Cycling through Clouds in Central Asia: From near the First Pass after Tuctugul to near the Second Pass before Bishkek in Kyrgyzstan; Climbing up and down; Today: 60 km; Total: 1924 km

June 5, 2014

It was cold last night, even in our sleeping bags. In the morning, when I wanted to empty the loose tea from the kettle, it was all frozen. I had to warm it up to clean it for the coffee. The water in our bottles was also frozen.

We didn't have much to eat for breakfast: only some bread and coffee, and some bad honey, which turned into a jar of sugar, really. We ate what we could/had and left our awesome camping spot. The only substantial meal we had was yesterday morning, some eggs. I was wondering how we were going to climb up and down the passes.

We reached the pass, 3150 m, at about 11. Then, we went all the way down to 2300 m. The more downhill we went on, the more difficult our job would be the next day because the next pass was in 3600 meters.

At about one o'clock, we arrived at a restaurant where we had Shorba. I also bought some horse milk filled in a used water bottle. I had about a cup of the horse milk, but I thought I would wait to see if I feel fine. In about half hour, my stomach started acting weird and I started to burp like a horse, really. I threw away the rest of the horse milk and got prepared to deal with some stomach problem. We had already started our second climb. The sun was playing peek-a-boo with us; rain, sun, rain, sun, ... We had to put on and take off our rain gear again and again. That meant a lot of hassle.

The road was zigzagging up the mountain, and we were struggling going up because it was only yesterday that we climbed 1700 meters all day. Our legs were begging for a rest. There was no place for camping though. So we kept riding until it was obvious that either we had to stop immediately no matter where, or we had to go over the pass in dark.

We saw a little flat area near a yurt. That was our only option. I went close to the yurt to ask if we could pitch up our tent there. There were only two kids in the yurt. In half hour, their father drove in and sure he was a nice guy.

I started cooking, but I was not feeling well. I cooked pasta and a good source, but couldn’t eat it. I gave it to Fausto and went to bed. We were right next to the road, so I could not sleep until 2:30, when I wore my ear plugs and slept a bit. 

The First Pass

Our Camp Spot