Tuesday, 30 September 2014

Cycling through Clouds in Central Asia: Harnessing the Tail Wind; Today: 98 km, Total: 1061 km



May 21 and 22, 2014

After having a bad-night sleep, we were awakened by the heavy steps of our hosts at 5 am. They were marching to prepare the breakfast for us for which they had to bring the yak dung in, make the fire, and cook. Unlike dinner, we had a not-so-good breakfast: four eggs over fried in god knows what kind of oil with a lot of salt, so much so that for about two hours after breakfast, we could still feel some kind of upset stomach. 

On a more positive note, as we were slowly gaining elevation, we were enjoying a tail wind all morning on a flat, straight road; then, in 4150 meters, we started coasting down slowly to Morghab in 3600 meters. We found a hotel, or the only hotel in Morghab, and checked in for $12 each. It's a nice hotel with decent food. After taking a shower and having some good food, we met some tourists: a guy from France traveling on a motorbike, a young guy from Japan traveling by bus, and a cyclist, Radu, from Romania who had started his trip from Romania to go to Bishkek and climb a 7500-meter- high mountain and bike back home.    

The next day, we woke up at 5 again. I guess it was impossible to kick the habit of waking up at dawn. We tossed and turned in bed until the cafe was open and we had some good breakfast. We, then, went to the Bazar to see if we could find some kind of gloves for me because mine were not warm enough for this condition. When I say Bazar or market, I mean a group of tractor-trailer containers with in a row on the side of the town. The only pair of gloves I could find was not water proof. Well, I bought them and applied some grease on top of them to make them water proof.

The weather on our rest day in Morghab was very changeable: sunny, snowy, and blizzard. We sat in our hotel room and watched the weather change from the window, wishing to have good weather the next day. 











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