In the meantime I am working hard on the Kyrgyzstan drafts. We definitely have made a lot of pictures. Well I should say actually Larisa has made a lot of photos. It is hard to choose which ones to post as there are so many good ones.
On a good day my photographer made more than 500 photos a day. It is really a big asset to have such a good buddy! Thank you Larisa for the good photos!!!
Watch our updates here: http://www.expedition-east.be/?cat=6
As I have an English mum, I like to have a good breakfast. This is almost exactly what we could have in the hotel. At least we had eggs, tea, bread, butter and some kasha. I trip like this can be done in many ways. We had a tent and the camping gear but only used it now and then. Actually I think it is perfectly possible to do this trip without the camping gear and you will be a lot lighter. But then you are not able to go wherever you want. So the best option in my opinion is to have the camping gear as a backup and keep it as light as possible.
We went up to gather our stuff and leave our flat. The important thing in a trip like this is to have a good balance. You have to know your limits, but also those of your buddy. As ex military I have some experience in stretching limits, but I also know it always comes at a price. You need recuperation at some point.
By balance I do not only talk about physical balance but also the trip itself. It is a mix of things. You have the riding, on road or off road. Visiting places, hiking, talking to people, relaxing. The weight lies differently for everybody. But once you know where it lies for you, you can have a great trip. We have had a little rest now and our batteries were back at 75 percent. Ready to go!
We fueled up and did the usual talk at the gas station. We left Osh and the roads were excellent. It was all good asphalt. We were riding through the Fergana valley which is a fertile area. We were also very close to the Uzbek border and going north.
At some point it got quite hot and we approached a major hydroelectrical dam. Behind the dam was a huge lake which we followed for more than an hour.
It was a very scenic ride, but the offroad level was zero. It was all nice asphalt. All of a sudden we saw to cyclists. We stopped next to them and said hello. To our surprise they spoke Flemish! The guys were even from East-Flanders, where I come from and they Gent well of course. What a coincidence!
We continued our trip and went through some small tunnels. By the evening we got to a huge lake. We rode around it and arrived in a village called Toktogul. The sun was almost setting so we called it a day. Bishkek was still a long way to go. We found a cheap gostinitso and went looking for a cafe.
I had wanted to eat the local dish called besh barmak for some time, but it was not available in the last places we tried. We found a place here though. But we had to wait one hour. No problem, and we took off for a nice evening ride. We went downhill to the lake. We watched a beautiful sunset. We almost lost track of time and quickly rode back, offroad to the main road and the cafe.
The dish was lovely. It was a Saturday evening. But instead of going out like most people do in the West, we had a quiet evening and enjoyed our environment. A simple life like this was all I needed…
Osh is the second biggest city in Kyrgyzstan. It lies in the beautiful and big Fergana valley. Its main population consists out of Kyrgyz, Tajik, Russian and Uzbek. There is supposed to be the biggest market of central asia here. It is also famous for its World Heritage Site which is the Suleyman mountain. We had stuff to stay around for.
But actually we did some other things 🙂 We had a long sleep and a good breakfast. Then a stroll around and bought the Kyrgyz SIM card. The collection was getting bigger. Then we went back and did the laundry. Our clothes were really dirty!
In the evening we went for another walk and climbed the Suleyman hill. There is a nice view on the city from here. We walked down and through the market but it was already finished by now. It was no big deal for me as I am not such a big fan of markets. We went to a restaurant where the bikers would probably be and we met them. We had some food and a beer and went back home.
Tomorrow we will ride north towards the capital but it will most likely be a two days ride!
It was not as cold as I feared it would have been. It was one of the last minute choices I made back home to swap my warm -30C extreme sleeping bag for a cheap synthetic bag until -2C extreme. We had a minimal breakfast and decided to go walking again. Our new friend Axel decided to leave already. We said goodbye and started our walk.
Yesterday evening there were some clouds, and the top of the peaks were slowly playing hide and seek behind them. But now it was sky clear. The sun was also shining on the mountain side. The views were even more beautiful. We watched some sherpas on mules go up the mountain to camp 1 to bring supplies. The weather was great and we had a lovely walk.
After a few hours we came back to the bike and then to our tent. It was ready to get back into our riding gear and start riding again. I loved riding here. We broke up the tent and left the basecamp. Getting down we made a quick stop to talk to some Polish guys who were ready to go up. They had really heavy backpacks but were in good shape. You must be for such a climb! We said goodbye and started the downhill back to the main road to Sary Tash.
It was a lot easier then yesterday because it was downhill and the weather was perfect. The only thing was a few river crovers and the water was a lot higher than yesterday. It is strange to see what a difference a day can make. We got back to the main road without problems and rode back to Sary Tash.
When we arrived in Sary Tash we saw a big group of bikers. We went to say hello and most of them were Polish. They had a leader and his name was Sambor. He told me he knew the road we just had done and had done it many times. They were headed to China however. Interesting to know, because I know it is really hard to get in China with your own motor vehicle. Or maybe very expensive.
We were a bit hungry and made a pit stop in a local cafe. We had some manti here. It is some kind of meat with pasta and tastes pretty good. A chinese truck driver bought Larisa a bottle of juice 🙂 All of a sudden we heard more bikes. I looked outside and it were more Polish bikers, but headed in the direction of Osh this time. They must have just unloaded a Polish delagation somewhere in the area.
We were almost finished eating when another bike stopped at the cafe. This time it was the Swiss couple we met two days in Murghab. What a small world it can be sometimes 🙂 We talked a bit more and they gave us some tips about Osh as they came from there. They were now headed to Dushanbe. The man was riding back alone from there and his wife would fly back.
After our good meal we jumped back on the bike and left for Osh. The road was still the M41 but it was nice asphalt now. We had to do a mountain pass called the Taldyk pass at an altitude of 3615m but it was nothing compared to what we had done before. The landscape had changed though. It was green now, with many yurtas on the hills. We saw a lot of horses and people on the road.
We kept following this road and the temperature also got notably higher. After a few hours we got in the Fergana Valley and finally in the city of Osh. It looked like one of the cities on the Silk Road when we entered the city through the entrance gate. Osh is also called the capital of the South in Kyrgyzstan.
Once in the city we went looking for a good hostel. The first one we found, had already bikers. There were two German bikers, and a French family with two bikers and two children. The French family was waiting for parts. While Larisa was waiting in the hostel I checked out the Osh hotel which was very near. I found our French friend here. But the hotel was actually a bit better and the same price. We had like an apartment here, which is ideal if you want to do some laundry.
So we left for the Osh hotel. In the evening we had a good meal with Axel. We had a dish called Kurdak. Tomorrow we would make a resting day in Osh and explore the city further.
It was early in the morning when we woke up. The location was one of the lovely places we had on our trip. High in the mountains near a beautiful lake. The lake was very salty and cold though, a morning swim was out of the question here 🙂 For most of the year the lake is even frozen.
Our goal of the day was the Lenin Peak basecamp. This is one of the plus 7000m peaks in the area. We tried to see it from the lake using a compass, ruler and map, but could not find it. At least we knew it was out there in the distance. The trail to climb it however starts from Kyrgyzstan, about 50km west from Sary Tash.
We had our last Tajik breakfast. Well in fact I should say maybe our first Kyrgyz breakfast because the people in the town were almost all Kyrgyz. We were ready to set off and climb higher with the bike. The bike had no problems with the altitude as well. Our Oddysey PC 535 battery did a good job.
The views when riding were amazing. We rode close to Chinese border and were headed for the Tajik-Kyrgyz border post which is on the crest of the Kyzylart pass at an altitude of 4280m. It is known that the guards can be a bit corrupt here, but we had no problem at all crossing.
There were some small rivers to cross during the way, but nothing special. When we almost reached the summit of the pass we stopped for a moment to glance back on the Tajik landscape.
We said goodbye to Tajikistan and entered the border post. Everything went very smooth. Now we were on the way to the Kyrgyz post which is about 20km downhill. It can be a little muddy and wet, but we had no problems. There was also a collapsed road. The crossing on the Kyrgyz side went even smoother. I think it might have been a record in time. Before we knew it we were in Kyrgyzstan and you could know you are in a different country.
It immediately looked a bit like Mongolia to me. Steppe with grass, horses, yurtas. After a while the gravel stopped and we were on a asphalt road with some potholes. We did bad road stopped we were on a new asphalt road which was perfect!
We headed into Sary Tash to buy some drinks, but fuel was not needed. The GS was really economical and at times I would have to fuel up after 500km or even further. We asked about Lenin Peak and took off. We just had to follow the perfect road for 50km in western direction. On the road I had to be careful for horses, cows, sheep, people. But it was good to be on good asphalt again.
After 50km we got in the town of Kashka Suu and we turned left. The asphalt stopped again, and there was a small track now through the fields heading for the Lenin Peak basecamp. It was a beautiful track and we saw some yurtas on our way. We were in the glen between two mountain ranges.
After some time we noticed a green Ural sidecar in the distance. I first thought it was a local but getting closer I saw he was wearing a nice goretex jacket. We had a chat with Axel from France. He would be some in Kyrgyzstan and was also on the way to the base camp to make some snaps. I was a bit jealous as he had so much room to carry stuff, he had a great camera for example with him. He wanted to take some snaps of the peak to show his friends who have climbed the mountain last year.
We decided to ride together to the base camp and camp at a good spot. It was good to be together as the terrain got a bit more difficult with some watercrossings. In the evening we got at the camp, but it was pretty quiet. Actually only the first team to climb the mountain was onsite.
On the higher side of the camp we found a nice spot. We put up our tents and got ready for the night. It could be a cold one as we were at 3600m. I was not tired enough and decided to go for a walk. I took the bike and rode as high as I could. Under the way I passed the dark side of climbing with a monument to remember climbers who had died climbing the mountain.
When it got too steep, I left the bike and started walking. It was a nice trail and I was alone with a view on the Lenin Peak. I kept walking until I hit a river which was really hard to cross. In the evening there is more water. As it was getting dark as well, I went back.
We had some food in our tent and called it a day. It was a great location again to sleep. Personnaly I am a fan of nice flats with views, but this beats it by far.