Steve's Cycling Blog

A long time ago came a man on a track

Walking thirty miles with a sack on his back

And he put down his load where he thought it was the best
He made a home in the wilderness
He built a cabin and a winter store
And he plowed up the ground by the cold lake shore
And the other travelers came walking down the track
And they never went further, and they never went back
Then came the churches, then came the schools
Then came the lawyers, and then came the rules
Then came the trains and the trucks with their loads
And the dirty old track was the telegraph road

Dire Straits – Telegraph Road

Rather than a fence we’ve spent all day today following the telegraph lines from Murghab which presumably continue on past our camping spot in Alichur to Khorog.

Stage 61 route notes

Today got off to a rather civilised start with an 0700 breakfast from the hotel – same as yesterday with fried eggs, a pancake and somewhat fresher bread which made a nice change.

It was feeling pretty warm at the hotel, but once out on the road it still felt pretty cool so zips got done up to keep the wind out.

The first stop of the day was at the passport check – I have absolutely no idea what the point was – the chap diligently copied my name, passport number and visa number into a maths exercise book – he must fill about one book a week, and then what happens to them…??? I guess on the bright side it keeps at least the three people who were there this morning, and presumably several others, employed!

For the next 45km we climbed gradually but steadily at around 1.5% with the odd drop down into a river valley to get the heart rate up. Once again the pass was unsigned and pretty much went by unnoticed, other than the gradient changed from up, to down.

From the top of the pass into lunch was great, we had the gradient on our side, the wind was for once behind us, and the pavement was reasonably smooth so I made good time.

At the lunch stop there were properly weird flies – they didn’t like the sun, they didn’t seem interested in food, but if you got in the shade they were all over you so I spent significantly less at lunch than I normally would. Some people spend only as long as they need to eat but I tend to spend more time relaxing and chatting before continuing.

Back on the road the wind we less cooperative, but progress remained good with general descent and the odd little upward bump.

In the end camp’s moved from before town, to after town which has put us beside a river. Some people have been in for a wash, but I got as far as ankle deep and decided that baby wipes were good enough for me 🙂

Camp from the other side of the river

We’re also pretty spread out because of the steepness of the bank as people have tried to find themselves somewhere reasonably flat to put their tent.

Things seem more barren here – lots more sand and gravel rather than more grassland-like which we had before Murghab. I don’t think a lot of grazing goes on round here as there’s simply nothing for stock to eat, which does rather make me wonder, what’s the point of the town we’re camped beside? and how does it survive?

Not a lot grows out here

What is it about Americans and chewing with their mouth open and talking with their mouth full…? I drives me nuts, but seems to be an almost universal ‘trait’, certainly amongst those who have joined this trip.

Today was our third pass over 4,000m – tomorrow we get the last two with 4,175m and 4,280m passes over the course of the day. Tomorrow night we’re going to be camped at a hot spring which with the timezone change which happened this afternoon (we’ve moved from Kyrgys time to Tajik time after leaving the Murghab region) could work out quite well as it will mean sunset’s about 1930 so a soak in a hot spring once it’s cooled down might be rathe nice.

The bad news of the day is that our next rest day we’re going to be camping outside a hotel (apparently the nicest hotel in town) and though we’ll have access to showers and WiFi it’s far from ideal, particularly after the four-in-a-room sardines of the last rest day, but apparently there’s nothing else available.

Apparently it’s yak for dinner tonight, so will be interesting to see how that tastes.

Later: Between writing and dinner I took a wander round the village. It certainly doesn’t have a lot to offer, but despite looking somewhat more derelict it feels less ‘end of the world’ than Karakul did.

One thing I really liked were these gates which had been constructed from what look like old propaganda signs

With sunset being shortly before 1930 I’m finishing this from my tent fairly early because the wind is still strong, and once the sun went behind the mountains it very quickly got cold!

Now it’s time for sleep 🙂

Riding data

View from my tent

Across the moonscape from my tent