Going to Kyrgyzstan

Thanks for all the kind words!

For those who are feeling adventurous I can wholeheartedly recommend Kyrgyzstan. Compared to Tajikistan there was a lot less logistics involved. No visas, no extra permits, no military checkpoints, nothing like that. Flights are cheap with both Turkish and Aeroflot. I paid about €300. No extra charge for the bike. You could basically bike straight from the airport out in the wilderness. Hotels, food, transport, well pretty much everything's cheap. People can be a bit reserved, but they always seemed happy to help out with our weird requests. You can pretty much put your tent up anywhere. Water is everywhere, pouring down the mountains. Only thing I'd stay away from are the bigger roads, they are in a bad state and there was some seriously dodgy driving going on.

Sneak peek from day 4:

another repurposed IKEA kitchen implement? hehe

Just inhaling your trip reports :-)

Speaking of water, did you bring a filter of some kind?

Another photography question, and I know feck all about photography, so please excuse me, but: I notice your photos (and those on your blog) are more square than "normal" photos. What's that called? I like it and I want to copy it!

Aspect ratio

Probably 4x5 or something

Yep these are 4x3 which is what Panasonic and Olympus use instead of 3x2 that everyone else do. Suits me well as I've shot alot of 4x5 and 6x7 (my all time favourite) on film in the past.

Yes my friend brought a pretty cool filter that you screw onto any plastic bottle and then you squeeze the water through. Horses and cows everywhere so we used it alot.

I hope you did some filming. The 4k video capabilities of the GX80 is pretty amazing (playing with it myself). Avis på resan!

Actually no, this one is from Biltema and it's a proper bike rack and all :) I was amazed when I picked it up after it broke, it was so light! Maybe not the best place to use aluminum...

I have some short bits of film but nothing much. And I think it's still on 1080p actually :)

My friend had a Gopro on his helmet all along though so there should be some kind of moving footage coming...

Längtar redan tillbaka :)

Day 4. Feet go numb from the cold water as we leave our camp. Stop at a shop in Kyzart then we go off the main road onto some bumpy gravel heading for Song Kul. After a couple of km's Johns rear rack break. We improvise a new, true bikepacking setup using all our tie down straps. We eat our favourite noodles for lunch. Lie down in the grass for a while. Steady climb now. The view gets better and better. In front of us there's a group of Israeli tourists on horses. The climb is so steep now there's no chance of cycling it. We reach the pass, on the other side we see the beautiful lake Song Kul. Quick down hill before we reach the shore then we continue west. I misjudge a river crossing and get stuck with my feet in the mud. We decide to stop and sleep in a yurt. A lovely family welcomes us and treats us to some lovely bread, jam, tea and dinner. They got Kumis in a bucket in the yurt which we get to try. An acquired taste for sure.

These are lovely pictures

this is so inspiring! thanks!

Amazing pictures, looks like such an epic trip!

On a photo note: did you take the 12-32mm? Great little lens, but the zoom ring is glued on and is about as thick as tin foil. Not great for bashing about! Did you use the USB charging feature or take lots of batteries?

Thank you! Yes, most of of these were shot with the 12-32mm. It did it's job just fine until it kinda broke. I might just get another one but the 12-35/2.8 looks tempting... I should have brought a couple of extra batteries but I didn't. Most days I would get away with charging it from my battery pack in the evening but it would def have made things easier. Now I was turning it off and on all the time to save battery. Especially after my dynamo broke down...

Image quality looks pretty damn good. I'm especially impressed with the dynamic range coming from full frame!

We want to know the rest of your adventure!!! :)

Did you have to worry about bears and/or wolves?

I want to know more, and soon! I'm off to Kyrgyzstan on Friday. Not on a bike, but still going up to the mountains.

No we didn't take any precautions to avoid wolves or bears. Maybe we should have, I don't know :)

Cool! Going hiking?

beautiful! well done - & thanks for sharing

Sorry about the lack of updates! Here comes day 5.

We wake up in our yurt to the sound of horses and cows outside. Our host makes us some rice porridge with a lovely home made raspberry jam. John is feeling sick so we take our time. After a while we decide to continue. We go west, along the shore of lake Song Kul. Such a cool place. At first there's rolling hills, then the landscape flattens and we roll in a nice pace in the tailwind. After 30km we turn away from the shore and stop for lunch in a dried out riverbed. Noodles once again... We get on with it. A short climb before we reach Moldo-Ashuu. The view is fantastic. I also helps to know that now we have a 50km downhill waiting for us. The road down the pass is probably about the most fun I've had on a bike. I go down as fast as I dare, going through small streams, avoiding nasty rocks and skidding through the corners. So so great. When we reach the bottom we stop and refill our bottles. John is still not well and he's having trouble with his bags since the rack died. He's talking about finding a taxi to get to Naryn. It's Thursday and he needs to be in Naryn by Friday evening to be able to make his Sunday morning flight home. There's still about 150km to go. No taxis here though, no cars at all actually so we roll on. We reach a bridge after a couple of hours. It's being repaired but we are lucky when a friendly soldier asks the workers to let us pass. A few km's later we stop at a village shop, despite the downhill we are all properly exhausted from the heat. There's still 100km to Naryn so we decide to find someone to drive us. A few minutes later a guy walks into the shop to buy vodka and water. We persuade him to change his plans. We stuff his poor little car with our dirty bikes and 1 frightening hour later we are in Naryn. Cold beers and wifi!

Loving this - I went there a few winters ago and it was stunning

My mate went to that part of the world and he was in his tent when a 🐻 and a 🐺 hybrid creature unzipped the flap, poked its head in and called him a rude name. But it was in a foreign language, so my mate says he wasn't offended.

Glad you didn't have any similar trouble.