Bishkek

Knowing that I am about to travel back to Europe I should be waking later but the last couple of days I seem to be waking earlier. Jet lag will not be helped by this trend.

Bishkek

I wandered around Bishkek & found that it didn't have a great deal to see so I went to scope out the big daily bazaar to the West of the centre.

Near Bishkek

I got up at my usual time, as the Sun's first light came over the horizon. I'd like to say it was the joy of the new day that propelled me out of my tent.

Below Too-Ashuu Tunnel

I had high gastronomic hopes for today. It all started well with a fine breakfast of pancakes. Fresh fish caught from the adjacent river was supposed to be next, for lunch.

Near Ala-Bel Pass

I got up good & early & while having breakfast I watched the first rays of the Sun touch the hills around the lake before eventually arriving at the camping spot.

Toktogul Reservoir

It was warm today. It felt like a real summer's day should. The sun was hot, the was a loud chorus of the insects in the fields & trees & there was little cool air for a beleaguered cyclist to take in on the climbs.

Near Karakol

I finished the detour around the Uzbek Fergana region. I was getting a bit sick of the nearly flat agricultural land of the last couple of days so was pleased when the road began to rise.

Near Kochkor-Ata

During the night it poured with rain but wind dried everything up when I awoke with the sunrise.

Anjiyan Reservoir

I so enjoyed the Osh bazaar the previous afternoon that I went back again around lunch time.

Osh

A big pile of pancakes for breakfast at my homestay! I walked the 30 minutes down town clutching my distended stomach.

Osh

It was another rather dreary day. The countryside was lovely but with cold, damp weather it was not so much fun cycling.

Near Kyzyl Korgan

We visited the yurt that given us the milk & kymys the afternoon before hoping to be able to get some nice photos.

Below Taldyk pass

Tajik Customs & Immigration was just below the Kizil Art pass which we reached at around 9am. Getting out of Tajikistan was as casual as coming in, the formalities were completed in under 10 minutes.

Below Kizil Art Pass

As I left the homestay I tried to gently complain to the homestay people via a translator about the poor value dinner. However the point was somehow difficult to get across.

Karakul

I got up a little before the Sun touched the tent. It was a cold night. Ice had formed at the edges of the streams. The wind that had opposed me on the way up was present but lighter than the previous day.

Near Ak-Baital Pass

I left Murgab after a nice breakfast & headed North. The road would be running through pretty desolate country for the next while. The next settlement of any size that I'd come to would be the village of Karakul 130km from Murgab.

Murgab

A rest day!

Murgab

After the previous day's difficult ride I got moving slowly. It was only a few kms to the village of Alichur.

Near Alichur

After the horrible weather of the previous night it was a relief that I was greeted with blue sky in the morning.

Between Langar & Khargush

I left Langar in the late morning. Earlier I'd scrambled up a path behind the village in the hope of finding some petroglyphs, scratched pictures made by people who lived in the area several thousand years ago.

Langar

Apparently sometime in the last couple of days I crossed into a new unofficial time zone. Badakshan time is 2 hours ahead of Dushanbe time that I'd become accustomed to. Actually it really makes little difference,
it gets light therefore I wake, the Sun gets low I seek a campsite.

Yamchan

Quite by chance I happened to be in Ishkashim on the day of the weekly 'border market', which is held in no-mans land between the Afghan & Tajik customs & immigration posts on the Afghan side of the Pyanj river.