31st May 2013
Today’s ride will be a ride to
remember. After having a yummy filling breakfast and said good bye to Elizet
and her family who run the yurt stay, I made my way out of Tash Rabat and head
north to Baetov.
Previously, I have thought that the distance was not very far
(hv tried to check the actual distance in the internet but google map does not
want to calculate the rural road to Baetov). However when I checked my GPS, it was actually 100kms to
reach the small town. As soon as I turned right from the paved main road, the
road changed to off road and the condition gets from bad to worse. At one time,
out of a sudden, the road was gone. All I could see in front of me were rocks,
rocks and more rocks. Where is the road? Ohh...this must have been the ‘road
washed away’ part due to flood, avalanche or landslide which I have read in the
internet. I rode slowly and carefully, trying to find the missing road and when
I couldn’t find it, I stopped the bike and turned on my GPS, only to notice
that I have gone about 500m away from the supposedly but missing road.
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| Where is the road? |
After finding the road back, I
continued my ride and before long I came across many more road washed away,
some with wet crossings!!! There were times that DREAM’s rear tyre was stuck in
between the stones in the stream. I had to use all my energy and play with the
throttle to get the tyre out and moving forward again. Thank god that DREAM
didn’t fall in the water as the last thing that I ever wanted is a wet
carburettor.
I climbed up another pass – Kulak
Assu (3390m), which was totally a sandy pass, and the road (or looks more like a
goat track), get more difficult after that. There were no human at all that can
be seen. At some places, I couldn’t even see wild horses and wild goats
anymore.
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| Kulak Assu Pass |
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| ...totally a sandy mountain pass... |
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| No pain no gain, huhhh? |
I dropped my bike twice due to mishandling while descending the steep
track filled with gravels. It was a very difficult ride and my fully loaded heavy
bike didn’t help at all. It’s impossible not to brake while descending, but
when I braked, the rear tyre locked and due to its heaviness and the loose
gravel terrain, the tyre skidded and caused a fall. I had to untie and
brought down all the stuff on the pillion seat, and took out all the stuff in
the panniers before I can afford to bring DREAM to stand again. It took all my
energy to do it.
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| Can u see my bike? |
I spent 8 exhausting hours to
cover the 100kms to Baetov, and all the while, I didn’t see a single human. I
was so happy when I finally see paved road again, but to my surprise, the paved
road disappeared after 2kms, and gravels took over again. I asked a local at
the tiny town, and he said that it’s going to be gravels all the way to
Kazarman, the place which I had targeted to reach for today, and the distance
is 200kms more. OMG!!! 100kms on the gravels is already very taxing, what more
200kms more. I am not going to able to reach there before dark. As I am already
very tired, I only managed to ride for another 40kms on the gravels. I reached
Kara Bjurngon and due to the lack of a guest house or home stay, I asked a
local if I could stay at her house that night, which she agreed.
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| Thanks Arsuluy & husband for yr kind hospitality |
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| Lamb plof.....yummy..... |
p/s: A more detailed story about my journey will be told in my upcoming book. More beautiful pics of course. STAY TUNED.....
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