Steve's Cycling Blog

Getting somewhere shady for my tent last night proved to be unnecessary – the clouds rolled in before the sun set and once the sun was gone it got really pretty cold. The forecast was also for rain overnight, so in the end those of us who had been snuggled up against the building moved our tents away a couple of metres as there’s no spouting and we didn’t want runoff adding to the rainfall.

With somewhere comfortable to sit in our yurt, and the late start this morning it was all the way to 2030 before I headed into my tent. Although the wind was gusty overnight it wasn’t until after 0400 that the rain started, continuing off and on until 0900.

I managed to get my tent down in one of the breaks in the rain so although the fly was soaking the inner tent is dry which will mean that I should have somewhere dry to go when it goes back up later, even if I have to put it up in a break between showers.

With breakfast at 0800 Mark had time to make not only porridge, but also scrambled eggs for breakfast which was a decided bonus. Although the vehicles then left relatively promptly most of us chose to hang out in the yurt until the cloud cover began to break up in the hope that we’d miss the last of the rain.

In the end I left just ahead of 0930 by which time there were large patches of blue sky which helped take the edge of the cold wind which was blowing up the valley. Today all we were doing was crossing from one side of that valley to the other ready to cross into Tajikistan tomorrow.

Stage 57 rider notes – the shortest stage of the tour

After a short time I caught up with Ruth who had left shortly before and we cycled the rest of the way having a chat about life on the road on a TDA tour.

Into camp and I had my tent up and drying in short order – it’s not crispy-dry thanks to the combination of the dry mountain air, sun and wind.

Finding somewhere climatically comfortable to write this up has proven a little tricky this afternoon. When the sun’s out it gets really hot in my tent. If I’m outside and the wind blows it gets damn cold. You’ll be unsurprised to learn I’ve settled for too hot over too cold 🙂

Jordan’s doing a great job of keeping six of the children who have turned up in camp entertained with seemingly endless rounds of boule – everyone, including Jordan, seems to be having fun. Against usual trends two of the six children are girls, and there are also a couple of other girls floating round camp as well.

I’m taking Diamox to help with acclimatisation, which amongst other things is a diuretic so I have to keep nipping out for a pee, where I’ve just discovered it’s got even colder than it was before! This morning it was 6ºC in my tent when I was getting up – we’re a couple of hundred metres higher tonight, and closer to the snow, so I expect tomorrow morning will be even colder.

Tomorrow’s going to be an interesting day. We’ve only got three km from here to the Kyrgyz side of the border crossing, but there’s then a 20km no-mans-land which includes the 4,282m high Kyzyl-Art Pass before we descend slightly to the Tajik border post. From there we head on towards the town of Karakul (it seems every ‘stan has a Kakakol) before we camp again tomorrow night.

Now after such a hectic day thus far I think it’s time to eat my banana and have a little nap – all part of the acclimatisation you know 😉

Later: I didn’t end up napping too much as I discovered that despite the fact that we’re further from the cell tower there was actually veeeeerrrryyyyyy slow internet connectivity to I spent the time arsing about catching up on Facebook and twitter and exchanging a couple of messages with Adam.

Dinner was BBQ chicken which is a definite favourite. By the tine dinner was done, and a cup of tea had been drunk the sun and gone and it was getting cold so time to head into my tent.

As I mentioned tomorrow’s border crossing day, and although the border is officially open 24 hours, it’s only actually open during daylight hours. We also need to get the vehicles ahead of riders so that there’s lunch to be eaten at the top of the main pass for the day. All of this means that we get to have a sleep in (again) with breakfast at 0630, but bags not required till 0700, after which we can head off.

Riding Data

View from my tent

My bike, camp and tomorrow’s mountain pass (somewhere in there 🙂