Border crossing day and we got to start half an hour later because otherwise we’d be waiting at the border for it to open for too long…!
Rider notes for stage 47, border crossing day
On the way to the border I nearly got myself in trouble with the border police. I saw this mosque with the sun on it:
Karkara mosque in the early-morning sun
And two herdsmen on their horses approaching and thought “this will make a great photo with the herdsmen approaching the mosque in the morning sunshine”. As I was about to take the photo I noticed that the men on the horses were in camouflage, and had AK47s on their backs, and pistols on their belts, and weren’t herdsmen at all but soldiers!
I didn’t take the photo, but they’d seen me about to, so indicated that I should stop which (obviously) I did. After the obligatory shaking of hands one indicated that I needed to hand over my phone, at which point he checked back to ensure that there were no photos of him in there. Satisfied he returned my phone and indicated with a nod of his head that I should continue!
Apparently they also took down all of the flagging tape i the village as well, so clearly they were taking their job very seriously!
Thankfully the border crossing was pretty painless and after a half hour wait for them to open I was through in less than half an hour which made this the smoothest of the crossings to date – let’s hope that trend continues.
The road from the border was initially sealed but that soon gave way to pretty rough gravel – mostly because it had previously been a sealed road which had deteriorated to nothing but potholes, or as we saw in Kazakhstan and simply had the seal grader-ed off.
The ‘smooth as silk’ pavement that we’d been promised at 66km came 1.5km earlier so they have made some progress in fixing the road, but at that rate it’s going to take about 40 years to get to the border…!
From lunch through to the 103km turn the good surface continued, but the driving deteriorated with me being forced off the road onto the shoulder by on-coming over-taking vehicles in several occasions.
Because I’d realised that we were arriving on a Sunday I’d changed some money in Almaty so that I has some Som so was able to stop in the town for ice cream and cold water which was welcome by then as it was pushing 30 degrees.
The last 30km from there to Karakol were pretty awful – the road surface was rough, the wind was increasing in force in our face, it was hot, it was generally uphill and the drivers were terrible – overtaking and forcing us off the road, passing too close, passing too fast – one of them even went past me so closely that the passenger was able to reach out the window and thump me in the shoulder as they passed! Let’s hope this isn’t an indication of what it’s going to be like in Kyrgyzstan…!
On the good news front the hotel we’re in is lovely…! Apparently it’s a joint venture with a Swiss company and it certainly shows in the quality and design of the establishment! Being at higher altitude also makes the evenings cooler, and helps to keep the annoying flying creatures away)
Riding data
View from my tent
Cut-flower grower next to the hotel
