The Road To Osh is paved with good intentions....

Farewell to Bishkek

I am running late as per usual and by the time i arrive in front of the post office there is a posse of people waiting. Tim, Margreete and Laura are putting on a brave face after the previous nights drinking and dancing session went to 6 a.m. I had wisely or not declined the invitation!

The Bishkek posse: L/R Tim, Laura, Margreet, Berhardte, Ragula and Veronica

Also there are fellow cyclists Veronica and Mathius who are heading the other way and have given me a heads up on the road. Lastly there are my traveling companions, Berhardtte and Ragula. Swiss, they have put there respective maths and computer carreres on hold for a year and headed out around the world on a mean looking tandem they have called Sprinter.

An hour later we are lost on the way to the airport......things can only go up from here.

Later that evening we are invited to stay with a nice family. All is going well until the guy wants to borrow my bikу to go and buy vodka and cigaretes. While i am more than happy to let people ride my bike i am not so keen on the idea of someone ridding it in thee dark after several shots of vodka. He instead sits on the frame while i ride, safer i'm not sure but at least i will know where my bike goes this way!

Weightlifting, Kyhrgz style.

The Climb begins.

We are back on the road again after the midnight vodka run. The climb start somewhat gentlly in rather idelic conditions. Alas, "fool" say the gods of hills and weather.....

Accent number 1

Does altitude affect atibiotics?

When we left Bishkek i had still been getting over a rather nasty chest infection that i couldn't shake. It may have been from the half course of antibiotics i tried ( it was all i had, not coz i got better and stopped!). I now have some more hardcore stuff. As we climb my chest is still hurting though, i try vzaugly to recall at what height altitude sickness kicks in. I really don't fancy going back down the wrong side of the hill so we push on. Thankfully it doesnt get any worse and we soon hit the dreaded tunnel at the top of the hill.

We stop and cook dinner in the ambulance driver's house. His name is Gengis, a Kyrgz Christian from Karabalata. He has a facinaticing story to tell i think if i could only speak better Russian. We bid him farewell and I done one of Berhardtes surigcal masks as we hit the unveintilated tunnel. I dont tell Ragula about the deaths the previous year from when a car broke down мешдд after we are through...

100 meters from the end my bike begins to shake. This can either mean a broken фчуд or broken drawbar on the trailer. Either way its not the best place to stop. I managaged to haul Igor out of the tunnel eventaully to find it was simple the quick realse had worked loose.

The Decent:

Rugging up for the decent.

As we emerge from the the tunnel we look out over the Sussmeyer valley. It is a crystal clear day and from 3200m we look out over a white alpine valley. Due to the meters of snow we decide that the ski resort just below the pass is a good option.

The next day this doesn't seem like such a good idea. An blacnket of snow covers the bike and we spend 45m pushing the bikes uphill to the main road. The decent that, yesterday, seem so easy now becomes an arse brusing 3 hr slog to cover the 7 km to the bottom. Later Berhardte attempts to use tea to unfreeze his derailer. The water however, sets inside the mechanism soon after and he is reduced to 3 gears! I manage to bald Igor's back tire as the snow freezes inside the mudgaurd.

Trying not to fall on my arse again!!!

I am now however in the spring city of Osh. A days rest and will once again head to moutains. This time to Sary tash and then to the Chinese border. All before the 25th of March.