Tag: Cycle Touring

Pamirs 2: Murghab to Khargush via Zorkul Lake

So we were in the famous ‘Pamirs’ the collection of high mountain (3000-5000m) pasture areas which span across the majority of Tajikistan and northern parts of neighbouring Pakistan and Afghanistan. 

The region attracts swathes of cyclists each year many of whom, it seems, take a 2-3 week holiday to cycle from Dushanbe to Osh/Bishkek.

We would be covering the area from the opposite direction, starting in the sparsely populated Eastern area of the Pamirs.

The snow peaks, high passes and elevated pastures would have to wait though as my achilles wasn’t feeling any better even after a rest day. After managing some very slow google searching via our Tajik SIM card we were able to diagnose the problem – my saddle position being way too high (I had raised it considerably a few days earlier because my knees had been hurting) resulting in me ‘ankling’ repeatedly. 

Either way the damage had been done and anyone who’s hurt their achilles knows it can be pretty painful and slow to recover… A combination of ice, gentle stretches and ibuprofen over a further two days thankfully got me back to a point where I could ride again. During this period Paddy and I would intermittedly brake into this song by Toploader.

Murghab wasn’t a bad place to be stuck for a few extra days. 


In fact, we both found the desert town quite charming, particularly the shipping container bazaar.

As the main central hub for the Eastern Pamirs, Murghab has been an important base for the region since the late 1890s when it became a military stronghold for the Russian troops who set up the Panirsky Post nearby. This garrison became an important hotspot during the ‘Great Game’ (as did the GBAO region as a whole) between Russia and Great Britain in the years that followed.

The rest days also gave us a chance to plan our route. We were pretty set on cycling the Wakhan corridor and after talking with a British couple who we’d met on the road a few days before, decided we’d cycle there via the Great Pamir which takes you south down and through the protected area of Zorkul Lake. It would be a very tough road but promised to be utterly secluded.

There was one snag, we needed a permit to ride this route and we weren’t sure if we could get one on this side of the M41. Fortunately after some ringing around we manage to get a number for a guy in Murghab who apparently issued permits. Here’s his direct number – 880880655

So with the permit sorted (15s each) and our panniers bulging with 5 days worth of provisions we set off on our Pamiri adventure.

Day 1: Murghab to beginning of the Istyk river

Distance: 83km / Ride Time: 6:39

A small climb of 200m greeted us a few kilometres out of Murghab where we left the river of the same name behind. Soon we found ourselves back in the moonscape scenery which typifies the eastern Pamirs. 

We had 25km of excellent asphalt road before taking the left turning off where we left the M41 behind us. This was the start of 4 days of off-roading.


After 5km of washboards the road smoothed out to a great sandy compact track. There is so little traffic here that the road doesn’t have a chance to be churned up.

It really was beautiful and we were the only people for miles. 



We saw no vehicles that day except one lonely truck carrying a large harvest of teresken which is collected extensively across the higher Pamirs to be used as fuel. It’s a slow growing (fast burning) plant – a 30cm shrub may be 50-80 years old – with an extensive root system meaning once it’s taken from the soil large sections of the mountainside are left unprotected from erosion. We’ve read it’s becoming a bit of a problem.

We made good headway and reached our first pass just after lunch. The pass although incredibly steep at the end was thankfully short-lived and we only had to push tandem a few metres over the top. 


Here we found ourselves in another spectacular valley walled with razor sharp rocks and home to a huge colony of marmots. 


Paddy gets obsessed with trying to capture one of these funny creatures on its hind legs for his friend Alan. Anyone who has seen this popular YouTube video will understand why… 



It’s much greener here than the previous valley, assumedly due to a seasonal lake which we soon reach. 

The lake, now that we’re in late July is completely dry. On the one hand, it’s fun to be able to cycle across it’s cracked surface; on the other hand, we’re running low on water as we were banking that there would be at least one stream still running down to it from the surrounding mountains. 

It was already 3pm and we would now need to complete another 30km at least to get to the next reliable water supply – the Istyk river. 


After a tough ride of 83km we reached the river and very tired and grumpy we pitch the tent down from a secluded farm where a yurt is also set up.

Day 2: Past Jarty Gumbez to camping spot by Kokjigit Lake

Distance: 40km / Ride Time: 4:39

It’s a beautiful morning and we wake early and eat breakfast by the river. 

On our way back to the road we pop our heads into the yurt and ask if we can buy some bread. A Kyrgyz family are living there and so naturally they insist that we come inside for chai. 

We get fed delicious warm goats milk, tea and rich airan (yoghurt). They also give us a huge homemade nan and when we try and to offer them some money they adamantly refuse. 


We follow the river upstream through another broad based valley, the road getting bumpier as we go. 


By 11am we’ve reached the hunting lodge named Jarty Gumbez which sits at the bottom of the next pass. 

The wind has picked up by now and it’s not in our favour. We churn out the next 5km, pass a few more yurts on our way up until we reach the top. 


Suddenly the Wakhan range of mountains is revealed to us and the Great Pamir, home to Zorkul Lake opens out in front of us. We start to descend into the basin through a magnificent carpet of purple flowers. 


The road is very up and down and the gets worse and worse as we progress. There are lots of moments where it doesn’t really resemble a road at all… we camp overlooking the smaller Kokjigit lake.

wading through streams and rivers becomes the norm
Day 3: Kokjigit Lake to crossing of the beginning of Pamir River

Distance: 49km / Ride Time: 4:40

The water bottles which we left on the bike that night completely froze and we have to coax each other out of our warm cocoon the next morning. The sun soon reaches us though and we pack up the stuff and continue on our way.
The snow peaked mountains to our left slowly come into view as the morning haze lifts. Our first proper views of Afghanistan! 

It’s slightly strange to find yourself a stones throw away from a country which your government has so very recently invaded.

Suddenly I find myself cycling along the country which, along with Iraq, has held such a unique place in our media and dominated our foreign policy for much of my adult life. 


The road is TERRIBLE and it’s really slow progress. At 11am we take half an hour to explore an abandoned Russian military camp which sits overlooking Lake Zorkul right where the Tajik/Afghan borders meet.


The post, complete with its huge radio aerial, tank garages, rusting exercise bars and old oil tanks was a cool place to explore for a while.


Probably abandoned after the Soviet breakup in the 1990s we were surprised that not more of it hadn’t been looted.  

Corridor inside the main building
small bunker
Exercise bars
It takes us the majority of the day to cycle the length of the lake. We keep having to push/lift the tandem through large streams and parts of ‘the road’ are made up of such big stones that it’s impossible for us to cycle. Again, there is very little traffic.


Lake Zorkul is a protected wildlife area although it seems management of the park appears to be pretty lax. We do spot some animals including a very large Tolai hare and lots of species of bird including, we think, some vultures – no snow leopards or Marco Polo sheep unfortunately.


We reach the point where the Pamir river starts to flow away from the lake. We would be following this body of water which acts as the border between the two countries for the next 6 days. The bridge across the river has completely caved in so we have to pull the tandem bare foot through a series of four rivers, me pushing and keeping the bike steady while Paddy pulls and manoeuvres from the front. 

We camp just after this major crossing and despite the mozzies we both managed to take a shower in the shallows and have the luxury of washing our cycling clothes.

Day 4: Following the river to Khargush

Distance: 47km / Ride Time: 4:39

Today saw us complete the Zorkul loop and join back onto the main Wakhan corridor road at Khargush. 

The mozzies pestered us all day and there were some tricky sections of road including parts where we had to cycle the bike through inches of sand – the tandem’s nemesis!

Actually, we experienced every kind of off road imaginable that day and hands down to Paddy, he steered the bike beautifully through all of it.


Bob Marley and The Wailers keep us chilled throughout this road ordeal that morning…


…and by 4pm we reach the army checkpoint at Khargush which guards over the entrance on this side of the lake. We were glad we had arranged the permit because they did ask to see it. 

By a crazy chance, just as we’re approaching the checkpoint, 2 motorcycles buzz up the road behind us. It’s our lovely Dutch friends Peter and Leonie who we last saw in Sary-Tash. It’s a really strange coincidence but nice to catch up with them and hear which routes they have done through The Pamirs – pretty much everywhere – you can go so much faster when you have an engine. 

So we had reached the top of the Wakhan corridor, here we would be cycling through the valley towards Khorog. 

We don’t do much more that day, just another 10km down to the river which has now form into the mighty Panj. Despite the road being stony, sandy and full of washboards, compared to what we’ve come from, it feels wonderfully smooth and easy!

Onwards through the Wakhan!

TAJIKISTAN and the start of The Pamirs!!!

We stayed in Sary-Tash for our final night in Kyrgysztan. To our pleasant surprise Leonie and Peter, a lovely Dutch couple who are traveling by motorbike and who we met briefly on the road from Song-Kol Lake, arrived at our guesthouse late in the afternoon and we spent a pleasant evening with them over dinner in our guesthouse.

Matching jackets!!

The next morning wasn’t a particularly early start, a mistake perhaps in light of what lay ahead – a significant climb up to the Tajik border post. 

From there we would wind our way down to Karakol, climb back up to complete what is the highest peak of the Pamir, before finally reaching Murghab. We were banking on reaching Murghab in 3 days where we would enjoy a rest day before continuing on down towards the Wakhan valley.

It would end up being a gruelling three days….

Day 1: Sary-Tash to Tajik border post

Distance: 56.3km / Ride Time: 5:35

A cruel headwind greeted us as we set out that morning and it got colder as we gradually climbed up.


By lunchtime we had left the asphalt behind us and had already been forced to push the tandem barefoot through a river due to a collapsed bridge.

The prospect of reaching country no.7 that evening was keeping us both happy however and the scenery was pretty nice too. 


We reached the Kyrgyz border post where a nice guard stamps us out, checks we’re OK with the oncoming altitude and reminds us to look out for the famous Marco Polo sheep. We’ll miss this kind of friendliness – bye bye Kyrgyzstan!


A 20km stretch of no mans land was now ahead of us before we would reach Tajikistan. 

Just before the beginning of the pass proper we meet a bunch of cyclists coming the other way who warn us of a muddy and snowy climb.

As it happened, more from luck than good planning, we reach the top late in the afternoon when most of the mud had dried in the sun. Nevertheless it was a hard climb complete with some stiff switchback at the end and we were greeted by a howling wind at the top. A weather front closed in behind us and we wouldn’t be surprised if it had snowed again on that side of the pass that night.


We reach the Tajik post at 6pm (apparently it is open 24 hours) and are away again by 6:15. Not wanting to go much further, we set up camp just a few kilometres down from the border post, managing to hide from most of the wind by pitching our tent in a sheltered dip. It’s pretty desolate and dessert like up here and we huddle together in the tent while a thin layer of sand settles on our sleeping bag. 

Day 2: Tajik border to 20km beyond Karakol

Distance: 79km / Ride Time: 4:57

An early and very cold start – our water bottles were half frozen! We shake the sand out of everything before packing up and we’re soon back on the road which turns back into asphalt. 


A few minor climbs but the overall outlook is downhill. After the last pass we catch our first glimpses of Karakol Lake and can spot the small town perched on the shore on the opposite side. Its very beautiful and we spend some time lapping up the view. 


We meet a friendly Russian cyclist who hands over a sticker of his own design for our bike. He points out Paddy’s Robbie Keene sticker and asks why I don’t have one of Gareth Bale! Wales’ recent success in the football has certainly put my little country on the international map! 


We stop at a friendly homestay for lunch who also exchange the remainder of our Kyrgyz com into Tajik somoni, and then battle with a very strong side wind as we skirt around the lake. 

We reach the valley on the far side and manage a few more kilometres of climbing before finding a suitable spot to shelter from the wind again. It’s a bit early but I’m really not feeling the best and I’m forced to lie in the tent while paddy cooks dinner. The longer I lie there the worse I feel. Paddy also starts to feel pretty rough at this point too. It’s definitely a stomach bug but I also wonder if the altitude is also having an effect. We’re at around 4200, probably the highest we’ve camped…

Day 3: Final stretch to Murghab

Distance: 105km / Ride Time: 6:22

After a frustratingly sleepless night we are both feeling in tatters the next morning. I’m marginally better than Paddy so pack up the tent while he slumps in a chair. It’s incredibly dusty and all our stuff is covered in the same grey filth.

We get on the bike without cooking breakfast, neither of us can stomach eating. 

We’re both desperate to reach Murghab but with 105km and a very tough climb ahead, neither of us could see how we were going to make it. All we wanted was a bed!!


Fortunately as soon as we’re on the bike we both start to feel a little better. It’s a stunning morning, the road is good and we cycle through a vast open valley, the morning sun pouring down on a beautiful mountain range to our left. 

Here we stock up on water and pass some abandoned farm buildings and houses. A short while later the road, to our dismay, turns back into a stony, sandy, washboard mess. It’s very hard going, and slow, and we’re both too tired and washed out to keep up a positive attitude. 

My ankle around my achilles has started to really ache and Paddy’s shoulders are painful too.


By 12:30 we’ve reached the bottom of the pass which starts with a stiff climb which we struggle up at 3km an hour. We’re feeling too rotten to take in much of the view and as we reach the final climb we both end up cursing at this poor German guy who is taking lots of photos of us from his jeep as we struggle pass. 

Despite having only eaten 2 iced buns and a handful of nuts each somehow we manage to reach the top by 2pm.

We still had 80km to Murghab, mostly down and flat, but we were both wrecked. Near the top of the other side we’re greeted by a cheery group of cyclists. With the news that the road would soon turn back into asphalt we spur ourselves on.


At 3pm I decide I can stomach a cheese sandwich so we stop and I convince Paddy to have some too.

We both feel much better for eating and thankfully the remainder of the journey is all paved if a bit bumpy in places. It’s pretty flat with a slight incline in our favour – exactly the kind of road where the tandem can really eat up miles and despite a strong headwind, with great effort, we manage to maintain a steady 25-27km for a good 90 minutes.

By 6pm we’re having to stop every 15 minutes. Our bodies are giving up on us. I pat Paddy’s back and wave the swarms of mosquitos away as he leans over his handlebars with a horrible headache. 

At each stop we lie on the hot Tarmac getting ready for the next leg.


We finally roll into Murghab at 7.30pm and luckily meet two English cyclist who tell us about an affordable homestay. It’s a lovely place and we manage to bag their old room for just 30s each.

After a home cooked meal and a hot shower we’re both feeling very content and are super glad that we were able to make it to a bed! Bring on that lie in!

A Day Horsing Around 

Festival going has always been a big part of our summer holidaying and with news from friends back home of their 2016 festival plans, we admit, we were feeling a little nostalgic. We were really glad therefore to have made it to our own little Kyrgyz mountain festival.


After a cold night, we wake to find the sun beating down on our tent. We lie there for a while comfortably listening to the sounds of people bustling past us, children laughing and food being prepared – in the background we recognise the familiar low hum of a generator.


Crawling out of our tent we find children running around in traditional costumes under a cloudless sky and adults blowing up balloons to decorate some temporary red tents which have appeared on the edge of the field.


The backdrop is spectacular and we cook breakfast before getting ready to enjoy the day’s events which promised to include live performances, yurt building and traditional horse games.


Paddy’s hopes for a beer tent were soon dashed but in all other respects it seemed we had found our very own ‘party in a field’.

By 10pm lots of locals had started to arrive by both horse and car.
Having gone back to fetch the sunscreen from the tent I find Paddy sitting cross legged on a large traditional shashlik rug surrounded by 7 or 8 local women. He’s encouraged to hold each of their children in turn.



The Belgian guys who we had met the previous night were also there and at about 11am a large party of other tourists from Osh also arrived. The majority of people there were locals though.


After a few opening speeches the festival kicks off in earnest with a couple of dance performances by local girls all proudly wearing their traditional outfits.


Next a mixed gender professional music group led by a Manasachi who performs excerpts of the famous Manas epoch.


After the performances we are all told to turn around to face the mountain behind where a bizzare staging of what the announcer calls ‘the traditional nomad movement’ is taking place.
This involved around 40 people processing across the grassy slopes down towards a semi-constructed yurt. Many of them are on horseback while others are leading heavily laden donkeys and yaks. There is also a camel – who, in the middle of the procession, spooked by something, causes havoc by running back up the mountain leaving a trail of objects in its wake.


The yurt building that followed was great fun however and it was interesting to see how the whole thing is constructed. Paddy has sworn he is going to build one when we get back home.

Once the wooden trellis walls are up the roof goes up by attaching about 60 curved beams to the circular tunduk which acts as the kind of ‘key stone’ to the whole structure.


The shape of the tunduk is represented in the Kyrgyz flag.


Once the wooden beams are tied together with rope and long belts of brightly coloured felt ribbon, the thick, sheep’s wool covers get wrapped around the exterior – first the walls and then the roof. Long ropes keep it all in place.


A team of six to eight skilled men can erect one of these things in around 60-90 minutes.


After a spectacular lunch we’re back in the field ready for the games to start. The first is a good ol’ fashion session of ‘rope pulling’ or as we know it – ‘tug of war’.


We tourists are asked if we’d like to form a team against some locals. Paddy gets involved in the men’s team and I have a go in the woman’s round.



Despite our best efforts we both find ourselves on the losing side – perhaps this says something about our scrawny build! I think we should stick to long distant cycling…

After the rope pulling each village nominates a man to represent them in a one on one tournament called yak pulling. Sadly the game doesn’t involve a yak. Instead the two men – attached by a rope pulled through their legs and around their necks – slowly crawl forwards attempting to pull their opponent over the centre line. Not surprisingly, none of the international guests were willing to put themselves forward for this game…


After yak pulling we were treated to a short stint of horseback wrestling followed by ‘coin picking’ where each opponent has a go at bending down from their horse to pick up as many coins from the ground as they can. They do this while the horse is cantering at top speed; it’s pretty crazy!



Nora our Dutch friend who is travelling across Asia on her motorcycle bravely took a turn at the coin picking. Unfortunately she didn’t manage to get any but she was pretty close and we were all very impressed with her brave attempt.

The day finished with the exhilarating traditional field game of Ulak Tartysh. The only way I can describe Ulak is by comparing it to a game of rugby union. But all the men are on horses and instead of playing with a ball they play with the beheaded carcass of a goat instead!

The aim of the game is to either pick up the carcass from the ground or wrestle it from your opponent before riding full pelt towards your goal ring, where the animal is dropped, earning a point for you team.


As you can imagine, it’s carnage, BUT incredibly entertaining to watch!

The weather stayed warm and dry the whole day and all in all, it was a very fitting end to our time in Kyrgyzstan. 

It’s now time to head south, up and over the Tajik mountains. The Pamirs await!

Hitch Hiking to a festival 

The visa applications and the ride south from Bishkek via Song-Kol lake had both eaten into our schedule more than we expected so we were now planning to cross the Tajik border a week later. 

Normally this wouldn’t be a problem for most countries but Tajikistan and Uzbekistan – our next two destinations – require you to put a specific date of entry and exit on your visa. On top of this, we needed to leave enough time to apply for the dreaded Turkmenistan visa in Dushanbe…
We were still OK on time as we had a 45 day visa for Tajikistan and there was no point stressing. In Osh we met a couple of other cyclists who had completed the Pamir, including the Wakhan valley, in around 22-24 days.

Our route to the border crossing would see us backtrack along the M41 back up to Sary-Tash where we had stopped for a night coming over the Irkeshtam pass from China 40 days previously.

We had heard that an annual horse festival was taking place over the weekend somewhere in the region so we were keen to see if we could fit this in on our way through. After visiting the website we discover it’s directly on our route towards the Tajik border, 5km from Gulcho. 

We leave Osh on the Friday morning having spent Thursday cleaning the bike, stocking up on supplies and catching up with news back home. 

We were keen to get to the horse games site that evening so we didn’t miss any of the festivities the next morning but the ride involved a long gradual incline, plus a hard climb over the Chyrchyk Pass. This meant we needed to hitch a ride. 

We cycle 15km out of Osh and then pull up on a long straight section. Traffic is a bit on the slim side and all the vehicles which could take the tandem seem to be turning off or stopping just beyond where we’re stopped. 

After an hour we admit defeat and get back on the bike and cycle another 10km up the road. We stop and make lunch and then try again. A nice chap and his little boy stop and we lift the tandem fully loaded into the back of his pick-up truck. He’s only going to the next village 13km but it still helps a lot. 

Traffic is even slimmer here but after a few tries we managed to hail down a second ride and luckily this guy is going all the way past the turning to the festival. 

It’s 4pm and we still have 15km to cycle up a steep track to get to the festival site. It’s a very beautiful setting and we pass many yurts on our way as we follow a small river up stream winding our way through the valley. By 5pm we’ve done 4.5km and we’re both starting to feel tired and hungry. Maybe we won’t make it up there before evening after all…

Luckily for us an empty pick-up truck trundles pass and we manage to steal a ride for the next 7km. After this the track gets VERY steep and the last kilometre is impossible for us to ride so we have to push. 

Sweaty and breathless we push the tandem over the last ridge and the valley starts to open out. Paddy climbs up a green slope to check we’re in the right place and comes back accompanied by two adolescent boys. They help us push the bike up the last 500m and we find ourselves on a grassy plain, surrounded by pine wooded hills dotted with clusters of yurts. 


We are greeted by the festival organisers who show us where we can pitch our tent. A number of happy helpers arrive and assist with our set up before getting distracted by the helinox chairs…



Later, some guys from Belgium who have hiked up here come over to say hello and we sit chatting with them while cooking dinner. 

Happy to hear that the festival wouldn’t be kicking off until 10am we snuggle down and look forward to a lie in.

Bumpy bumpy bumpy! Onwards through Kazarman, up to the Kaldama Pass

Day 3: 52km

We leave our amazing mountain top view and complete the final 3km to the top of the pass. 

We’re really running low on water and there is no sign of any streams but thankfully there is a collection of yurts at the top , and this lovely family replenish four of our bottles. 

We spend some time with them before heading over the top and back down to the next valley.



The rest of the day is very up and down and we make slow progress. 

We meet more motorcyclists on the road and stop to chat for a while. 

After 5 and a half hours in the saddle we stop and camp in a meadow just outside the small village of Dodomol.

Day 4: 40km

If possible, the road got worse today. After a short climb we find ourselves losing a lot of height once again until we reach this flat stretch of road leading to the large town of Kazarman. 

The washboards are relentless and we manage an average speed of just 8.6km/h.


We’re both a bit worn out so decide to give ourselves a rest and find a nice home stay for the night. It’s the first shower we’ve had in 7 days! Bliss!

Kazarman’s centre isn’t the most picturesque! The streets are lined with these rather depressing looking soviet apartment blocks. That orange stuff is peeling insulation… Asbestos perhaps?!


The cultural centre with its very Soviet style sculpture

The people are really friendly though and it’s a great place to stock up on food, snacks and water.

Day 5: 44.5km

Day 5 saw us start to tackle the tallest (but final) mountain road – the Kaldama Pass. 

It’s incredibly hot and we spend a long time filtering 9L water from a muddy stream. 

We keep climbing through the green hilly landscape. The traffic isn’t too bad but the road is still frustratingly slow.

We drop down to a big river before camping next to some yurts. We’ll have a hard climb tomorrow morning but should complete the pass before lunch.

Day 6: 79.2km

We manage an early start and The War on Drugs, Radiohead and Paul Simon blast out of our speaker helping us to keep climbing. 

By lunch time we have reached the top!


It’s a bumpy trip down and gets hotter and hotter as we lose height. 

Luckily there are plenty of springs to collect water.

After eight days on the gravel road we’re delighted to find ourselves back on Tarmac!!!


Our seventh and last day would see us cycle the remaining 43km to Jalal-Abad, finally completing our big loop of Kyrgyzstan. 

From there we cheated a bit, hailed down a passing truck and hitched back to Osh. 🙂 

Song-Kol Lake, where Paddy learns how to ride and fall off a horse all in one day

Our next destination would be Song-Kol a 100km ride from Kochkor. The lake itself sits at 3100m so we had some climbing to do and we were aware that the paved road would end with a turning off at Sary-Bulak. From there, we’d be back to dirt track for a good 5 days. 

The plan was to reach the south side of the lake by early evening of the second day. 

Having contacted a number of community tourism agents and been quoted an astronomical fee for horse trekking we had decided we would sort something out ourselves once we arrived at the lake.

We had heard it would be easy to find a number of yurts offering treks and we weren’t too worried about having an English speaking guide. 

The rain held off for the first day and we enjoyed the gradual climb up towards the turn off. Paddy recently downloaded the audio book of Thomas Pickerty’s Capital so we brush up on our economic and social science history during the ride.

Random statue on the side of the road

At lunch Paddy notices that our front tire wasn’t looking too healthy… Same problem as our recent back tire which we replaced in Bishkek. We decide to change it before it bursts on the dirt road and punctures the inner tube. Lucky we brought that second spare!! 

We turn off onto the dirt track – the road for this section isn’t too bad at all and we make fairly good progress. 

The countryside is very beautiful and it felt good to be back in the wild mountains again. 


We camp in a field near the road that evening and we finally manage to capture the ground hogs on camera. 


The second day saw some pretty horrible weather roll in including some bitter hail storms at the top of the pass leading to the lake. 

We sheltered in a yurt for a good 90 minutes eating our way through bread, jam and cream. The weather then cleared long enough for us to cycle around to the south side of the lake. 

We meet a couple of other cycle tourers on our way round who are also sheltering from the bad weather.

We pass a number of yurt clusters and as we round the corner, the vast lake stretches out in front of us. 

By 5pm we’re both starving so we make a quick stop to rustle up some cheese and cucumber sandwiches. 


We cycle for another hour at which point we spot a large yurt complex just off the road so we cycle up to enquire about trekking opportunities. 

We’ve stopped at a good spot but no one in the family speaks English and both our Russian and Kyrgyz barely stretch pass a few simple pleasantries. After a lot of gestures, drawing of pictures and looking up words in their dictionary we manage to fix a price for a three day trek. It was tricky as the prices for each thing seemed to fluctuate a lot but we got there in the end!

It’s A LOT cheaper than anything quoted by an agent and he confirmed we could take our tent with us meaning we wouldn’t need to pay for accommodation.

We camped next to their yurt that night and cooked up an omelette, excited about the next morning. 

Up to this point, Paddy’s experience of riding stretched as far as a day trip on a Pygmy horse in Iceland – he was able to touch the ground with his feet on this trip, so mounting his fully grown horse Thor on the first morning was a bit new. 


He was soon up and ready to go though…


So we set off and the weather remained dry if a little cold. We rode for about 40 minutes before stopping at a neighbours yurt. There was lots of locals and the cutomary spread was laid out in the middle of the floor.


Chai and Kumis were shared. This first spread is then taken away, a basin of warm water is passed around the circle to wash our hands, and a mutton meat course of Beshbarmak is served up – noodles topped with boiled meat accompanied by a bowl of broth. It’s all eaten with the fingers.

After eating a lot we’re invited to another yurt up the hill where a very similar spread is laid out again! By the time we leave to get back on our horses we’re both feeling very full.

As we mount up the rain starts to fall. We keep going towards the hills, eager to get back to the riding and convinced it will just be a passing shower. 

An hour later it’s beating down still and after 90 minutes the storm turns into hail and snow. Our Goretex jackets are keeping us dry but our bottom half is sodden and we both have to admit defeat and decide to turn back to take refuge in another yurt.

We shelter in the yurt for a while waiting out the rain – finally blue skies brake out. Our guide Aitbek encourages us to both drink half a mug of vodka schnapps before getting back up on the horses. 

We were all still very wet and we could see more bad weather rolling in across the lake. We decide its best to forgo the wild camping in the hills and instead return to the camp where we could dry off, sleep, and set off for another days ride the next morning. Our guide Aitbek seems relieved at this decision and so we all head back to the yurt. 

Aitbek plods along on his docile horse but Paddy and I – no doubt fuelled by the vodka – are keen to get our horses cantering. Aitbek doesn’t seem to mind so we both dig in our heels and we’re off. Its great fun cantering off over the fields together and I’m very impressed with Paddy’s riding skills! 


We race each other for a while and then turn to complete a big loop back to Aitbek. 

As we near the yurts, the horses obviously recognise their home pastures and get very excited. Paddy is now addicted to cantering so he spurs his horse – who needs little encouragement – onwards. 

We all watch as he races towards a large ditch… He manages to stop the horse but at the last moment loses his balance and we see him slide off the saddle. Unfortunately Paddy’s foot gets caught in the stirrup and while he’s trying to free his leg Thor gives him a hefty kick in the knee.

I watch him hobble back to the yurt and I fetch him some ibuprofen and a very cold bottle of water to act as an ice pack. 

A bad bruise and a little swelling but I think the Irish horseman will survive to ride another day… 

Applying for your Uzbekistan visa in Bishkek

June 2016

The Uzbekistan visa office in Bishkek is infamous for its scary totalitarian staff, ludicrous appointment system and administrative nightmares but it’s all very doable if you get organised. 

Most EU nationalities do not require a letter of invitation (Ireland does) which can be obtained through a number of Uzbek agencies. However, a lot of travellers applying in Bishkek end up paying for an LOI anyway ($30-60 depending on the agent) as it makes the visa appointment process a lot less arduous. 

Our LOIs were organised by Luxury Asia Travel in Tashkent who were really great to deal with and even filled out the online application forms for us and sent them as PDFs for us to simply print off. The LOIs took about 6 working days to get and only cost 20$ each but we also have to stay at one of the agencies associated hotels for a night during our stay in the country. 

Caravansistan quoted around 60$ just for the LOI… 

The Uzbek embassy has very recently (June 2016) changed address and it is now in a gated commune next to the right of the new Oxford International School on Manas Avenue. 


If you have an LOI we would advise calling the day before to ‘arrange’ an appointment. We just turned up and were told to call between 4-5pm to make an appointment.  

Everyone gets told to come at 10am and there was a fairly big group of travellers already waiting at the commune gate when we arrived at 9:50. So either arrive early and wait or don’t bother turning up until 11am. The guard on the gate speaks no English and operates an irregular 1 in 1 out system. 

You need to have 1 passport photo, a copy of your application form completed online and printed off, your LOI document and photocopies of your passport page and Kyrgyz entry stamp. 

The visa staff are not the friendliest but speak good English. After waiting for an hour and a half we were permitted into the embassy and handed over our paperwork. 

We were told we needed to make payment at the nearest KiCB bank situated here (a 10 min cycle or fair walk away):


Here is the address if you decide to take a taxi.


The bank closes for lunch between 12-1 and annoyingly the embassy closes 1-2pm. We turned up at 12:05 but Paddy managed to charm the ladies there into letting him in, they even let him off on the transaction commission fee!! 
It was all pretty straight forward after paying the bank fee and we walked away with out 30 day visa before lunch.

Three cyclists, three wheels

So we had finally completed all our visa admin and now it was time to get back on the bike. 

It felt strange, almost like we were starting a completely new trip. What with us being able to closely follow the political turmoil back home, catching up with lots of friends and family over Skype and not having to pack a pannier or sleep in a tent for two weeks it definitely felt weird to be getting back on the bike.  

We desperately needed to drag ourselves back to a travelling mentality again so we said our goodbyes to Andrey and set off. 

We were soon back in the cycle touring headspace thanks to our back tire which burst just as we were leaving the city. A very similar thing had happened in northern Myanmar – the tire just wears away at the wheel rim… Maybe not even the ‘bomb proof’ schwalbe tires can cope with our heavily loaded back wheel.

We were extremely fortunate that this happened just outside Bishkek because although we had a foldable spare with us it was now obvious that this was turning into a continuous problem for us.

Bishkek is probably one of the few places in the whole of Central Asia where we could easily get another schwalbe spare, in fact we knew of a guy called Nathan who runs a hostel especially for cycle tourers in the city and he keeps spare schwalbes for tourers in need! 

We debate for a long time about how many we should buy from Nathan. We decide it’s a good idea to stock up while we have the chance so we buy two. Nathan only has the Marathon Plus type so we fold away our spare Marathon Mondial, get a new one on the back wheel and manage to strap the second spare to the back. 

While fitting the new tire we ask Nathan if he knew of any easy way of helping the tyre ‘fit’ properly around the rim. Schwalbe tires have a useful reflective strip which acts as a parallel spacer and we think one reason for the first set of tyres failing was that the first time we fitted them they weren’t parallel ending up with the rim pinching the tyre in the wrong place.

After much stretching, pumping and deflating Nathan told us to lube the edge of the tire with washing up liquid while fitting it – it really works!

Back on the road out of Bishkek we still find it a little hard to get back into the cycling… It’s hot (very hot), our muscles have lost all their strength, and our bums have relapsed back to a ‘sitting watching football, drinking beer’ state.

From the side of the road a figure runs out from the shade of the trees and hails us down. We stop and shake hands with Ed, another cycle tourer from the UK who’s heading in the same direction as us. 

If you think we’re slightly cooky cycling on a tandem, our set up is nothing to Ed’s. He is 18 months into a round the world trip and he’s doing it all on a unicycle. 


At the age of 19 he set off from his home in Somerset to embark on this incredible journey. Having seen out the winter in Bishkek he is now back on the road heading towards China. He hopes to complete the journey in 3 years. 

What’s most impressive is his average speed and distance covered each day which, are not too far off our own and because he only has one gear he’s much faster than us up the hills. We sped past him on the downs though. 🙂 


Ed is a bit of a celebrity in the cycle touring world so it was great to meet him in person; plus watching him take off and speed down the road after a break never gets old. 


Ed is a very chilled and unassuming guy and it was great spending time with him. 


We made some good camps with him and naturally the three of us were a slightly farcical sight while riding along. There can’t be many times you see three people cycling passed with only three wheels between them.


It’s very funny watching people’s reactions when they spot Ed speeding along on his single wheeled machine!


The three of us worked our way east towards Issyk Kul lake. At Kok-Moynok Bir we parted ways, Paddy and I turning south towards Kochkor while Ed carried east to Karakol where he’ll stop before heading towards the Kazakh border.


The cycle to Kochkor was on a good road but involved a hard climb through some very changeable weather, first baking sunshine and then hailing thunder storms. Near the top, I suddenly come over really feverish. My whole body aches and I can’t stop shaking, it’s a bit weird but we manage to reach the summit and Paddy helps me into my thermals before we freewheel down towards a suitable lunch stop overlooking Orto-Tokoy reservoir.

I collapse into a chair with a terrible headache and wait for the paracetamol and ibuprofen to kick in. 

Once I’ve eaten and the drugs have worked some of their magic I feel a bit better and we manage to complete the last 20km to Kochkor where we check-in to the first hostel we find. I sleep for a good 13 hours and by morning feel ok again. Even so, we decide to take a rest day in Kochkor where normally there isn’t much to see, but by chance it was a Saturday which gave us the opportunity to wonder down to the weekly animal market.


It was well worth the visit and it was fun watching the women and men dragging their new purchases across the yard towards their cars.


We met the biggest sheep we’ve ever seen – a woolly grey beast weighing 36kg who towered over the other sheep and liked carrying seven year old children on its back.


On our way out we spotted a group of guys loading three grown, albeit normal sized, sheep into the boot of their Lada car… Here they are closing it up.


I managed to walk away carrying a little creature too, this one was unintentional and even more unwelcome however.


It’s never nice to find a tick clinging tightly onto your right earlobe… 

When we get back to the hostel Paddy expertly removes it with tweezers and I watch it crawl around on top of our lunchbox lid for a while before stabbing it. I spend a long time merticulously combing my hair – an activity I haven’t done in about 4 months – and checking my body for any more. 

Lucky we decided to have that tick borne encephalitis jab before we left!!

26 small things you might not think of taking but that we couldn’t do without while cycle touring!

Wax Ear Plugs 

Even if you don’t plan to stay in a shared hostel dormitory or busy campsite there are times when wild camping that you will be glad you brought ear plugs – mainly because of dogs howling and barking in echoey valleys.

Universal sink plug

Most hostels, hotels and campsites don’t have plugs and you will be doing a lot of your own dishes and clothes washing. 

Toilet roll dry bag

Doing your business while cycling; we all have to go at some point. We ensure that our toilet roll is kept completely dry in our 2l dry bag (Alpkit) which we clip on the back of our Ortlieb rack bag for easy access during the day. We also keep hand sanitiser in the bag too.

Wing Mirror – Essential for any cycle tour. Buy and fit one before you go. 

Thermal Base Layers

If you plan on going anywhere mountainous or even remotely ‘cold’ you won’t regret taking a set of high quality thermals with you. They are light, pack down easily and act like a second skin. We both have a pair of Helly Hansen (HH Warm) leggings and matching top.

A VPN

For those going to any country with Internet censorship you will need to download a VPN. We also use ours to access BBC iplayer while abroad.

Fold-up Rucksack

Really useful for when you are not on the bike. 

Bungee Cord / bag net

A lot of tourers who have the Ortlieb or Vaude pannier-rack bag combo don’t bother bringing a bungee chord. We have to use one to fasten our ortlieb bag to our rack but it’s also really handy to have somewhere quick you can store stuff during the day. It may be a jumper, a couple of extra water bottles or wet clothes but it saves you getting off your bike and opening your panniers up.

Rags – Used for everything

Sewing Kit – Don’t leave home without one!

Dice/Cards/Pass the Pigs

A great universal ice breaker for when you find yourselves spending time with other travellers or locals who don’t speak the same language as you.

Washing Pegs and Line

You will be doing a lot of your own washing so pegs are useful both when camping and when in hostels/campsites.

Floss – Great for sewing a gash up in your tyre as well as for your dental hygiene!

Tupperware

Wherever you go, eggs and vegetables (especially tomatoes) are likely to feature heavily in your diet while touring. But you need a way of ensuring they don’t get squashed in your pannier.

Sometimes we boil a load of eggs before leaving a hotel but we like to have the option of frying, poaching, scrambling, omelette-ing or soft boiling too. 

We have two tupperware – a smaller one for eggs and a big one for our soft vegetables. The big one can double up as a washing bowl too.

Headphone Splitter

Essential for a couple on a tandem or for those of you who want to watch films together.

Elastic Bands

You will tire of opening up your pannier to find pasta and rice everywhere again. Have elastic bands handy to keep loose bags together.

Prickly Heat Powder

We got given a tin of prickly heat powder in Thailand by our friend. It’s a god send in hot humid weather and after five days of no shower it’s great to be able to rub some on to clammy unwashed skin before bed! Plus it smells nice!

Ziplock bags and Durable plastic bags

Even if you have waterproof panniers you won’t regret having some bags for life that you can use again and again.We use ziplock sandwich bags for lots of things.

Gaffa Tape and Electrical Tape

So useful!! Just make sure you never find yourself without some.

Cable Ties

Incredibly strong, durable and easy to store – simply tape onto your frame. We have used cable ties to fix so much stuff on the bike while on the road.

Rubber Gloves

If you can’t afford (or lose) your goretex waterproof gloves these are a great and cheap alternative!

Padlock

This only applies if you have a handlebar bag or pannier which can be zipped shut. Our Arkel handlebar bag has a zip fastening and there have been a number of times where we have wanted to padlock the bag shut. E.g on overnight public transport rides, in locker-less hostels or when leaving your bags in left luggage to explore a city or go off on a three day hike. 

Carabiner Clips


Useful things to have around. Good for clipping stuff to your hiking trousers (such as our camera bag). We also have one permanently clipped to the back of our rack bag for when we can’t dispose of our rubbish bag in remote areas.

A length of good quality rope

Handy just to have to fix things when something breaks.

Chain Cleaner 

Maintaining your gear system and cleaning your chain is important. Throw away that toothbrush and invest in one of these. They make cleaning chain so easy.

Moon Cup

Ladies, if you’re touring for longer than 6 weeks invest in a moon cup. Tampons are hard to come by outside Europe and you really don’t want to take up space in your panniers by bringing a huge stash of them. Yes, the cup can take a while to get used to, so make sure you buy one at least 2 months before you go away so you can get used to using one before your trip. I love mine now!

Don’t give up on the first couple of gos either, persevere, as the pros weigh out the cons significantly:

  1. you can wear them for longer which is useful when cycling in countryside with limited toilet stops.
  2. They are cheaper in the long run, and much better for the environment (and your rubbish bag) when camping.
  3. You can wear them at night – again, very useful when camping.
  4. They are very small and light – always a plus for weight obsessed tourers!

A good sports bra (or two) is also essential even for women who are a small cup size. 

Bishkek!

We ended up staying in Bishkek for 12 days in total. 

Like the majority of other travellers who find themselves on an extended stay in the city we were there to apply for a number of visas. 

Unlike most of the other countries in Central Asia, Kyrgyzstan has a free 60 day visa which you can renew as many times as you like by simply crossing over into neighbouring Kazakhstan – an hours drive from Bishkek. So although the capital doesn’t have much to offer in terms of great sights, plenty of travellers end up here, often seeing out the bitter winter before carrying on their journeys east or west.

The only trouble with staying in a city for so long is that it can easily become expensive. Luckily we were able to organise an extended stay with a lovely guy called Andrey who lives in the southern suburbs of the city.

Andrey is a Warm Showers and Couch Surfing host who only asked for 300 som a night to contribute to electricity and wifi costs. As we were staying for so long we really didn’t mind contributing this and his spacious house with its wild garden of fruit trees and raspberry bushes made a great base. 

We often ended up cooking and eating together and by the end of our stay we were sad to be saying goodbye. 

Between our multiple visits to the Tajik, Uzbek and Iranian embassies we managed to take in a few tourist sites. 

Bishkek has a large concert hall home to the Bishkek Philharmonic so I was keen to see a concert while we were there. It proved incredibly difficult to find out what was going on however as the concert hall was closed the first day we tried to go and when we did manage to get in the building two days later there were no posters, flyers or programmes to tell us what might be happening. 

Knowing a bit about the ins and outs of concert halls came in handy at this point and so I wondered round to the stage door and found myself face to face with a small crowd of people smoking outside, all with instrument cases slung on their backs. Orchestras are the same wherever you are in the world!

I managed to have a garbled conversation with a friendly flautist who told me that a concert was taking place at 5pm in the Opera and Ballet Theatre down the street.

So after lazing around in the nearby park we locked the bike up and at 4:45pm found ourselves seated in the elegant Opera House ready to enjoy a free early evening concert of we didn’t know what!! 

It was very busy, although we were definitely some of the youngest there, and the audience were pretty dressed up for the occasion, many of them carrying huge bunches of flowers which slightly confused us. 

As the lights went down it soon became clear that this was a special celebratory concert for Kyrgyzstan’s great lyric soprano Kaiyrgul Sartbaeva.

After playing an introductory film documenting her life, the curtains went up and there she was, dressed in a glittering white gown sitting on a red and gold throne with the orchestra seated behind.


There were MANY speeches by presidents of various societies, fellow singers and politicians from various government departments. We could tell it was quite a big deal. There was much theatrical embracing and presenting of flowers which were placed ceremoniously around her. Her assistant had to keep running on stage to make a gap so she could disentangle herself from the stems to kiss and thank the next speaker. 

In between the speeches the orchestra and a guest singer would come out to perform something. The first couple of numbers were traditional Kyrgyz songs averagely sung with a microphone but as the evening progressed the singers got better and better and by the end Paddy and I had been treated to a fantastic rendition of L’amour est un oiseau from Carmen, a faultless performance of Una voce poca from The Barber of Saville (one of my favourite pieces of all time, especially when Cecilla Bartoli sings it), the love duet from Puccini’s Turandot and the mass finale from Verdi’s Aida.
All in all it was pretty special and we left feeling very lucky that we’d stumbled across it.


As well as the opera we also made time to visit Lenin… 


…and enjoyed watching the football in the many beer houses.

One night, a young guy approaches Paddy, offers the customary hand shake and asks if he wants a ‘Hookah’. Shocked, Paddy declines, pointing at me to explain he is here on holiday with his girlfriend. Confused and embarrassed the guy leaves but 10 minutes later we see him carrying a shisha pipe out to the group of girls next to us….

We later discover that Hookah is the word for a kind of shisha pipe here in Kyrgyzstan! 

After a week in the city Andy and Claire, another cycling couple (read their blog here) arrive into Bishkek. They have been following our blog and we theirs ever since China so it was great to meet up with them finally. 

Andy and Claire have been living in Japan for the past five years teaching English and decided to cycle home to the UK before deciding what to do next.

Along with them came our South Korean friend JK who we hadn’t seen since Lithang in China!


Saturday night saw us all hit the tiles together with our friend Will who we had met earlier that day while relaxing at one of Bishkek’s many outdoor pools. 


It ended up being a pretty late one and Paddy and I didn’t roll into bed until 10am!!! 

It was a great couple of weeks in Bishkek despite following the political turmoil happening back home! At least Ireland and Wales did/are doing pretty well in the football! 

We got all our visas and now it’s time to get back on the bike and head south east back down to Osh before heading into Tajikistan.