Steve's Cycling Blog

Once again the forecast was for unfavourable winds – I’m beginning to think this trip would be better run the opposite way (i.e from Istanbul to Beijing) since at these latitudes the prevailing wind is a westerly of some sort, and we spent a lot of time in Mongolia heading north into northerlies, and we’re now heading south in Kazakhstan into southerlies.

Most of the plan for the day (other than the bits I cut off)

All the usual morning stuff happened at all the usual morning times (i.e. too much, too early) and I was on my bike by 0515. I passed Erwin and Paul shortly after, and was making great progress with something of a following wind. For the first 40km I was averaging just over 30 km/h which was pretty good going after the last few days.

I caught Jackie and Grant just after 50km and rode with them through to lunch and on into the ‘afternoon’. From lunch the wind steadily increased and became more and more of a head wind so we got into our routine of 2km each at the front, stopping every 20km for food and water.

Despite the wind we continued to make reasonable progress and time and were passing through the city gate around 1100

Selfie with Grant and Jackie behind as we come through the Usharal city gate

From there we had a little confusion as we followed the route notes and the flagging to the hotel – only there was nobody we knew there! We tried up and down the street, but were obviously at what should have been the right building so Jackie gave Andreas a call – we’ve changed hotel, head back to the town square where you’ll see the van.

Now that we knew what we were looking for we spotted the van on the main street and flagging into the new hotel – though it’s far from new…! It’s a soviet era building and was last redecorated during those times by the look of things – it’s fortunate that Adam’s not here as he’d have refused to stay here…!

With the ‘afternoon’ winds and the mucking round with changing hotels it wasn’t long after I got in that the lunch van arrived with the permanent bags (and my clean clothes) so next stop was the shower – at least that was hot!

I’m also working on getting the rest day jobs done this afternoon as well – I started with the laundry which was a much more reasonably priced 1,000T (provide your own laundry powder) however it transpires that this is for wash-only, so it’s now hanging on our balcony getting dry.

Yesterday I noticed that my solar panels didn’t seem to be charging their battery bank as effectively as previously, and when I tried to get them to charge this morning (before my permanent bag arrived with the 230v charger) nothing! I took the cover off the connectors and discovered that one of the wires from the panels themselves to the circuitry had come off at the panel end – a 30sec job to resolve with a soldering iron, only I don’t have one!

Regina asked at the hotel, who sent us to a shop across the road – thankfully she came with me which was handy as the shop across the road wasn’t the right place but she was able to get directions for an alternative possibility. A short walk later I found the next place which looked much more promising:

TVs waiting to be fixed

I held the parts of my solar panel apart for the man behind the counter who nodded, took it from me, and vanished out the back. A few moments later he returned with another chap who spoke enough English to ask ‘what is this’ – I unfolded it and explained it was a solar panel and what the problem was. He nodded, said ‘five minutes’ and vanished again. When he returned not only had he soldered things back together again, but he’d also glued the cables into place to hopefully provide greater strength. How much I asked? 1000T (about $3 USD) so an excellent result!

Back at the hotel I began working on this post when Charlie suggested going to the cafe next door for something to eat – three duck kebabs and two pints of beer later and I’m back in the hotel lobby (the only place with WiFi) updating this post. For the record, the duck was sensational – I shall definitely be back there tomorrow for more 🙂

I’ve also been up to our room (I’m sharing with Richard here) to check out the state of my washing – crispy is the best description…!

There are a group of people going out to the lake tomorrow, but to be honest I’m not feeling the love – that said, there’s not much happening in town so maybe it’s worth the trip. Only thing is that breakfast’s at 0800 and they’re heading out at 0900 which I suspect (hope) is all going to happen without me noticing!

A couple of people have asked me what the night sky is like out in the middle of nowhere – I have no idea (from this trip). It doesn’t get dark till so late, gets light so early, and I’m trying to get at least 7 hours sleep each night, which means I’m not actually awake during the hours of darkness. Hopefully as the daylight hours get shorter and we head further south, then I’ll get to find out!

Right – I’m going to worry about what I’m going to do tomorrow then, get my last ice cream for the day (there may already have been one or two consumed) and head off to bed.

Riding data

View from my tent

So it’s not from my tent, and it’s not even from my hotel room, it’s the view fro the chair in the lobby which gets half-decent WiFi 🙂

Sunshine out the hotel door