After the waterlogged ride into Osh, we decided to stay a few days in the little apartment we found for just $11 a night!

So we bought food and cooked three meals a day, washed EVERYTHING we own in the washing machine, drank some great Russian and Kyrg beers, ate caviar (at $1 a jar!) and watched the motogp.

It was really nice to make a place home, even for just a few nights.  So much so that when the owner let us know that two Russian men were also staying for a night we were actually a bit upset, especially since the apartment was tiny and we were sleeping in the lounge room on a fold out sofa.

Anyway, it was still nice, and the sun shone the whole time we were there.

Today however was a different story. Back on the road less than an hour and the rain returned as we climbed back in altitude to 3500m and the temp dropped to a balmy 3 deg.

We arrived here in Sary Tash totally freezing and with soaking wet clothes.  Shit.

Now it’s another night of trying to get things dry so we can get them wet again tomorrow, when we ride up to the 4655m Ak Baital pass into Tajikistan.

Lucky our bedroom here has a heat pad on the floor, like a big electric blanket, so all our wet clothes are on top to dry ☺

We’re staying in a home stay style place tonight, where we share space with the family running it. Right now we’re in their loungeroom because the wood stove is there too, and it’s below 0 outside 🙂

Might be a few days till we can post again as the kyrg sim card will not work in Tajik, and we’re quite remote here on the Pamir highway.

Big love to all back home xoxo

I would like to start this post by saying what a skilled, amazing, talented rider Dean is. Over the last few days we have had rain, wind, snow, ice, hail, thunder, mud, water crossings, cows, horses, dogs, sheep, missing bits of road, gravel and massive puddles and not once has Dean lost control of the bike and fallen over. There have been a few close calls and some screams from me but amazingly we have stayed upright. Sure, there were some moments when Dean forgot what side of the road he was supposed to be riding on whilst having on coming traffic racing towards us but he soon came to his senses, remembered we were no longer in India and swerved to the ‘right’ side of the road!

While the sky was still blue!

So the last few days we have had all of the above… And we have been so cold and wet.

After spending our first night here in Naryn we rode up to Song Kul lake. It was a stunning ride and we have never stopped to take so many pictures. There are horses running around freely in the green fields (So beautiful), healthy cows chewing on the grass (a far cry from those in India!) and herds of sheep everywhere. The photos and words can’t justify how beautiful and idyllic it is here… Everywhere… Completely untouched.

A horse running freely

Upon reaching the lake where it was about 3500m above sea level it started to rain… And it was cold… Around 2 degrees… The clouds obscured any view and the lake was iced over. We needed to get off this mountain!

More horses being horses

We finally made it down to 1000 metres and it warmed up to about 7 degrees so we stopped and had a picnic lunch off the side of the road on some lush green grass with a gushing stream and surrounded by cows.

Our picnic stop

The rest of the day was up and down mountains, rain, mud and puddles and always cold… But still, always beautiful. We finally made it to a small town where we found a place to stay. It had an outside toilet and shower which I wasn’t too happy about considering the temperature, but we didn’t have much choice and we were drenched and covered with mud… We were lucky she even let us inside although she didn’t look too happy about it!

Looking down on the road that takes us down!

Despite the hard day we were happy that we were only a couple of hundred k’s from Osh, a small city we had planned to spend a few days. It wasn’t long however until we found out that the road we had planned to take was closed due to bad weather and the only way to get there was back the way we came, an extra 1300 kms up to the lake and further north to get to the main road and come down the other side… We were devastated as we knew that snow and thunderstorms were forcast for the following day… Awesome.

The next morning we ground our teeth and headed back the way we came. Going backwards is such a disappointing feeling. After a day of convincing yourself that no matter how hard it is you are making progress, to go backwards is just so sad… It’s hard to justify it in your head anymore!

More mountians

Thankfully the forcasted rain and snow held back for the first part of the day and we started to feel hopeful that we would make it over the pass before it would hit… Oh…. Way too soon…. Just as we got to the pass it hit… And it hit good and proper! Strong winds, snow, hail and rain… With our visors frosted over it was impossible to see, and when the visor was lifted the bullets of snow stung out faces… And then we came across a piece of road covered with snow – shit.

Before we reached the snow storm!

I jumped off and ran ahead to see how far the snow went while Dean tried to get off the snow without falling or going off the cliff. I saw that there was an end to the snow and we found a way around the road over a hill.

I saw the snow on the road and thought we could maybe ride over it, but the bike sank really quickly so I couldnt steer anymore.  Sally slid off  and I watched her run off out of sight through the snowstorm.  Half way across she yelled into the intercom “something is blue here, bright blue!”.  There was a big chunk of solid ice that seemed to be glowing from under the surface.  I really felt bad for Sal, hunched over running around like a crazy woman in the driving snow, trying to find me a way across.  But it was impossible, instead I managed to turn back and ride off the road, up the mountainside and back down on the other side of the snow patch, where Sal remounted and we rolled on at walking pace unable to see much through frosted visors, or feel anything with our numb painful fingers.

It was hard going but we made it down low enough to start to feel some feeling come back in to our bodies. The rain and wind continued and it felt like we were riding along with the storm for the next 100kms, at one point a thunder bolt hit the powerlines next to us with an almightly boom, and all the poles flashed a bright white light, Dean thought someone had just switched on the highway lights!

Red rock that reminded us of Australia

Thankfully, just when I didn’t think I could take anymore, it started to clear up… Blue sky appeared, the sun started to shine and everything looked even more beautiful. We found a warm restaurant to have some lunch in and started to feel better about the next 150 kms we had to go. It was all feeling good until we got back on the road (bitumen now!) and another storm started to follow us. Both of us hunched over trying to face our helmets into the driving rain and wind… How much more could we take?!

About half an hour apparently! We started to see some bright sky ahead and we both punched the air! We were surrounded with snow covered mountains all around us and the sun was shining and the sky was blue… The world was beautiful again!! So beautiful.

Blue sky and snow!

We made it to our destination which was down at 1000 metres, it was warmish (around 14) and we managed to find a room with two heaters to dry everything we were wearing.

Dean had a beer and I had my first shot of vodka just to get into the Russian way of life. It was 80 cents for a massive shot and it was actually quite nice!

Yesterday we rode all day on the highway towards Osh. We were pulled over twice by police before finding out that the speed limit was only 60 kph… It was a slow day, and very frustrating to be back in a place where the road rules actually apply. Thankfully none of the police spoke any English (although one did tell us his name in French?!) and they quickly got impatient with our lack of understanding and sent us on our way. Sometimes it’s fun playing stupid!

Back down as sea level at a balmy 14 degrees!

We are now in Osh in a little apartment and will be here for the next few days. We are enjoying having a kitchen and supermarkets that sell cheese, pasta, wine and campari… all the things we have missed since we’ve left home! We will be leaving here on Monday just in case there are any concerns… And we will be heading south when we do 😘

The Frenchies, Coralie, Alex, Seb, Cat and Olivier

The last two days have been cold.

Actually I need to swear here and say the last two days have been incredibly fucking cold.  But that still doesn’t do it justice.

The exit from China was full of beaurocratic bullshit that took up most of the day, which left me at the 3600m Torugurat Pass at about 4pm, with a snow storm fast approaching and an angry girlfriend screaming at the guy with the key for the big gates leading to Kyrgyzstan

the last checkpoint in china

“open the fucking gate, it’s about to snow, we need to move NOW!!!!”

Eventually they waved us past and we rode 6km into Kyrgyzstan to be met by another set of gates, and by now the snow had started.  Luckily Olivier pulled up in the truck a few mins after us, so we sheltered inside while we waited some more.

and more gates, and snow 🙂

Fast forward another 2 hours and we were ready to get moving.  The only remaining problem was that it was now -2degrees, and a snow storm was well and truly raging on the pass.  The wind tearing through the customs inspection area was bringing snow with it, so when i arrived at the bike to get moving there was a couple of inches of snow on the seat and the mirrors were coated in ice.

I had some strong reservations about leaving.

We were still at 3600m and the road stayed at about that level for half way to Naryn, 200km away.  The wind was blowing hard enough that i now needed to park the bike with the headlight facing the wind or it was going to blow it off the stand.   And it was freezing cold and snowing hard.  In these kind of moments I often wonder what Barton the mountain man would do.  Would he tough it out or would he say something enigmatic like

“Dean… there are no heroes on the mountain”  and then go looking for the nearest pub…

that’s a ‘lets get the hell out of here’ look

Olivier, (who is also a mountain man), suggested that we could all stay up there for the night in the truck, a very kind offer as I knew he needed to be in Bishkek in 3 days, that’s a long way to go at 50km/h!  And as nice as that sounded, I didn’t want to put the guys out.  So we put on all our clothes and went out into the storm.

I was running through all the stupid places I’ve been before on Betsy, the Congo, the Sahara, Siberia… and trying to reassure myself that this was no harder than any of that so we should be fine.  Really!  Olivier drove out of the shed before me, and then pulled over to make sure we were in front.

“if it gets too bad, just stop and we’ll be behind you”

It was a surreal feeling riding out into the storm with snow streaking through the air and into our helmets.  For the first minute it wasn’t too bad, but then quickly the cold seeped into my hands and it started to hurt.  Both hands went numb from the wrist down, so intermittently I put one in behind a knee to get it out of the wind and try to get some blood moving again.

The road was wet, and ice was a real worry.  I hit the intercom

“babe can you hear me?”

“yep

“ok so if we hit ice on the road, we might fall off.  If we fall off, don’t put your hands or feet out, get it?”

“yep”

“you cold?”

“yep”

“if it gets too bad you tell me ok, we can stop”

“yep”

Every 30sec i put a foot onto the road to feel for grip, trying to sense how much ice was on the surface, and I was wiping snow off the visor continually.   At one point i tried to clear the visor, but my hand just scraped across a layer of ice.  I had to really dig and scratch at it to get it clear, brilliant, ice on the visor, what next?!

A turn appeared in front of us out of the snow and I went for the brakes, but the steering  just went vague and we kept moving… we were on Ice.  Panic welled up inside me but somehow my now frozen brain didn’t react to it .  The only way out was to OPEN the throttle and try to get the rear wheel turning at the same speed as the road again, and then brake again but more softly.  Fortunately this worked and we made the turn…

I dragged my foot again, but the patch of ice was past, anyway I slow to 50km/h and we grind forward.  Then the bike starts to misfire, badly, and i realise the primary fuel circuit of one carburettor is blocked.  WFT?  Could it be frozen??  It’s too cold to stop and look at it, so I just keep going, we still have 100km to go… and now the bike will either run wide open throttle or not at all.  Not ideal.

the last part of the road to naryn turned to mud

We’re stopped at yet another checkpost where they want to see our passports again.  I leave the bike running and turn up the idle to try and thaw the carbs, Sally is yelling something at the guy behind the glass…

“cold, it’s too cold, please we need to go now”

He wants her to take off her helmet…

5 mins later we’re moving and thankfully the bike is running ok again.

I regularly tap Sal on the knee to ask if she’s ok, and get the usual nod or squeeze of the knees.  I know she’ll be hurting, but would never ask me to stop.  We’re both freezing cold.

The temp rises from -2, eventually to 5 deg and suddenly the snow stops, we’ve punched through the storm and the sky turns blue and the sun brings the temp up to a balmy 8 degrees, we’re both pumping the air as the feeling returns to our hands and feet.

stunning mountain scenery makes all the cold worth it

We arrive in Naryn, find a bank, then look for a room, which ends up being a tiny apartment someone is letting.  It has a hot shower and a double bed too short for me to stretch out on, it also has a heater.  It’s perfect!  Sal heads out to buy some food while i unpack, then returns with pasta, a beer and a bottle of wine.

We enjoy a home cooked meal as we defrag, dry our clothes on the heater and rest weary limbs.

It’s been a really hard day, but one we’ll both remember for a long time.  I’ve tried and failed to convey the sensation of riding into the snowstorm today, fear, excitement, cold, panic all rolled into one.  I guess moments like that cant really be described, but as cold and scary as it was, these are the exact memories I cherish the most.