In the end we were up too early this morning – breakfast was at 0500, but it was still really dark at that point so we had to hang around until it was light enough to leave which given that it was pretty late for a riding night when I’d gone to bed, and not a lot of sleeping had been done because it was so hot in the room was a bit annoying!
The not-very-accurate stage 71 route notes
I was one of the last to leave, but once on the road was making good time. As I caught up with one group of riders Will and Charlie decided they were going to stick with me and we covered just over 30km in the next hour before we turned off the main road.
At that point the surface deteriorated significantly, with big lumpy gravel and lots of dogs which wanted to bite us so the pace dropped off significantly.
None-the-less we were into lunch in good time and back on the road shortly after as there was still rather a lot of climbing to do and it was rapidly warming up despite only being shortly after 0900!
Through till lunch we’d been riding through very productive looking farms and orchards, with lots of green everywhere, but as soon as we started climbing after lunch that vanished and we moved very rapidly into an extremely arid area
Getting pretty dry round here!
I caught up with Grant at a very welcome coke stop where we both stopped for cold water – in one village we passed through pretty much every one who has property along the main road has a freezer at the end of a very long extension lead with bottles of water and soft drink for sale.
In the next town things were a bit more ‘formal’ with actual cafes at the roadside and even ice cream at one – two ice creams (each) later and we were back on our way, looking forward to the next place we could buy more ice cream.
This afternoon’s been the hottest we’ve had so far and an indication of what’s ahead – let’s hope that ice cream is as accessible on future days as it was today.
The route notes ended up bering pretty vague through the afternoon, and camp was somewhat further on than we’d expected, but once we got there it was actually pretty good – we’re camped in a secondary school yard this time which also has lots of trees for shade (though the doors are firmly locked so I can’t go for a sticky-beak in the classrooms this time).
As has become the norm as it’s got hotter we spent the afternoon mostly sitting in the shade, drinking the coldest water we can find and generally watching the world go by – it’s too hot, and we’re too tired to do much else.
Fed and Michael, who joined us in Osh and are leaving in Samarkand have decided that they’d like more time to explore the city so have arranged for a car to come and collect them this afternoon so that they get that chance.
We’ve had duck for dinner again this evening which was great – I’ve also shared a duck and pomegranate molasses recipe which I’ve made a number of times with Mark our chef and he reckons that as soon as he can find the pomegranate molasses – which given the increasing prevalence of pomegranates should be soon – he’ll definitely make that for dinner!
I out my road tyres back on when we were in Dushanbe on the understanding that the road conditions were going to be much improved but it’s not yet worked out that way with still lots of gravel and very rough tarmac, so let’s hope things improve in the next couple of days.
Riding data
View from my tent
Opps, forgot…!
