Thursday, 1 November 2007
Wednesday, 5 September 2007
After staying for a few days in Dushanbe, I was more than ready to leave as I'd had enough of the city and was more than ready to get back on my bike. I met a Finnish guy who spoke Russian and together we had found a flat to stay in. It was an interesting search as first he called a taxi driver whom he had met previously. Apparently, this guy had some cheap flats we could rent. We drove with him a long way to the edge of the city where he took us to a flat. He assured us it was a short walk back to the city!! 
Yeah, right. He unlocked the door and showed us a bare flat and as we entered there were two very embarrassed guys in one of the rooms speedily pulling on all their clothes!! Hmm! Needless to say, we made our excuses and made tracks at high speed. Later, we found a nice Russian lady that took us in for 5 dollars a night, but unfortunately it was on the 8th floor of a high rise flat. It was quite a climb with all my bags but an OK place to rest up for a few days. After all my flat tyres I decided to give the Pamir Highway in Tajikistan a miss and take a shorter route along the Garm Valley to the border crossing at Jirgital into Kyrgyzstan. I had been warned this might be closed but as the Lonely Planet said it was open, I carried on regardless.
It was a nice ride along the valley with fairly nice roads. In a couple of places the road detoured and followed the river bed which meant it was extremely hard going. Just big rocks with fine dust filling the air from any passing traffic. Along the way villagers filled the road with harvested wheat ready for threshing by passing traffic. One day I met Peter Gostelow, who is cycling back to England. We stopped for a coffee and had a nice chat before I carried on towards Kyrgyzstan. Around 4okm before the border a lazy, lounging soldier told me the border was closed but as I was so close I carried on and soon arrived at a checkpoint. I somehow managed to persuade the two guards to let me carry on to the border proper. On arrival, the guards took my passport and looked it over for 5 minutes and then declared that I could not pass and that I must go back around the Pamir Highway, just an 800km detour.
I tried for a while to per
suade them that it was a good idea to let me cross, but they weren't too interested. As I was waiting to talk to the chief, a younger guard stood in the corridor with me and whispered his plan to smuggle me across at 3 in the morning. The more he whispered the less I understood what he was on about and quickly decided it would be a very bad idea. He assured me otherwise! I used their phone and called the British Embassy but go cut off, so that didn't help the situation either. Afterwards the guy wanted money and kept going on about sputnik! I told him I had no money or food, and at this point they lightened up and shared their lunch with me. Later they gave me a room and we even had freshly caught trout for dinner. The lorry drivers who came to the border tried to persuade the guards to let me through but still they wouldn't budge, so the next morning I planned to have one last try at crossing and if I had no luck, would take a truck back to the main road.
The next dayI tried to bribe the guards but had no luck and as no traffic had come by midday I started to cycle back to where I had come from. I stopped after 40km and stayed with a very lovely family who gave me very good food and were incredibily kind. The next day I continued to cycle and after 120km saw a truck that was going in the same direction. I jumped on and got a lift back to the main road where I slept in a small chaihouse. Two more meals were bought for me and eventually I could eat no
more.
In the morning I flagged down the first truck I saw and took a lift to around 50km from Khorog. The driver, Olim, turned out to be extremely kind and refused to take any money for the lift. We drove over the high pass with many switch-backs and saw mine clearance teams working around the summit. Olim really enjoyed the sweet scent of the herbs growing in the surrounding meadows and took off down the road for his weekly 100m high altitude jog and soon returned feeling revitalised!! We stopped at some pleasant shady chaihouses along the way for meals and sat with Olims friends who were driving in convoy with us.
In Khorog I stayed at the Pamir Lodge Guest House which is run by extremely nice people. Here I met Mark, a Dutch cyclist and also some Isreali cyclists touring from China to Europe. I joined Mark and we cycled together for 5 days on to Murgab. Just before Murgab I passed a checkpoint but didn't stop until the guys head popped out of the window and called me back. Mark on the other hand came a few minutes later and decided to just carry on while the guy shouted at him. As Mark reached me a small green Lada pulled up and a very irate guard jumped out and started shouting at Mark. After much shouting he pulled a pistol from his belt and marched Mark back to the checkpoint, all the time with Mark desperately trying to make excuses. I sat eating my snickers having a good chuckle!!
Murgab is probably my least favourite town in the world and as I arrived I already had a strong urge to leave. The Lonely Planet describes it as a 'wildwest' town which looks better the further you are from it, which is quite right. There is not much going for the place and even less for Hotel Murgab. Our room was cheap which is to be expected when to turn the light on you must join two bare wires together, and to lock the door you must barricade it with panniers and bikes! There is no water apart from a dirty bucket sitting in the entrance which had probably been there for a good few weeks. I never did discover where the bathroom was but don't think I missed out on too much.
We arranged a truck and were woken at 4am and agreed a price which was a little expensive, but as we both wanted to leave quickly we tied our bikes on and the truck drove towards Lake Karakul. Mark got off at Karakul and I continued on to Sary Tash in Kyrgyzstan. It is a
spectacular route with many high mountains and the highest pass in the Pamirs at 4600m. The truck had a bad overheating problem which meant we had to stop every 10km at streams and top up the radiator with fresh water. We passed the border and came down towards Sary Tash in a wide green valley dotted with yurts right up to the Chinese border.
The Pamir plateau is very dry with some beautiful sky blue lakes . The greener areas around the streams are full of big, golden, marmots and golden eagles, along with a few vultures that soar around the peaks. We didn't manage to see any of the famous marco polo sheep or ibex along the way, but this wasn't surprising as they are scarce due to overhunting. We did see a fox one evening and a few scrub hares.
From Sary Tash in Kyrgyzstan the road is incredibly bad right up to the Chinese border then it suddenly becomes the smoothest tarmac that I have seen for many months. On the day I entered China I met a Swiss couple cycling, Natalie and Kurt. We camped together and the next day in the afternoon I met another Swiss couple, Sandra and Evo, just as two gay motorcylists were riding next to me and trying it on. I stopped with Sandra and Evo for a while until the motorcylist left us, and then cycled into Kashgar with them. We're now in cyclist heaven!
There is such great food here and I have been eating as much as possible. There are also loads of cyclists here who are heading to Tibet. The two German guys Jo and Nils arrived and soon we will leave together. I've met some great people and had some lovely meals!! 
12000km completed and now another 2500km to get to Katmandu. My bike is holding up well apart from the spate of punctures. There is a goodish bike shop here in Kashgar so I have made some repairs and bought spares. The road will probably be pretty bad form here on, with a lack of tar and with high passes up to 5400m to contend with. Also there won't be too much good food along the road so we are stocking up with goodies before we set out. When I arrive in Katmandu hopefully I will be able to write a fuller account of the past few weeks - unfortunately I have just skipped over the surface here.
Yeah, right. He unlocked the door and showed us a bare flat and as we entered there were two very embarrassed guys in one of the rooms speedily pulling on all their clothes!! Hmm! Needless to say, we made our excuses and made tracks at high speed. Later, we found a nice Russian lady that took us in for 5 dollars a night, but unfortunately it was on the 8th floor of a high rise flat. It was quite a climb with all my bags but an OK place to rest up for a few days. After all my flat tyres I decided to give the Pamir Highway in Tajikistan a miss and take a shorter route along the Garm Valley to the border crossing at Jirgital into Kyrgyzstan. I had been warned this might be closed but as the Lonely Planet said it was open, I carried on regardless.
It was a nice ride along the valley with fairly nice roads. In a couple of places the road detoured and followed the river bed which meant it was extremely hard going. Just big rocks with fine dust filling the air from any passing traffic. Along the way villagers filled the road with harvested wheat ready for threshing by passing traffic. One day I met Peter Gostelow, who is cycling back to England. We stopped for a coffee and had a nice chat before I carried on towards Kyrgyzstan. Around 4okm before the border a lazy, lounging soldier told me the border was closed but as I was so close I carried on and soon arrived at a checkpoint. I somehow managed to persuade the two guards to let me carry on to the border proper. On arrival, the guards took my passport and looked it over for 5 minutes and then declared that I could not pass and that I must go back around the Pamir Highway, just an 800km detour.I tried for a while to per
suade them that it was a good idea to let me cross, but they weren't too interested. As I was waiting to talk to the chief, a younger guard stood in the corridor with me and whispered his plan to smuggle me across at 3 in the morning. The more he whispered the less I understood what he was on about and quickly decided it would be a very bad idea. He assured me otherwise! I used their phone and called the British Embassy but go cut off, so that didn't help the situation either. Afterwards the guy wanted money and kept going on about sputnik! I told him I had no money or food, and at this point they lightened up and shared their lunch with me. Later they gave me a room and we even had freshly caught trout for dinner. The lorry drivers who came to the border tried to persuade the guards to let me through but still they wouldn't budge, so the next morning I planned to have one last try at crossing and if I had no luck, would take a truck back to the main road.The next dayI tried to bribe the guards but had no luck and as no traffic had come by midday I started to cycle back to where I had come from. I stopped after 40km and stayed with a very lovely family who gave me very good food and were incredibily kind. The next day I continued to cycle and after 120km saw a truck that was going in the same direction. I jumped on and got a lift back to the main road where I slept in a small chaihouse. Two more meals were bought for me and eventually I could eat no
more.In the morning I flagged down the first truck I saw and took a lift to around 50km from Khorog. The driver, Olim, turned out to be extremely kind and refused to take any money for the lift. We drove over the high pass with many switch-backs and saw mine clearance teams working around the summit. Olim really enjoyed the sweet scent of the herbs growing in the surrounding meadows and took off down the road for his weekly 100m high altitude jog and soon returned feeling revitalised!! We stopped at some pleasant shady chaihouses along the way for meals and sat with Olims friends who were driving in convoy with us.
In Khorog I stayed at the Pamir Lodge Guest House which is run by extremely nice people. Here I met Mark, a Dutch cyclist and also some Isreali cyclists touring from China to Europe. I joined Mark and we cycled together for 5 days on to Murgab. Just before Murgab I passed a checkpoint but didn't stop until the guys head popped out of the window and called me back. Mark on the other hand came a few minutes later and decided to just carry on while the guy shouted at him. As Mark reached me a small green Lada pulled up and a very irate guard jumped out and started shouting at Mark. After much shouting he pulled a pistol from his belt and marched Mark back to the checkpoint, all the time with Mark desperately trying to make excuses. I sat eating my snickers having a good chuckle!!
Murgab is probably my least favourite town in the world and as I arrived I already had a strong urge to leave. The Lonely Planet describes it as a 'wildwest' town which looks better the further you are from it, which is quite right. There is not much going for the place and even less for Hotel Murgab. Our room was cheap which is to be expected when to turn the light on you must join two bare wires together, and to lock the door you must barricade it with panniers and bikes! There is no water apart from a dirty bucket sitting in the entrance which had probably been there for a good few weeks. I never did discover where the bathroom was but don't think I missed out on too much.
We arranged a truck and were woken at 4am and agreed a price which was a little expensive, but as we both wanted to leave quickly we tied our bikes on and the truck drove towards Lake Karakul. Mark got off at Karakul and I continued on to Sary Tash in Kyrgyzstan. It is a
spectacular route with many high mountains and the highest pass in the Pamirs at 4600m. The truck had a bad overheating problem which meant we had to stop every 10km at streams and top up the radiator with fresh water. We passed the border and came down towards Sary Tash in a wide green valley dotted with yurts right up to the Chinese border.
The Pamir plateau is very dry with some beautiful sky blue lakes . The greener areas around the streams are full of big, golden, marmots and golden eagles, along with a few vultures that soar around the peaks. We didn't manage to see any of the famous marco polo sheep or ibex along the way, but this wasn't surprising as they are scarce due to overhunting. We did see a fox one evening and a few scrub hares.From Sary Tash in Kyrgyzstan the road is incredibly bad right up to the Chinese border then it suddenly becomes the smoothest tarmac that I have seen for many months. On the day I entered China I met a Swiss couple cycling, Natalie and Kurt. We camped together and the next day in the afternoon I met another Swiss couple, Sandra and Evo, just as two gay motorcylists were riding next to me and trying it on. I stopped with Sandra and Evo for a while until the motorcylist left us, and then cycled into Kashgar with them. We're now in cyclist heaven!
There is such great food here and I have been eating as much as possible. There are also loads of cyclists here who are heading to Tibet. The two German guys Jo and Nils arrived and soon we will leave together. I've met some great people and had some lovely meals!! 
12000km completed and now another 2500km to get to Katmandu. My bike is holding up well apart from the spate of punctures. There is a goodish bike shop here in Kashgar so I have made some repairs and bought spares. The road will probably be pretty bad form here on, with a lack of tar and with high passes up to 5400m to contend with. Also there won't be too much good food along the road so we are stocking up with goodies before we set out. When I arrive in Katmandu hopefully I will be able to write a fuller account of the past few weeks - unfortunately I have just skipped over the surface here.
Scott
Kashgar August 2007
Wednesday, 8 August 2007
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I've now arrived in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, after stopping in Samarkand for a few days at the famous Bahodirs B and B. Samarkand is a pleasant city with tree lined streets and some really beautiful buildings such as the centre piece, the Registan, which must be seen to be believed.
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After 10km I had a puncture but after fixing it I made the border in good time and sat and had a late breakfast with the border guards and watched a bad action film on their small tv. I was welcomed into Tajikistan and from the first minute met extremely kind and friendly people. One guy called me over to where he stood amongst his grape vines, and loaded me up with 5 bunches of very sweet grapes. After a short chat about football I went on my way. All the people gave a polite nod or hello as I passed and many offered some chai. When I did stop for chai I was given fried eggs and water-melon before being sent on my way. One evening I saw a lovely house on top of a hill around a 1km from the road. A few minutes later I stopped and talked to some women who insisted on having their photos taken. I asked where I could sleep for the night and they told me to follow two kids on a motorcycle...back up the road I went to the house I had seen, where I was fed plov, water-melon and sweet chai while savouring the lovely view over the lush valley.
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The next day I had to climb the Anzob pass. Everyone told me about the new tunnel so I decided to take this shortcut and save 20km. By this time I had had a few more punctures and was starting to get a little frustrated. I could find no cause and every time I patched a hole, 10km later the tyre would go flat again. I reached the tunnel after having to put my bike in the back of some guy's car, as he assured me I could not get up the last few kms of road. After throwing water on his engine and tweaking a few bits he pushed his car down the hill, before pumping the accelerator like crazy until the engine burst into life. We reached the tunnel and found that it was closed to the public.
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No matter, the workers first gave me lunch and then loaded my bike and me onto a crane and drove me through. For over half the 5km a river a foot deep was gushing down to the entrance which would have made cycling a tad tricky!! We drove through the water slowly and passed tunnel boring machines and a few guys wearing thick dirty clothes, themselves coated in dirt and mud. Every so often a plaque on the wall emerged out of the gloom signifying where a worker had died. This really sent a chill down my spine. Half way down we stopped and loaded up a big generator on to the back of the crane, meaning there was no space for my bike. One of the guys jumped on and cycled the last 2km while we slowly passed under the concrete forms where guys were coating the inside of the tunnel with concrete. The fumes were thick and by the time we reached the far side I felt quite faint. I don't know how guys work in there all day with hardly any light and no clean air. Really incredible.
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At the far side it was all down hill to Dushanbe but at this point the punctures really started coming thick and fast which really put a dampner on the beautiful scenery. By the time I was 25km from the city I had had 21 flats and was getting severely hacked off. Down to my last patch and with no explanation for why the holes kept coming, I stopped a car and took a lift into the city. All the holes came on the rim side of the tube so I can only imagine its the edge of the rim tape that caused them as it had become dry and a little sharp. With no new tape no solution seemed possible until Dushanbe. I couldn't believe my luck as I had not had a flat all the way from UK to Uzbekistan. I put new tyres on in Samarkand so maybe this helped cause the holes...who knows though as they are marathon xrs and should not be a problem!
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I met a Fnnish guy, Illka in Dushanbe, and together, after a very interesting search round the city, we managed to find a cheap apartment to stay in, with a russian lady. Illka speaks Russian and together we should be able to find some new tubes for my bike and sort everything out. I'm thinking about giving the Pamir Highway a miss and heading straight for China, where I can spend a while in Kashgar getting into condition for the Tibet crossing. I know I will regret not seeing the Highway but there's always next time and after the last few days I fancy getting to a good bike shop (in China) and making sure everything is sweet with my bike.
Adios, Scott
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