Rides bikes, paddles sea kayaks, takes pictures. Life on the road & my home in Cornwall.
In the Company of the Winds
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On the road at last with nothing but the sound of the wind and crunch of fat tyres on gravel for company.
There’s nothing quite like being alone on two wheels in high places with just the sound of the wind and the crunch of gravel under fat tyres… on the road at last. I’m having a day off in a village called Kyzyl-Oi, the first real habitation for the last few days; there are a couple of basic homestays, and while the village has no running water at present, there is 3G, and a big, fast flowing river in which to scrub off the grime of the trail and rinse the pong from stinky socks. I feel distinctly ‘chapped’ from the super dry air and high winds of the past few days.
It was an entirely forgettable, and very hot, ride from Bishkek, gently climbing all day to reach the foot of the Kegeti Pass. The heat meant I was quite exhausted by the end of the day… Stopped by a little village shop a car pulled up and two guys got out with a bottle of vodka… when I refused they dashed inside the shop and bought me an icecream instead :-)I spent the night in a quiet spot at the foot of the pass. Clearly a popular place for folk to come and have a BBQ and drink vodka… the surrounding area was littered with garbage…so very sad.The climb proper starts at Kegeti village, where I met this chap, Semion, from a town in eastern Siberia. He proved to be good company for the grind ahead… Although riding a lighter setup (different itinerary) I was quite pleased to note that he wasn’t having any easier time of it than I…It’s a long climb, and steep, rising 2800m in about 45km on a rough track. Whereas I tend to retreat into some tunes on my old iPod when climbing these passes, Semion had a bluetooth speaker on his bars, and was also a fan of Abba. We winched ourselves slowly skyward to the sound of Dancing Queen…Icy cold river crossing..Not being acclimatised to altitude yet I’d decided I was going to camp somewhere around the 3000m contour, and tackle the final 800m the following day. Semion was determined to get over before dark, so around 4pm we went our separate ways. Feeling somewhat knackered I parked myself in a handy riverside meadow and made tea… The pass is known for being wet and stormy, there are many streams for water. I was very lucky to have fine weather for the crossing.Mountain refuge… I could have camped in here…A well appointed joint…Steep…The last few km are bleak, and bitterly cold. Reaching the pass at midday I felt quite pleased to discover that my body will still put up with this sort of nonsense…The first part of the descent is ‘tricky’.. mostly unrideable, picking one’s way downwards for an hour on a heavily cambered, loose and slippery, “barely there” path…..before opening out into a fast swoopy descent on some grassy singletrack.Unwilling to face further climbing that day, feeling utterly exhausted, I parked in a meadow at the foot of the Karakol Pass. It was a wild and stormy evening and night as a gale force wind howled down the valley bringing driving rain with it.These guys turned up from a nearby yurt while cooking dinner… some of the kids have a reputation for being light fingered, and indeed some cyclists I met a day later had had to go and retrieve some stolen gear after a visit. Did my best to keep an eye on my stuff although mostly they seemed interested in chocolate. Having limited calories on board I was reluctant to share until one of them spotted a packet of M&Ms under my tent fly… doh!As dark fell I noticed a chap sitting by the side of the road above watching my tent… not sure of his intentions I wandered over to say hello. A young chap, islam, walking home to his family… he’d been walking for 2 days with a sack over his shoulder, hoping for a passing truck. We sat for a while and talked via google translate before he trudged off up the pass into the darkness. The following morning, I met him again near the summit of the Karakol Pass; he’d been out in the storm all night and was still walking. we shared the final km to the summit; I gave him some biscuits and he gave me 20Som note (about 20p) to remember him by, and his instagram handle…Karakol PassKarakol Pass.. nothing but the wind, and the occasional eagle, for company.Huge views from the western side of the pass….. and a terrific descent on a good track.Strong headwinds all day but after the struggles of the passes it felt sublime.. trundling along, tyres crunching on the gravel, and barely a soul around….. just a few yurt encampments….. and the occasional passing horseman.Two flavours of mobile home…As the day wore on I followed some lovely flowing single and double track along the flanks of the mountains… although with the weather clearly worsening I was keen to find a sheltered spot in which to camp.It was kind of exposed everywhere…Eventually following a tiny stream into a low valley I found a reasonable spot, and pitched up in driving rain and a howling gale… morning however was lovely, albeit freezing cold with a coating of ice on everything.Passing horseman…I’m riding my trusty old Surly ECR. Almost 10 years old now and I still think it’s perfect for this sort of thing. I’m using some mini-panniers this time to accommodate 5 or 6 days worth of food.Gas canisters are easily found in Bishkek, but not necessarily anywhere else. I’m using my Primus Omnilite Ti multifuel stove….. hence the empty liquid fuel bottle on my fork – I can fall back to petrol if I need to. I couldn’t find anything even remotely equivalent to ‘white gas’ or naphtha in Bishkek, despite it apparently being available.
From camp that morning, 70km of descending to the village of Kyzyl-Oi. I met Daniel and Lilian from Seattle on the road so we rode the rest of the way together. They proved excellent company for the evening. I’m stopping for a day to let my body recover from the shock of suddenly being made to ride a heavy bike up enormous hills for the first time in a while, while they headed off this morning on a shorter route, having fewer days available.
Kyzyl-Oi is a tiny place of a few hundred people with a small corrugated tin mosque, very hot at the moment. There is a shop, with icecreams, so plan for the day is stock up on what food is available, revisit the river for a bath, and look at the map for the days ahead… and snooze :-)
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12 thoughts on “In the Company of the Winds”
Awesome post! Glad you got your mojo back.
Some of us live vicariously through you!
you know I was thinking just the other day, as I ground up a 17% gradient at 11,000ft on a frigid morning that it’s about time I came over to enjoy some riding with you in your neck of the woods… you know, the kind of riding that ends every day with cold beers on a beach somewhere…
Always enjoyed your hard IOU’s travels and wonder how you endure – just ‘man & bike’ against the elements, languages, resources, emotions, physical demands, and trusting your bikes endurance and reliability too. Photos always emphasise the remote difficulties too. That there is a world as original as when created. But enduring altitude sickness is the worse when relying on needed stamina to get to the top.
My sincerest admiration to you tenacity on your physical, mental and emotional endurance.
hey, thank you for the lovely feedback.. you’re far too kind. I’m very lucky in that I don’t really have too many problems with altitude, beyond the obvious of noticing that riding a bike is harder, especially uphill!
Love the picture of the lone horseman especially…a great environmental portrait. What camera set up have you taken? Can’t wait for the next installment.
hey Simon, cheers! I’ve got my trusty old X-Pro 2 with me, and 23mm f2 and 35mm f2 lenses. My X-Pro 2 is 8 years old now and has proven to be such a rugged camera, I don’t feel compelled to change, 24Mp is plenty for what I do.
Hello Mike,
thanks for your lovely impressions, maybe you can upload a map of your tour, what you’ve already driven and where you still want to go.
Thomas
Awesome post! Glad you got your mojo back.
Some of us live vicariously through you!
haha cheers, but that feels like it might be a risky strategy.. ;-)
Thanks for a great post, Mike.
you know I was thinking just the other day, as I ground up a 17% gradient at 11,000ft on a frigid morning that it’s about time I came over to enjoy some riding with you in your neck of the woods… you know, the kind of riding that ends every day with cold beers on a beach somewhere…
I envy you for the absolutely stunning scenery … gloriously bleak, endless and wild when wild is so hard to find. I just don’t envy your legs!!
hehe, my legs would agree I think, especially this evening… I’ve found a room in a crumbly old soviet pile of concrete for a couple of days rest..!
Always enjoyed your hard IOU’s travels and wonder how you endure – just ‘man & bike’ against the elements, languages, resources, emotions, physical demands, and trusting your bikes endurance and reliability too. Photos always emphasise the remote difficulties too. That there is a world as original as when created. But enduring altitude sickness is the worse when relying on needed stamina to get to the top.
My sincerest admiration to you tenacity on your physical, mental and emotional endurance.
hey, thank you for the lovely feedback.. you’re far too kind. I’m very lucky in that I don’t really have too many problems with altitude, beyond the obvious of noticing that riding a bike is harder, especially uphill!
Love the picture of the lone horseman especially…a great environmental portrait. What camera set up have you taken? Can’t wait for the next installment.
hey Simon, cheers! I’ve got my trusty old X-Pro 2 with me, and 23mm f2 and 35mm f2 lenses. My X-Pro 2 is 8 years old now and has proven to be such a rugged camera, I don’t feel compelled to change, 24Mp is plenty for what I do.
Hello Mike,
thanks for your lovely impressions, maybe you can upload a map of your tour, what you’ve already driven and where you still want to go.
Thomas
hey Thomas, you’re welcome :-) As for a map, well at present I’m not entirely sure what the full journey will look like so I’ll post a map at the end!