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Planning to ride like that for now. It's only one spoke, I released the tension a bit and with some luck it'll hold out a few more hundred kms until Dushanbe.
After that it'll be minimal riding until Baku, as we're crossing Uzbekistan on the train (because desert), and the Caspian on a ferry (because water) so if the wheel makes it to Dushanbe we should be good until Azerbaijan, where we'll prob have access to an acceptable rim.
Fingers and toes crossed
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And here are some pics of Kyrgyzstan. Mountains everywhere. It's super hot at low altitude, regularly above 40C, and yet we froze to (near) death in a hale storm.
Absolute highlight was Song Kul and the valley leading up to it. Lots of gravel, stones and washboard. Fun,up to a point.
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Not a bag of laughs in what way?
Cant seem to upload, this one
https://lfgss.microcosm.app/api/v1/files/de74041e9a9a5b81843e34c0da83fad9b276a67e.jpg
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That one is South of Toktogul reservoir, towards Kara-Kul (not the famous one). A day of endless ups and downs on a gorge.
What I mean is that there's little in the way of leisure here, it's not a light country. It's amazing to see the nomads in the mountains, with all the horses, so beautiful, but it's a hard life. We heard stories from people who work in the grasslands for a few months in Summer and then hibernate in villages through the whole of winter. It's not hard to imagine how they pass the time as small shops stock more vodka than vegetables. A lot of shops and houses are just a container.
In comparison, we rode for 100km in Uzbekistan before reaching Osh, and we were instantly struck by how much more wealthy and vibrant it is. People landscape their gardens, there are flowers everywhere and large verandas covered with vines. There are lots of tea houses, public squares and Summer gardens. I guess the weather and geography of Kyrgyzstan doesn't make it a land for la dolce vita, understandably so.
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I hope you'll love it. Here's something to get you in the mood (not Kyrgyz but we heard it playing on the marshrutka in Bishkek and it's been following me since)
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After a lot of tweaks and fine tuning, this is our current setup. We're carrying more stuff than usual on this stretch as it can get quite remote in Tajikistan so we have food for a few days, extra fuel and a complete pharmacy.
To avoid faff we don't have anything we might need during day breaks inside panniers: rain jacket, gloves, sun cream, cameras, ground sheet, pillows, stove, water filter, cutlery, playing cards, tools and so on.
Luggage layout:
- Front panniers, large Ortliebs: clothes and personal stuff, 1 each
- Rear pannier, large Ortlieb: sleeping bags, pantry (luxurious treats like oats, trail mix, peanut butter, protein powder and one small pack of Quinoa we prob carry for emotional comfort and identity affirmation)
- Rear pannier, large Ortlieb: tech stuff. Laptop, cables, film rolls, some docs, adaptors, that kind of thing
- Front rack bag, Reload: best described as miscellaneous. Lots of the small stuff mentioned previously, also used as shopping bag. Carried a puppy for a couple of days. Quality piece of kit, super tough.
- Rear rack bag, generic thermal orange thing: bought this in Bishkek to carry food. Instant noodles, chocolate, olive oil, stale bread, soy sauce, chocolate, rice, lentils, chocolate, nuts, and chocolate. Stove is also in there so this is the only bag we need to open when we stop for lunch.
- Front frame bag, Bedrock: lock, pump, some allen keys, sun cream, rain jacket
- Rear frame bag, Bedrock: tent. We like it there because it's one less bag to carry when we stop at guesthouses. It's packed inside Japanese vacuum bags, waterproof and compact.
- Stoker camera bag, generic: cameras, phone
- Stoker top tube bag, Revelate: film rolls, tissue, discarded chocolate wrapping
- Saddle bag, Topeak: tools, grease, tube patches
Edit: we never had the chance to weight it, but I estimate the whole rig is around 80kg (with extra food and water, 'normal' mode would be around 70kg)
6 x 5kg panniers and rack bags
1 x 5kg framebag (rear)
1 x 3kg framebag (front)
30kg bike
8L of waterCombined riders weight is 135kg
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- Front panniers, large Ortliebs: clothes and personal stuff, 1 each
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Such an adventure.
I love the little bird in the last picture.
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The trip now has a date to end, and it's soon. I accepted a job offer in London so we have to wrap it up mid-Oct. It was a (very) difficult decision but a sensible one.
All going well we'll have just enough time to get to Istanbul and dip our toes in European waters before flying back to Brexit.
It's too early to reminisce about a trip I'm still making, but if we learned something is that there will be others. We know we can drop everything and leave, and that's a great thing to learn about ourselves.
We're also super happy to have ridden in reverse to what most EU tourists do. If nothing else it was much easier to get into China, and we managed to fit a lot of the areas we wanted to ride in without running the risk of running out of time/money/patience/motivation.
We are now in Samarkand, out of the endless mountains of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. I'll write some thoughts on the Pamir Highway and post pics later. Tomorrow we take the train towards the Caspian Sea and then onwards to Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey. Really looking forward to this stretch!
Chak
Pawlus
skinny
jdp
Heldring
Rasmussloth
Thrasher-
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Asia on a tandem
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@ough
Zip tie will sort it