DAY 13, OSH – SARY TASH (191KM)

3^rd June 2013

After yesterday’s tiring event, I took the time to sleep late at this cosy Osh Guest House. I woke up at 10am as I have an appointment to meet Patrik Zimmermann, a two wheeler tour guide who had been answering my emails before I started my ride. He is a Swiss guy but had been living and running the tour business in Osh since the past few years. It was nice to finally meet him. I asked him to take a look on poor DREAM who had suffered numerous falls. Luckily, after inspecting DREAM, Patrik said that there is nothing to worry. We said good bye as he had another appointment, and I go back to the guest house.

Patrik and me

Signeage to Osh Guest House

With Mr Abdulnur, the owner of Osh GH



I liked this GH as this is a cool place to meet other backpackers, cyclist and adventure riders alike. However, I was the only adventure rider at that time. There were 4 other cyclists and we exchanged infos about our routes. One of them, Ralph, told me that he’s expecting an adventure rider from US, Noah to drop by at the GH, and it seemed that this Noah was coming from the direction that I am going to ride later. So, I waited for Noah and when he arrived, we had a really nice chat. I showed him the pics of the passes that I hv ridden previously. Noah motivated and assured me that the mountain passes in Tajikistan which I am going to encounter soon were not as crazy and as challenging as in Kyrgyzstan. I felt very relieved upon hearing this.

 

With Ralph, the cyclist, and Noah, ADV rider from the US

 

I took some time in the afternoon for some sightseeing and shopping in Osh. I met a nice local girl, Darya, and she showed me around and helped me to bargain for the stuff that I wanted to buy.

Osh Bazaar

Darya and me

Then, I walked back to the GH and hurriedly packed as I was running late. It was already 4pm when I leave the GH. I was almost being fined by a policeman for crossing over a red light. However, my charm and a lil Russian helped me. By now, I can speak more Russian words and normally the authorities will melt, especially when they realized that not only I’m a woman, but riding alone as well. I stopped for fuel and filled some in the canister for the first time ever since I started this ride. This is due to the lack of petrol station once I entered Tajikistan. After that I sped as fast as I can on the nice new paved road to Sary Tash. It gets colder and colder as I climbed up two mountain passes, Cigircik Pass (2406m) and Taldyk Pass (3615m). The view of the orangish mountain was beautiful but quite strange, that I felt as if I was in a foreign planet.

 

 

 

It was snowing lightly when I climbed up the 2^nd pass and I was shivering like mad. Thank god that the road was good, or else I have no idea how am I going to handle DREAM in this condition. I finally arrived Sary Tash at 8pm and checked in at a guest house straight away. The temperature was 2 degrees Celsius. It was hard for me to talk to the owner because I was shivering so badly. It took me 15mins before I can talk normally again.

 

 

p/s: A more detailed story about my journey will be told in my upcoming book. More beautiful pics of course. STAY TUNED.....