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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…

There was practically no spot available to camp… We stopped for a nice long lunch break along the river just outside of a small town.. while we waited for our pot to boil a shepherd came with his cows to the river to drink and rest… After about 2 hours break we continued riding and came to our first mountain pass in Kyrgyzstan .. As we approached we could see that the pass was under thick cloud and the wind had really picked up… Everywhere that was available to camp had a yurt pitched on that spot which made finding a camp site almost impossible… It was now shortly after 1pm and the temperature had dropped from 28c to 8c and we had only just passed 2400 meters… or about 1/3^rd of the way up the pass… as we started to get close to the pass the temperatures fell even more and we started to get a mix of snow and sleet (in August) which was making the crossing dangerous and very very cold… especially as I had chosen to wear jeans and shoes today instead of my usual motorcycle apparel..

the plan was that it would allow my leg to heal instead of the sore sticking to my boot and getting more infected… the flip side was that it was very very cold and wet…. Heather was also wearing jeans and she too was frozen on the bike… with the wind chill factor we guessed it probably felt like about -5c or lower… Unfortunately due to poor weather we didn’t stop at the top to take a photo of the sign with the altitude of the pass… 3400 meters. Our highest mountain pass to date.. and one of the most spectacular.. its amazing when we ride up these passes and at the top there are still mountains which tower over you like your nothing… completely awe inspiring.

After crossing the mountain pass we started to head down into a huge wide valley which was filled with yurt camps.. everywhere you looked there was another Kyrgz family with their yurts setup for the summer… we soon joined one of the main roads through the mountains towards Bishkek.. The plan was that we would ask one of the Yurts if we could camp near their setup…. about 15 minutes later along a straight section of road Heather was hit by a speeding car.. completely screwing her pannier, smashing the canon camera lens that we had in that pannier and ruining several other bits of kit… I saw the whole thing in slow motion as soon as I heard the screeching of tyres I looked behind to see a car screaming towards heather.. Then there was the impact.. the car went under her pannier forcing her rear wheel up off the ground leaving Heather to balance on the front wheel.. the pannier literally exploded with the impact and all our gear was strewn all over the motorway.. Heather managed to hold onto the bike without going off the road and down a steep incline into a ditch… The whole incident happened on a completely straight section of road where there was some road work being done to re-tar the road… there was no sign of road work except some witches hats and boulders blocking our lane… we slowed down.. unfortunately the stupid idiot driver didn’t bother slowing down and ran straight into Heather at a speed not under 60-70kms p/h… She was very very lucky that he only got the pannier so it could absorb most of the impact… if she had been hit on the bike it would have been a completely different situation….. The wanker then decided that he didn’t have to stay around and just drove away after we tried to get his details.. of course he refused to give any details at all.. the work men who initially said that they would give us help quickly declined any offer and basically screwed us over… it seems like they all stick together and don’t give a shit…

Unfortunately with only one pannier the bike was unbalanced, Heather also had whip lash from the jolt. We also had to find a place to put all the gear that was from the now destroyed pannier… it was a case of turning both bike into snails with huge bums of gear stacked high and proud… we decided that we couldn’t easily keep the gear secure so we had to get to Bishkek so that we could organise a replacement as soon as possible… Unfortunately Bishkek was about 160km away and the weather was bloody cold and we had gale force cross winds which made the ride “exciting”. While travelling along the road we saw a donkey that was half eaten with a dog tearing its insides out to eat.. not the nicest scene.. then about a kilometre further there was a wolf that had been killed.. it seems that this section of road was bad luck for everything…

Shortly later we had to start our second major mountain pass to cross over into the valley where Bishkek is… the mountain pass was a huge engineering wonder with constant remains of avalanches and rocks strewn across the roads.. Shortly after passing the pass on the way down the other side there was a big accident where a tanker had over turned… There was another car that had been badly damaged… it still confuses us as to how the accident actually happened. The truck was on the way up the hill.. the car on the way down the hill.. the car had been hit on the front.. the truck was upside down facing up the hill against the cliff on the side of the road.. Being a petrol tanker everyone was there to steal/takis e the petrol that was now spilling out over the road.. there must have been at least 30+ cars all with people scrambling to get some petrol.. it was crazy.. the accident must have happened a while ago as the crane had just arrived when we went passed to help turn the truck back over.. as we descended down the other side the road starts to follow the river in what can only be described as a deep canyon.. the road was well maintained which was something we really didn’t expect after the last month of pretty poor quality “roads”.

As we got closer to Bishkek the crazy drivers out numbered ants and it became more of a case of stay the hell out of their way… their idea of driving safely is to drive as fast as they can and break as hard as they can.. red lights are just a matter of “slow down and look for the cops”.. its absolutely manic.. in a two lane road you will have three or four cars trying to over take each other with oncoming cars… They have no awareness of motorcycles at all.. it also seems as though they can’t actually judge distances.. all up the experience of Kyrgyzstan driving has not been so great….

After riding around Bishkek for a few hours we found a hotel which was in our price range.. we had no Kyrgyzstan currency yet (not a single cash machine from the border to the hotel).. we couldn’t pay for the hotel.. the people agreed that we could pay the next day as they said It was unsafe to take out cash in Bishkek at night.. The problem was we needed to eat.. luckily one thing that Bishkek does have is 1000’s of currency exchange places… all of which offer pretty poor exchange rates but we needed some money and we got some by exchanging some US Dollars. Just enough for us to get some dinner, vodka and breakfast in the morning… it was time to retire to the hotel…

Our task for the next few days was to ensure that the replacement clutch was on route from Turkey and that we could get a replacement for Heathers screwed pannier.. it sounds pretty easy but when there is 5 hours time difference and only one internet café allows us to plug our laptop in… It’s a big hassle…. After two days of being on the internet, phone etc. almost constantly we finally had our clutch on the way… the pannier was a different story.. After speaking with Touratech Germany, they came back to us with a quote for the shipping of 601 Euros which would make a replacement pannier cost something like 920 Euros which was absolutely ridiculous.. it would be cheaper to go and find someone to manufacture a similar product here in Bishkek.. After struggling with what our options are I spoke to the Hotel security guard who offered us some advice.. In the end we decided that we would have to try and fix the pannier to the best quality possible.. if it wasn’t we would have to buy some sort of bag or other box and get some bubble gum and stick it on the rack… we hear blutack is good for pannier repairs… The next day we went in search of a panel beater that could help us fix the box.. in the end about 200 meters down the road from the hotel I asked some guys who had been working on repairing the drain pipe if they knew anywhere we could get it done.. 15 minutes later the guy had worked his magic and we now had a rectangle pannier with a bottom that fit in better than we could ever have hoped. Now we needed to find a pop rivet tool and someone with a power drill… after walking for 2hours we found the area where all the trades people buy their tools and supplies.. bingo.. we bought a pop riveter, some rivets and some silicone sealant for the rock bottom price of £5 ha-ha. now we needed to find someone with a power drill.. on the way home Heather saw some guys sitting outside a construction site and asked them for some help.. we got ushered into the site with cement falling from the crane above.. yay for safety.. of course nobody wore a safety hat of even safety shoes.. sandals/thongs are okay here!! a short time later after trying to explain what we needed the guys went to their welder… uhh ohhh.. not a good idea.. aluminium welding is not something we wanted.. eventually someone explained that we just needed a drill and some holes.. 30 minutes later it was all sorted.. we gave the pop riveter to the guy who helped us.. no room on the bike and it only cost us 170 som which is about £2.40.. He felt really special and I’m sure he will really appreciate his new tool.. All up we had spent 1500 som (£17) to get the pannier repaired compared to the brackets alone from Germany costing 45euro+… its not going to be water proof but at least its going to store some luggage..

Bishkek is a crazy city which is very beautiful with loads of nice avenues and parks. It unfortunately is not the safest city and we have been followed by a guy who clearly wanted our wallet/phone whatever other valuables he could get from us.. additionally the drivers are seriously crazy from our hotel room we have heard at least 3 big accidents with the screech, horns and BANG!!.. despite having so many accidents it seems that people don’t realise that its the way they drive which cause problems and continue to drive like complete loons… There is no surprise that their road toll is so high for such a small country.. im pretty sure that drivers licenses are given out to only dickheads..

Burnt Leg Update : Some of you have been asking about the state of my burnt leg.. well its now 20 days after I burnt it and its no longer really sore.. however over the last week or so its been a real pain in the…. I’ve gone from walking on it and having puss from my right leg’s wound spurt out and land all over my left leg.. pus dribbling down my leg to my foot… its been seriously nasty.. but at least I no longer have the pains shooting up through my leg that I had while I was in the desert… hopefully with the crème that I have been given to put on it things will improve quickly..

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 27th, 2009 at 7:36 am and is filed under accidents, Adventure Motorcycling, Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, London to Sydney, motorcycle touring, Mountains, Wild Camping. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.