatty butt of sheep is a delicacy here


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Photo credit: Moslem
Met Moslem, an Iranian cyclist and we ended up cycling together for abit



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Good morning


Curious farmers wondering what we are doing on their land
Photo credit: Moslem


Roadside Shashlik


Samsa in the tandoor

The tandoor with freshly made samsa cooking inside

We didn't get to try her samsa as they were still baking in the tandoor

  Men discussing about the bikes

Photo credit: Moslem
 Roadside melon break treat from Moslem

Photo credit: Moslem
British couple from my Uni town. They told us road ahead are beautiful and we can only tell them their road ahead to Osh was 'not that exciting'




Unreal


Chuchpara - meat dumplings in broth and sour cream


Helllooooo
Photo credit: Moslem

I was determined to camp with a river view tonight! Nevermind that the sun is setting, nevermind that its getting dark quickly... a river view home is a must.

Naryn River

Viola. Home is here.



19 Oct 15: 37.84km [Snow]
20 Oct 15: 82.85km [Sunny]
26 Oct 15: 109.23km [Cloudy]
28 Oct 15: 59.95km [Sunny]
29 Oct 15: 72.31km [Sunny]

2 comments :

  1. So glad you met Luke and Flora. They stayed with us in Singapore last year and shared our daughter's birthday. Nice people and very interesting trip.
    Happy cycling and stay safe :)
    Cheers, Tim

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yes I was surprised too, a pity we had little time...

    ReplyDelete