(Before I start I must credit Barry for taking a selection of these photos, he has been putting in a huge effort in his photography whilst we ride and is producing some great images)

Kyrgystan is a country that all long distance travellers heading west, that we came across, said was their favourite. Word was it was simply beautiful.
Having overcome illness from Tajikistan and meeting fellow bicycle tourers we had befriended in Dushanbe where we were staying in Osh, it was hard to leave.
We were eating well and socialising in large groups.

(evening communal meal)

However the road eventually called and a group of 7 of us decided to head north to the capital city of Bishkek.
Alongside Sarah and Scott were 2 more Aussies, Paul and Leiset and a french man, Bertrand.

We spent 5 days and nights riding as a group together, meandering slowly through small villages and winding hills towards our first big mountain pass.

One day it was raining, after a few hours and negotiating large mud pools we collectively decided to stop and rest in an empty farmers building. Here we made a fire to warm up and dry our clothes.

The next day Paul & Leiset decided to turn back and find an alternative route to the capital, avoiding the upcoming mountains.

So we carried on as a group of 5 up to a 3050metre pass. This was also the first time many of us had cycled in snow!

As we carried on though the valley a big wall of mountain lay ahead, we could see what looked like impossible switchbacks up to the snowline, we laughed that surely we weren’t climbing that!

Oh yes we were!!

Bertrand and I reached the summit at 5pm, it was freezing cold. The water bottles on our bikes started to turn solid.
However the other 3 were some distance back and couldn’t make it up before sunset so we parted ways and us 2 headed down the other side arranging to meet them in the next town. Communication was achieved by sending paper messages to each other via passing trucks.

(We camped inside the buildings in the centre)

When we regrouped we had another pass, this time 2800m. We all managed to stick together for this one.

The road up the pass was gruelling, the road conditions similar to Tajikistan. But we all made it!
The descent after this was just simply incredible, it also blessed us with the best view I have seen all trip, hard to give it justice with my point and shoot compact camera.
It was a real ‘pinch yourself’ and ‘you had to be there’ moment for many of us.

Slowly but surely we found our way to Bishkek.

This city marks the end of of time in Central Asia and with our good friends, Sarah, Scott and Bertrand who carry on to China through the winter.

From here Barry and I we have decided to fly to Bangkok in Thailand, in time for the good weather there.
We will have a farewell beer here before we too part ways and continue our respective journeys.

This point also marks the end of stage 3, a continual line of travelling through connected countries and just under half the distance I want to cycle around the world (20,000km).
On refelection I feel priviledged to be undertaking such a trip and am still as motivated and eager to continue.

Next stop, south east Asia!

For a lot of long distance cyclists travelling between Europe and South East Asia brings up a few possibilities. Like Barry and I, some choose to go through central Asia and for others, the middle east. Then either travel through China or fly to India to continue east. However most end up in the same place midway. Here in Tajikistan, on the renowned M41 ‘Pamir Highway’. A road starting in Afghanistan meandering through 5 countries into the mountains of Tajikistan and finishing is Kyrgystan. It poses both extremely challenging road and riding conditions. Its almost a right of passage and a real test of a riders physical and mental abilities. The reward however is incredible scenery. The Pamir highway is what a lot of us seek in a big tour. Solitude, baron landscapes, self-sufficiency and pure adventure.

I had been looking forward to this for years and was very excited to start.

Continuing where I left off, we were staying in the Tajik capital of Dushanbe at a warmshowers host property. Her name is Vero and is a legend amongst the touring community who pass through central asia. We met roughly 20 other tourers over the few days we spent there. Sharing stories and eating big communal meals together. It was a small paradise to relax and unwind.

It is here we met up with 2 Australian riders, a couple from Brisbane, Scott and Sarah. We had met in Istanbul and then again in Ankara, Turkey and stayed in contact as we made our way throuh Georgia, Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan, whilst they cycled through Iran and then up to Tajikistan.

Their blog is: http://www.longrodehome.com

We all decided to cycle togther through the Pamir highway as a quartet.

Our first mission was a 9 day trip to the small city of Kharog. We would have 1 mountain pass to tackle and would then start riding adjacent to the Afghanistan border.

Ok enough writing …. here are some photos!

After reaching Kharog the next destination was the town of Murghab, in the east of Tajikistan. There are 2 ways of getting there, head directly east continuing to follow the M41 or go south and follow the Afghanistan border in a ‘U’ shape and through the Wakhan valley.
Sarah and Scott had limited time remaining on their visas so chose the first option. Barry and I had more time to spare so chose the valley route.

In Kharog we also met a couple from Linconshire, Robbie and Lucy.
Barry had been in contact with them and we were only days apart throughout our rides across Europe and the Caucasus regions of Georgia and Azerbaijan. We had met for beers previously in Tbilisi, Georgia and Baku, Azerbaijan.

Their blog is: http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/robbieandlucy

We rested an extra day longer than the other 4 so said our goodbyes and prepared for the next stint.

….. our first glimpse of Pakistan behind the Afghan peaks.

……. relaxing in a hot spring!

this night we slept in a campervan.

It got cold at night as we approached 4000m altitude.

-8.4 celcius in the morning.

Robbie & Lucy left us a message in a bottle!

I can honestly say that ride out of the Valley was the hardest cycling I’ve ever done. Below is an example of some of the road conditions.

We finally found tarmac as we rejoined the M41, 100km from Murghab.

Upon reaching Murghab I was shattered. On the way to Kharog and upon leaving the valley I had suffered prolonged bouts of severe Diarrhea (sorry for that image). This had completely drained me of energy and I was weak, I felt a broken man.
To put in perspective I’ve lost almost 12kg of weight and 4 inches off the waist since I started this trip. I’m a bag of bones you could say.

In Murghab we met up Scott and Sarah who had themsleves succumed to illness on their route and 5 other cyclists from Poland who were ill. It seemed that the ‘Tajik tummy’ was rife!

The weather was cold and it appeared to be closing in. All of us, sick of being sick, decided to get taxi’s the remaining way out of the country. All except Robbie and Lucy, two super tough iron man athletes.

On the way out we stopped to take a few last photos.

As we approached the biggest pass in the region (4600metres) we spotted Robbie and Lucy. It was freezing cold and looked like a really tough cycle.

We then continued onwards to the city of Osh, Kyrgystan.

2 days after us arriving in Osh, Robbie and Lucy both appeared at the hostel we were staying at. Unfortunately the weather had become a lot worse in the mountains. Snow blizzards and temperatures of -15 forced them to stop and a passing truck helped them out to safety.

We now are here resting. For about a week to cure of our illnesses and fatten up.

We will now head north up towards the capital city, Bishkek and the lakes to the east. We’ve heard horse riding and paragliding is cheap to do there so may give them a go!

The Pamir highway. 3 weeks and 1000km of almost completely off-road touring. What a beautiful but brutal riding adventure it has been ……. Phew!!

Next entry I will aim for the end of October.

We had lost a couple of weeks of cycling from waiting for visas back in Turkey and realised we needed to make up distance if we were to enter Uzbekistan and Tajikistan when our visas started. This meant we had to skip cycling in the Azerbaijan countryside and take an overnight sleeper train directly to the capital city of Baku.

I didn’t know what to expect from the city but was delightfully surprised by how modern it appeared, it truly felt like a mini dubai. The biggest brand stores and car dealerships lined the marbled street paths, massive glass walled hotels springing up left, right and centre. It was really quite impressive.

We tried to catch a ferry across the Caspian sea to the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan, however the system is a complete farce, with no official ticket office you must either bribe a port guard or phone a lady who may sell you a ticket. In such a modern city it felt ridiculous running around guessing how to get across.
We quickly gave up this option and chose to fly by plane instead.
This meant dismantling the bikes and reassembling on the other side.

As we planned to fly over we met 2 other brits in a hostel cycling to Hong Kong

(Sam & Tivo)

We decided to meet in Aktau and travel together for a couple of days.
Here we are after arriving in Kazakhstan building up our bikes at midnight.

We camped up at 1am a few kilometres from the airport.

The 5.30am sunrise …

The next step was a 20 mile ride to the train station, where we hoped to get another sleeper train to Beyneu, 50 miles from the Uzbekistan border. On the way we encountered Camels crossing our path.

Outside the local bank to withdraw some money for the train and supplies.

We reached the train station just in time and rushed to bundle our bikes on to the train. We then relaxed for the 7 hour journey.

We arrived at our destination a bit worse for wear at 3am, here we had a quick beer before setting off in the night sky.

We stopped by the roadside at sunrise and brewed up some coffee, as the caffeine kicked in we soon realised we had some possessions missing, as we had little time to check in commotion of leaving the train so early and tired.

As our belongings had all been in our panniers we could only come to the conclusion of theft whilst we slept.
Tivo and Sam had their lights and multi-tools taken, Barry had his multi-tool missing too and my solar panel and toiletries had disappeared. Such a bad start to our central Asia adventure.
After a few curse words we plowed on towards to Uzbek border.

At the border we were greeted with smiles and given special priority, we breezed through passport control and baggage search and into the country within an hour.
We stopped for tea and noodles at a cafe 10km into the country

That night we star gazed for hours. With no light pollution the milky way shone down like I’ve never experienced. Truely fantastic views.

The next morning Sam and Tivo caught another train to the next big city as their bikes had suffered damage on the short ride to the border. Barry and I were determined to cycle the entire countries length through the deserts.

The roads were flat and endless, small bends appeared every 60-70miles.

The only change in scenery would be the appearance of horses or camels.

Riding through the desert during August was always going to be hot. But neither of us thought it would hit 58 degrees Celsius!

It was essential to find shelter between the hours of 1-5pm, our only option this day was inside a road drain.

A road sign gave us 10 minutes of relief too.

Motorists are very kind, waving and beeping along the way. These gentlemen stopped for some photos with us.

Riding through the sunset….

There was no bugs or insects in this particular desert. So we slept without our tents one night. Again the stars providing an incredible light show.

The Aral sea has all but gone from this area, boats lay stranded in the remaining salt flats.

After a grueling 7 day ride through the northern desets we arrived at the town of Khiva. We rested here for 3 nights.

In the town we met a young cycle touring couple from California, USA. We had a drink together and decided to ride as a quartet for the next 4 day desert dash to the city of Bukhara.

(Didier and Kayla)

Our first night wild camping together.

One afternoon Didier spotted a storm approaching behind us. We waited in anticipation for what we thought would be the first rain shower in nearly 2 months.

How wrong we were!!! It was a sandstorm!! A massive sheer cloud-high 40mph wall of sand battered us from behind and sent us screaming along the road.

My initial fear turned to elation when we were being pushed along at a steady 30mph.

Our desert dash lasted 4 days and we eventually made it to Bukhara. We stayed here for 2 nights at a backpacking hostel.

It was here we met 3 other cycle tourers. A couple from Germany and a Swiss man. We all teamed up for a 3 day, 300km ride to the city of Samarkand.

Riding as a group of 7 was a lot of fun!

Wild camping in large numbers was tricky so we asked in small villages to camp in their gardens. We were welcomed with open arms.

The weather cooled down to a pleasant 27 degrees.

On our second night we were again hosted by a family in a spare room (above).
However our presence attracted a lot of attention.
By 9pm a large crowd had gathered watching us unpack.
The police then arrived. After checking our documents they explained we could not stay and we were all escorted to the local police station.
In the holding room we were told “for our safety” transport had be arranged for us to be taken to the next city, our destination of Samarkand. A truck for our bikes and mini bus arrived to take us away.
The police were very friendly throughout the process.
We were dumped by a hotel and then left. It was nearly midnight now and we were shattered.
I was happy we were safe but annoyed we didn’t get to cycle the entire length of the country.

Samarkand was a nice city and we were hoping to see a music festival. However apparently it was just for the president and his huge entourage so couldn’t get anywhere near it or the main attractions due to security. He are a few token photos I managed to snap.

We then continued on our way to the Tajikistan border.

We hit some large hills on the way but the views more than made up for them.

Sunset at our wild camp spot!

We then entered Tajikistan and straight towards a warm showers host. A legend amongst the touring community who pass through central asia. She is called Vero and has hosted up to 20 people at a time!

We will now relax here for a few days and then tackle the mighty Pamir Highway.
This is, for me, the most exciting and anticipated sector of the entire trip. I can’t wait!!!!

Next entry I hope to be in about 1 month.