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After a few days in Biskek waiting for my Iranian visa, I go back on the road alone: Luc stays a few months in Bishkek where he has almost already found a job (but I don’t think that’s what motivated him to stay…). Guillaume and Sarah are in Almaty. And Enzo, a young French biker met in Biskek, took the road to Mongolia.
For my part, heading south. My objective: the Pamir at more than 4000 m. I decide to go as fast as I can, that is to say to take the road to Osh and not the tracks that tempt me. But at these altitudes, winter comes fast and I’m afraid I’ll be stuck. This will be the road with two passages at more than 3000 m to reach Osh.
The first day, the weather is gloomy. The painful exit from Bishkek. The more it goes, the more I hate driving in the city… after my accident in 2014. A fractured pelvis marks you. In fact, during these few days, I didn’t touch the bike. But very quickly, it starts to climb and I arrive quite late in the afternoon at the level of the first pass (I have to say that I started…. (very, very) late… as usual). I see cyclists who have just passed through the tunnel. According to one of them, the tunnel is worse than the famous Taidjikistan death tunnel… it promises… in fact, it is just a little painful because of the trucks. If he’s really worse than the other one, frankly not enough to break three legs off a duck.
I fell in love a few miles away. There was this fork in the road. Straight ahead Osh. On the left a track that leads to Lake Song Kul… After a few hesitations, I go there… just a few kilometers… and that’s when I saw it, that’s when I fell in love. He was thrown at full gallop into the steppe His kamcha (whip) in his hand. Two dogs were following him. He breathed life into it. He was breathing the steppe.
The next day, after the second pass, I crossed countless herds of horses and sheep coming down from the mountains: transhumance began as a sure sign that winter is coming.
In the meantime, I’m going to the Pamir. Then, if the winter allows me, maybe go back up to the Kyrgyz mountains, just to follow some trails. But I have a doubt, it might get cold very quickly.
Well? Why not next year? I wanted to reach Africa from India… but in the end why not spend the winter in South Asia, then go back to Central Asia in spring….after all I still have Mongolia to discover, and Siberia… the plan is not a plan, but I will have to choose a direction: follow the storks or not? I have a few months to think about it. The world is vast and there is so much to discover yet… 😉
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