Jalalabad 17 Sept 2008

Well, if we came on this trip in search of adventure, we have found it n wonderful beautiful, friendly Kyrgyzstan. Our very windy route (as in bendy) has been perfect to experience the diversity of the country: snow capped mountains, high prairies dotted with yurts, cold high passes over 3,000 metres, staggering singe-ing heat further sout and at lower elevations. Perfect tarmac roads as straight as an arrow for mile after mile, winding rough corrugated skiddy gravel roads that riuse and fall exhaustingly. But the constant has been the people (and the mutton!). The welcome we receive everywhere we go astonishes us daily - from little kiddies chasing us on their bikes and waving and shouting hello, to every other vehicle on the road tooting their horns and cheering and waving at us, or even pulling over for a chat - to lone shepherds on horseback wordlessly joining us on the road for a shrt distance before waving goodbye and disappearing off the road back into the wilderness. We've been invited to join many lunches (including one where swimming-trunk clad Kyrgz slaughtered a goat to cook!) and many drinks from the most delightful people you could care to meet. Our hands ache from waving and our faces from smiling. What a wonderful nation the Kyrgyz are.

We camp pretty regularly and very comfortably, but have also experienced decrepit ex-soviet 'gastinista' (crumbling hideous concrete guest houses) and wonderful homestays, usually arranged by the inspired CBT organisation (community based tourism) where simple accommodation comes with good dinners (more mutton) and frinedly family welcomes and a real taste of how the locals live. We haven't slept in a yurt yet.......we prefer the privacy of our tent.

Kyrygyzstan is a feldgling country on the brink of real growth in tourism - come here while it's still genuine and go cycling, trekking, horseriding and eagle-spotting. The people are a long way from wealthy and many must realy struggle selling the odd watermelon on the side of the road. Most water is gathered from streams or streetside water pumps by bucket and electricity is a bit touch and go. But we see women on mobile phones riding on the bike of ancient wooden carts being pulled by donkeys!?


We cycled for 10 full days, covering around an average of 80km per day, before finally reaching the veritable oasis of Arslanbob - high in the hills, famed for the walnust groves that provide shade, cool breezes and nuts. This is harvest time, so everyone is going nuts - shelling them gives them fingers as black as coal! We spent 2 days doing absolutely nothing to let our bodies (especially bottoms!) recover. Bottoms are very sore and we've very anxious not to get pressure sores, but have just had amazing success in the bazar in Jalalabad buying gorgeous saddle covers, complete with tassles (very fetching) and a lump of foam to put under them to ease the bottom situation - we're feeling very pleased with ourselves! With the exception of the next leg from Osh to Kyrgyzstan to Kashgar in China, we intend to cycle for fewer days before a day off - which will be much easier for the rest of the journey as there will be better places for taking breaks and sightseeing. But we have grown very fond of Kyrgyzstan and we'll be sorry to say 'bye bye'! However, the next chapter awaits us in China as we cycle through Xinjiang province over the Karakorum Highway into Pakistan (probably in Kashgar in around 1/5 - 2 weeks from now). What an incredible adventure!!? At the bottom of this, I'll post a complete one day diary entry to give you an idea of our day to day living - couldn't transcribe the whole lot as I've been writing far too much. That'll be a winter project some time in the future I think!

We're thinking of you all lots: hoping our lodgers Nicola and Keith (and the cats) are happy in our home and settled in - thinking how much Pete will be enjoying his chainsaw courses - hoping Eleanor has mastered the balance of B&B and other work. Hoping Maisie is growing big and strong and learning about everything, but probably mostly a bit of hand-eye coordination. Hoping 'Foxy' continues to improve steadily (thanks for the last update - good news - gently does it) that Ann has survived the last few ships of the season and is looking forward to a well-deserved holiday. That the Norris family are all flourishing and the twins are now bigger than peanuts and that Tracy's Mum is nt worrying all night and keeping Philip awake by turning as if on a rotisserie!

Our last couple of weeks in the UK were hectic, but we want to thank all of you for such wonderful send-offs - such happy memories (special thanks to Ann and Helen - I could do with Napier Herbal right now - if only they had a branch in Asia! Bless you both for going to a real effort and making my last day at work a happy event).

Finaly, we hope and trust you are all having LOTS fun back at home. We have the list f 6 month pledges so if you haven't started yours yet, you better had!

Lots and lots of love from us both.

The Norri
xxx

PS - Andrew is trying to load photos as I write - with any luck, they will be available for view later today. We may have to complete the job in a couple of days in Osh.


10th Sept
A very long and tiring day. Suusamyr was further than we thought - the village we camped near was not marked on the map. After an hour we reached Suusamyr and found a little ship. Like most of these shops, it sold the round breads - tokoch, then a few sweeties and chocolate bars, a few cartons of fruit juice, pasta and noodles and a collection of beige goods (boxes of pretzels, wafers, biscuits and so on - all of which seem very unappetising when very thirsty as all stick to roof of mouth and chapped lips! We bought some provisions as, apart from noodles, we were all out. Just beyond town we had our late breakfast. Can't get the hot pastie thingies anywhere on this road - nothing hot at all and no roadside vendors (other than selling kymys - fermented mares milk - yuk!). It's a very remote valley and of course the road surface is terrivle. At about 1pm we finally saw the main road ahead and hit tarmac after 2.5 days on gravel and ruts. A few shacks and yurts were there and we managed to get a mutton and bulgar wheat (I think) stew and chai.

Back on tarmax we made better progress. There's not much traffic and you are never out of sight of a yurt. I simply can't conquer my horror of chasing dogs - I find it almost unbearable. Each time they come for us my panic builds, my heart races and I'm panting for air. The dinal dogs of the day (at least 3 altogether) really came for us - we crossed the road to get further away byt they still looked like coming. We stopped, and Andrew bent to pick up stones and they immediately turned away! Result! We had read this before - that even reaching for stones can be enough to deter them. Hurling them may become necessary!

This main road is good quality with a good hard shoulder but it seems to reach off into infinity. The scale of the landscape is intimidating in its vastness and I find it unsettling. I'll be glad to get over the pass tomorrow (over 3000m). We managed just over 80km today which is prett good - particularly as the whole morning was still on endless, uphill gravel.

We met our first fellow cyclists - Robert and Irena from Poland, heading towards us. They said they'd heard about us from some overlanders who'd seen us. They passed on very useful info about the route ahead, having come over the Irkeshtam pass from Kashgar. It took them 9 days between Osh and the Pass!! The road is apparently horrendous. However, from the pass to Kashgar is good tarmac and they said Kashar is wonderful - so, danuted by the first hald, excited about the second.

To camp tonight we just turned off the road and cucled across the prairie until we found a small dent in the landscape away from any yurts. We're not completely out of sight, but in this landscape we'd be very hard to spot. We expect another cold night. Last night my washed and wet trousers froze solid, though we stayed warm enough inside our sleeping bags. We're both really filthy and probably need a day off, but would like to be somewhere reasonably nice for it - which might mean a few more days on the road yet. We'll see what Toktogul is like (the next major town) tomorrow.

Editor's Note: Toktogul was a bit of a hot and dusty nowheresville - so we cycled on for 3 more days after that to eventually arrive in Arslanbob where we had our 2 days rest. While there, a group of brits arrived just for supper one night in our homestay - all frightfully nice, adventurous oaps having a night of 'roughing it' up in the hills! Roughing it?? Don't they know this is luxury?? It was all very surreal.