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Two Humped "Camel" ride - Kazakhstan

After such a chilli border crossing our first objective was to find a nice sheltered place where we could have lunch… It turns out that the road from the Kyrgyzstan Border on the Kazakhstan side was actually really terrible. While riding along Heather startled some dogs which chased after her…. they then gave up.. unfortunately I was coming along behind her and they really wanted a piece of my leg.. one of the dogs was running along trying to grab onto my leg right next to the bike.. I accelerated hard on the rough, wet gravel road to get away only to find my traction went on holidays and I nearly ended up in the ditch on the side of the road with the dogs… it was so lucky that the traction came back and I managed to get away… It was a true brown pants moment.

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Issyk kol - Kyrgyzstan

Finally…. we had a tracking number for the package that was coming in from turkey.. the replacement clutch was on route… according to the tracking information on the web page it had arrived in Bishkek we just had to hunt it down… to DHL we go.. the nice girl there was super helpful and said that the package should be in their system by 3pm so we should come back then.. at 3pm we came back and she said it had arrived and was at the airport..

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Wild Camping - Kyrgyzstan

Our first night in Kyrgyzstan was pretty uneventful. After such a hard day we slept through and woke up in the morning… dam it was cold. The morning was very crisp.. probably because we camped at about 1200 meters above sea level and that it was now on the slippery slope d.. the nights have been getting much cooler over the last few weeks but the days have remained hot.. It turned out that the place we camped the night was in a beautiful valley with huge mountains along each side rising to over 3000 meters.. One side of the valley was dry mountains and the other was green… Heather now stole the Uzbek jacket that we got given by the Kazakh family the day before… the field report she gives me was that it was nice and warm.. and ohhh how warm it was.. and… yep its warm.. when I asked for it back.. all I heard was “beep beep” and then in a flash she was gone.. After breakfast we started riding with the intention of finding a camp spot shortly after lunch and having a nice easy day… It turns out that there is an almost constant flow of houses and villages along the road towards Bishkek… (more…)

After a long night celebrating we woke early with the intention of getting to the Kyrgyzstan boarder early. We didn’t want any problems or long queues to contend with. We had heard that it could take a very long time so we didn’t want to miss the closing time of 8pm…. Thankfully on our high quality (£2) vodka we didn’t have any hang over and felt fresh in the morning.. After packing up and having a big breakfast (again horse sausages and eggs) it was time to make tracks.. for the first time at a border crossing we had got fully prepared with loads of food and water so that we didn’t end up starved and hungry (e.g. Like coming into Russia).. I hope you see the irony in that as the story unfolds…

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a "room" with a view - camping Kazakhstan

If we wanted a relaxing holiday then we probably would have chosen to go a slightly different route to the one we are on. The last few weeks in the desert have been physically trying and mentally exhausting but we have been totally amazed by the hospitality of the people of Kazakhstan, and the scenery of their country. So far the further east we head the more we have been enjoying the experience of motorcycle touring/travelling and the more of an adventure it has become. After being in Europe the distances in this area of the world are so vast by comparison. People don’t even flinch when they say its “6 days drive away”… Starting when we got to Slovenia the number of road side food stalls has steadily increased. Initially just selling fruit and (more…)