Steve's Cycling Blog

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It worked…! I didn’t wake up this morning till my alarm went off 🙂 At that point it was dry, but as I was taking my tent down there was a spit or two, and my tent was properly wet from the rain in the night – we had a pretty good thunderstorm shortly after going to bed, and I heard rain a couple of other times over the night.

As we were eating breakfast there was some more drizzle so I set off with my raincoat on, but by 5km up the road I was too hot so that came off. From there to lunch I didn’t stop as the conditions were so good.

I was on the road well before the wind and we climbed gradually for nearly an hour to get to the top of the pass

And then the fun really began! By then there was a gentle but definite tail wind (hoorah!!) and with a good descent to kick things off the speed really went up, and despite a few light showers I just kept on pedalling into “lunch” where things were looking pretty good.

I needn’t have been so concerned about the motoring safety of the Kazakh people – it seems I was judging the new highway in a partially complete state, once done there are lines, and barriers and signs (even in English!) everywhere…!

The road surface is also amazing compared to what we’ve seen in the north of the country with super-smooth asphalt (hope I got it right this time dad ;-)), or new concrete. I’ve never been on a concrete road which was actually any good – the ones in Mongolia were horrid, and most US ones I’ve been on aren’t that great either!

[the concrete road surface] is like floating on a magic carpet.

Grant, Silk Route rider

During lunch the rain started and was looking like it was going to stay so raincoat back on, and on the road again. 15km later we left the highway and were back on much more typical Kazakh roads as we headed down (and backwards) to the reservoir were going to be camping beside.

Into camp and it’s somewhat underwhelming based on how enthusiastic Andreas was about the location yesterday afternoon – I suspect the fact that it’s grey, cloudy and there’s nobody here as compared to warm, sunny and with lots of people might have something to do with the difference in impression.

It was clearly going to keep raining through the day so I got my tent up as quickly as I could so that I had somewhere dry to be and in the hope that it may dry out (like that was ever going to happen)

There’s a hotel right next to where we’re camping and a number of people have opted to head in there rather than camp. A further group have decided they want an extra day in Almaty and have a taxi coming to take them there shortly. By the time everyone had defected there are only seven of us who are actually camping.

There’s a small shop down on the beach which opened briefly so most of us wandered down and grabbed an ice-cream, a packet of crisps and a beer. Ron also brought out a bottle of vodka which he’s been carrying with him since Russia!

After soup, crisps, vodka, ice-cream and beer the general consensus – without anyone actually saying anything – was it was time for a nap, and within 10 min we’d all drifted off to our tents!

Later: Well I seem to be getting better at napping, that was the best part of an hour and I don’t feel too rough…!

The notes for tomorrow are up and it looks like we’ve got 99km to cover to our first two-day rest-day. With many of the slower riders having already departed to Almaty I’m hopeful that the wait at the convoy point (86.5km) won’t be too long, and therefore we won’t be too late getting to the hotel.

And now the sun’s out, so I’m going to move my clothes line so that things will hopefully get dry.

Most of the hotel dwellers returned to camp for rider’s meeting and dinner but have now returned to their castle on the hill. The rest of us are having a cup of tea and listening to the starlings which are coming home to roost in the tree above us.

Riding data

View from my tent