Devon TRF Group Forum

Safe trip Nick - hope it all goes well and look foward to reading your tales of 'daring do'

best of luck with the epic trip

Have a fantastic adventure Nick - look forward to hearing the tales of derring-do 

Brian

Ride safe and have a great interesting Fun trip ............

All the best Nick, have a fantastic trip and try to enjoy the bad as well as the good times

I know you've already gone nick but its never too late to wish you well in your adventure and if you get stuck and need some help just give us a shout 

one of us will pop over and give you a push 

Follow Nick here:

http://www.findmespot.com/mylocation/?id=8eVwo

Now in Almaty with 4 burley Kazakhstans having a pre-ride rub down 

Hello from Almaty :). Unbelievably found someone from Devon living here!!!! what are the odds? Big day tomorrow pick up the bike that's when I find out if things are ok? we will see.

Harty as for the Kazaks I finally feel tall :)

Cheers

I've just found Nicks blog. If anyone is interested in following it, here's the link http://schoe002.wordpress.com/

-- Edited by Harty on Monday 16th of July 2012 07:06:38 PM

Just came across this pic of Nick on the ADV forum. All the guys who shared the same container unpacking their bikes 2 days ago in Almaty

If I put a shonky old DRZ in a crate and leave it for a bit will I get a nice shiney XT660 out as well!!!!! .

 

You appear to have grown upwards and lost weight also

First installment :)

 

14^th 15^th July

Flight ok slept ok arrived in Almaty and meet the Dutch guys and Chris. All cool. Ad, Martin, Jan, Spent the evening chatting went to the local Chinese restaurant.  

 

16^th July

Wow what a first 24 hours, thing that happened: collected bike, road out of town, found hotel, invited to wedding, got drunk went to bed.

 

Woke up in the flee pit of a Turkmenistan Hotel and packed and got ready to be collected to collect the bikes at 10:00. The car did not arrive but we got a phone call cant collect bike yet! Wait two hours.  Then two hours later wait another hour eventually at 14:30 two taxis for 13 of us turned up and they spent the next half hour trying to squeeze us in nearly got 6 of us in on taxi but had to give up and wait for another taxi to turn up.

 

The drive to the shippers was manic they drive like lunatics. Arrived at shippers and waited two hours why? No one knows. The a manic unpack and rebuild of the bike with the shipper saying faster faster we close in 1 hour  you carry you bike out to the car park we close. So with crap everywhere in the car park we start to sort gear.

 

Teamed up with 3 Dutch riders Ad, Martin and Jan. A dangerous ride out of Almaty and finally into the quieter country roads an hour out of Almaty and looked for somewhere to stay found a hotel with no guests other than Jan, Martin, Ad and myself. The owner got the staff to let us have some leftovers, horse, bread and Vodka.

 

 After the meal went for a walk, there was a local wedding next door and we got invited to join the festivities. A very affluent family. The hospitality was incredibly. All the Kazaks wanted to dance with us, as soon as you had a sip from the glass they filled it back up! Cant really describe how welcome we were and what a unique experience.

 

17^th July

Notes: Stopped and hassled by the police, hit border, Chris snapped his side stand, repaired side stand, went to Tokmok had a pizza , up into the mountains over a bridge with holes in, fell down hole and wild camped cold night.

                                                         

On the way to the Kyrgyzstan got stopped at a large road block, learnt a new bit of Russian no straft no straft. They took our passports and we were told the we had to pay a fine of 16000 teng each or about £60. So what does no straft means no fine so they say pay we say no. Told to go outside and wait, half hour later called back in the fine is now 16000 for all 4 or us! no straft told to go outside and wait. Sometime later the police come out and say how much you pay!!! no straft they go away another half hour passes and they come out and give us our passport and we are told we can go!!! I am going to try that the next time I get caught speeding in England. Chris who also share the container caught up with us and joined the group.

 

About an hour later we got to the border. Border well never seen anything like it!!! The open the border let a few into the compound then close the border. Imagine the doors opening at a Robbie Williams concert and you have something like it. There were people crawly through the border guards legs as he was trying to close the border!!

But other than the general mayhem the border went smoothly 2 hours in 39 degree heat and we were through.

 

The idea was to find a trail that followed the Chong-Kemin river and over a 3400+ pass then down to Issyk-Kul.

Found the road that led to the trail and started looking for a place away from the road to wild camp for the evening. Spotted an abandoned bridge to the other side of the river where we could camp out of site.

 

The Bridge, a very rickety iron or steel structure with 8 inch round tree trunks as the flooring. The tree trunk ran along the bridge very wobbly. Unfortunately there were several tree trunks missing. When riding a bike look where you want to go and ride with commitment.

 

Wild camped

 

18^th 19^th July

Notes: Off road following the Chong-Kemin river Tried to cross mountain using pass, first river crossing, first real crash fell off path about 15 feet real close, Chris Crashed, Spent night at river, retrieved bike, and stayed at Issyk Kul.

 

First real off road challenge today. Started well. The track was mainly dust and grass to start with easy going but I made difficult work of it fell off 3 times in the morning due to washing out at the front end. I have the weight as far forward as I can get but the front end is very light and when the front wheel is in the dust the steering is non-existent all the turning is through the footpegs. Also my legs are too short fell off a couple of times due to not being able to take a dab.

 

I was leading when we came to the first river crossing, it did not look deep and about 30 feet across. Stopped and had a good look then like a prat went for it (should have got off the bike and walked it), the only thing that saved me was my momentum carried me through the last 5 feet was nearly 3 feet deep and the current was very powerful, pure fluke. Martin on the Africa twin blew it and ended up on his side in 3 feet of water luckily the bike stalled and did not drown. After that we had 4 riders to each bike to cross the remaining bikes.

The trail got progressively more challenging went from dust/grass to rock and rubble getting very narrow only 12 wide in a few places the Drz just ate it up even fully loaded but the KTM, Trans Alp, Tenere and the Aftica twin was making hard work of it. I got so far ahead I had to wait 30 minutes for them to catch up.  We managed to get to 3100mts when Chris on the Trans Alp lost control and went over the edge 45 and fell about 15 to 20 feet, he was very lucky to get away uninjured. There was no chance of getting the bike back up to the trail. It was late afternoon and the temperature at night was below freezing and we were 80 miles from a main road. We has seen a battered pickup an hour back next to a yurt at the river crossing so it was decided the two would stay and three would ride for help. We were all starting to suffer with the altitude I was feeling dizzy and  had a headache all the others looked rough I did not think I could get there and back fully loaded so dumped all my kit and went for help with Jan and Ad. By the time we got back to the river the van had left and might be back in the morning. The mountain snow had been melting all day and the river was over 4 foot and very fast impossible to cross until the river lowered. No choice but to pitch up and wait until the morning. Freezing night I had all my clothes on and still cold. There was frost on the bikes in the morning, Martin and Chris had to tough it out 800 mts higher so at least 8 degrees colder possibly -6 but there was sod all we could do about it until the morning.

Set off back up the trail as soon as it was light about 5:00 in the morning I was really relieved to see the guys were all ok. Dragged the bike 100 mtrs down and sideways back to the road everyone was struggling with the effort and altitude, Martin was puking because of the effort most were dizzy and shaking and we still had to do the river crossing and 80 miles of track back to the main road. I took about 2 hours before we felt ok to start riding. It was amazing how quickly you recover as you get to a lower altitude just getting 800 meters lower to 2300 made a huge difference. At 3200 we had the river crossing went without incident so started back towards the main road along the Chong-Kemin valley about 60 miles to the road.

All were getting short on petrol because of having to turn around when nearly there. So at each yurt we saw we stopped on tried to buy petrol. We split into two groups to make it easier. Myself and Ad got invited in by the horse farmer a very humbling experience when you see two adults and three children living in a 20 foot round yurt. They had very little but were proud to offer hospitality we sat and was offered cumus of fermented horse milk. They milk a horse and put the milk in a plastic bottle in the sun for two hours giving it a shake every now and then.  To refuse to drink would be an insult so we drank this rancid brew that first nearly made me puke and then gave me s***s for 24 hours.  The best bit was Ad who had drank it as well ended up with three days of the s***s.  In the end we managed to eke out the petrol and made it to the main road.

20^th July Balykchy,Issyk Kul to Naryn.

Chris split with the group to go one his own I might meet up with him later. Mainly an uneventful day by my Kyrgyzstan standards, only dropped the bike once and that was just the camber caught me out. Very tired thought and got up late and stopped early the events of the last feel days have caught up with me. Did manage a 3030 meter pass though and about 120 miles of dirt road. When a lorry passes you in the other direction you lose all site of the road all you can see is dust! Spent the night in a rundown hotel, they let me park my bike in the foyer. Slept for 14 hours!!!

 

21^st  July

Been one day since I dropped the bike starting a record J.  Woke up at 12:30 with the staff knocking on the door telling me to leave. Packed and headed off towards Tash-Rabat to see the Marco Polo caravan (think small castle) built I was told about 1150s and hopefully to catch up with the Dutch guys we had agreed to meet at the last Yurt camp on the road. All went smoothly about 4 hours riding on mixed surface and found the Yurt camp (5 yurts and we were the only guests). The muslin lady running the yurts was incredible self taught English, Spanish and several other languages, cooked wonderful meal on a woodstove, made the decorative carpets in the yurts and looked after two children! Just shows you what you can achieve if you dont have a TV/internet and you are snowed in several months a year. Must recommend on HU yurt, dinner and breakfast 700 com or £11. Sounds expensive but meals were all you could eat and Vodka included.

 

Will be heading off in a few day having some r and r

Sounds like some great experiences Nick, glad you finally posted something was beginning to wonder what had happened to you 

 

Some more Ramblings

22^nd July Tash-Rabat via Naryn to Song-Kul

Easy day several mountain passes at 3000 mts plus mixed road to Son-Kul. Stopping in a CBT yurt commune (well a commune of 6 yurts) there are English, Czech, Australian and some other nationalities here. Dinner and bed for me and I need to decide if I want to travel with the Dutch on their route or go a different way. I have been told about a horse festival at the Chong-Kremlin river on the 28^th I think it is too big an opportunity to miss but it is in the opposite direction to the Dutch guys. (Later found out that it was a passing of rights ceremony for young Kyrgy boys so decided to give it a miss, very different from a horse festival).

While having dinner in the hosts yurt a old pile of bedding began to moan and it was our hosts father who was very ill, with heart problems. Between use we have a variety of prescription drugs painkillers, antibiotics ect. We offered them all but they refused and said that maybe he goes to hospital tomorrow or maybe the next day. The hospital was at Biskek about 300kl away. I did seem that he either got better and got up, or he stayed there and died. The host seemed accepting of this situation. By our standards it seemed harsh but the Kyrgys seemed pragmatic about it. It put a dampener on the evening.

Forgot to say about the herb/flower smells in the mountains, really strong smells of wild Lavender and mint

 

23^rd July Song-Kul to Kazerman and hopefully Zalal-Abad

Most of the roads here are off tarmac and made from what my builder mate would describe as 2 to dust with a few boulders or a stretch of marble like pebbles just to make it interesting. What we had done earlier was off road and that could be just about anything but the big difference is the off road very few people come along and you are basically on your own. While I am with the Dutch am going to do as much off road as possible but have decided that once I am travelling alone I will only stick to off tarmac but recognised roads.

 

Today we are going to try to ride from Song-Kul via Kazerman to Jalal-Abad off road Ad thought it was about 200k but at any point the track could be blocked and then we would have to turn around and come all the way back to Song-Kul because it was along a valley and there was no way out of the valley other than the two ends. The trail was washboarded I had to keep my tongue between my teeth or my mouth open to stop my bottom teeth chattering against my top teeth. You can ride at speed to stop this but it was too dangerous so we just had to put up with it all the time thinking I might be riding back this way later! I have seen pictures of the Pamir Highway on wiki and in places it was very similar.

 

Not a chance of making it all the way to Jalal-Abad in one day so found a Gastini in Kazerman for the night. Filled up with petrol and water and settled down. Our host told up the road to Jalal-Abad was open and the going was easier.

 

24^th July Kazerman to Zalal-Abad

Ad and Martin realised that the visa agency had ****ed up their visas and they could not get out of Kyrgyzstan, because they had only a single entry visa for Kazakhstan. They would have to ride to Jalal-Abad then another day and a half approximately 350kl to Biskek to the embassy to try and sort out their visas.

A simple 4 hour ride on mixed surface to Jalal-Abad. Had a meal together said goodbye and Ad and Martin headed off to Biskek I wont see them again this trip. Seemed strange after all the riding just to say goodbye and head off. Jan and myself found a hotel with water and air conditioning. I am going to stay for 3 nights.

 

25^th July Jalal-Abad Chilled.

 

26^th July  Jalal-Abad

Stayed in city, visited market and went to the famous sulphur hot water springs which if you drink several pints of this foul smelling brew was guaranteed to clean you from the inside out and cure all ailments decided I quite like the ailments that I have, so decided against guzzling down the  stinky water like all the Kyrgys were. The city is very run down when under Russian control the people got free power and water. It must have come as quite a shock when the USSR collapsed they had no government. It took two year to declare themselves an independent country. They must have had to start from scratch. There are beautiful buildings all over the place that have fallen into disrepair and are uninhabitable. The park still has statues of the Russian leaders a tank and a jet fighter. The only bit that is kept up is the war memorial but even there they cannot afford to keep the eternal flame going so it is turned off.   

 

27^th July  Jalal-Abad to Sary-Celek nature reserve.

After Sary-Celek I will be heading back towards Kazakhstan and Jan will be heading for Uzbekistan.

 

27^th and 28^th July  Jalal-Abad to Sary-Celek nature reserve.

After Sary-Celek I will be heading back towards Kazakhstan and Jan will be heading for Uzbekistan. Arrived mid afternoon could not get into the park, not a clue why but the guard said neit so found a yurt and settled down for the night. I have not eaten for over 24 hours and dont feel hungry people would pay a small fortune for this diet. Beautiful lake but too crowded to enjoy. All the Kygys wanted to have their picture taken with us we obliged for about 20 plus different pictures then moved on. A few spoke English and asked us why we wanted to visit Kyrgyzstan, I tried to explain but the Kyrgys could not understand. I suppose life is tough for them,so the concept of making it tougher does not make sense.  They kept asking my age I think they thought I was too old for messing about on bikes!!!  The area around Sary-Celek has its own micro-climate cool and rain. The lakes and mountains are very similar to Switzerland.  Could not relax because of the constant hassling of the Kyrgys (hassled in a nice way and it might sound mean but after a while it starts to grate).

Headed back down the valley to Tas-Komur some food then bed. I will be heading for Kazakhstan first thing in the morning.

Found somewhere to stay and about an hour later a Scots guy called Fergus turned up, he works in Bishkek and was going to visit Sary-Celek. When I told him I was thinking of doing the Pamir highway, he told me that there was a civil war kicking off in Tajikistan and the GBOA region that I was going to visit what right in the middle of it. Apparently the local warlord down there had had his men drag a high ranking local government office out of his car and beaten to death because he was not impressed with him, the response from the Tajikistan government was to sent in the army complete with tanks. The result was 200+ civilian deaths according the papers in Beshkek. So stuff that, there is plenty to see between here and the UK without deliberately making it dangerous.

Kyrgyzstan is beautiful, the children are great inquisitive, bright and mischievous. The women are slim, attractive articulate and friendly. The men have a brand of hospitality involves drinking half a bottle of Vodka each, and not to partake in there hospitality is considered an insult. So it is a fine line, I have normally drank one or two Vodkas and then get the hell out of there because they start happy drunk but quickly get to sad drunk. This hospitality can start at any time of the day it seems in the rundown towns where unemployment seems high they start getting pissed as soon as they get up.

I have some sympathy for the men though, 30 years ago before the collapse of the Soviet Union these towns must have been a lovely place to live. All the towns have factories, parks, hotels and amenities. They are still there but derelict. During the Soviet control there was guaranteed employment, free power and water. Now when something breaks it stays broken because there are no materials to fix it with. So when you book into a hotel there are no toilet seats or tops on the systems because they have been broken, the showers are on the floor, the best one I had was I turned on the cold shower and it came out of the tap and I turned on the hot and I could hear water running but could not see it. The hot water was running down the wall about six feet behind me. There was a big hole in the side of the emersion heater so when you turned the hot on it just pour out the side of the emersion heater and believe it or not it was wired to the electric and the electric was on. In the east/mountain area they seem to have gone back to traditional skills and this seems to work. The towns and cities are really struggling. So I can understand why some of the men must feel bitter, I have been careful I make sure they know I am British and not American.

 

29^th July Taskkumyr to Talas

Said goodbye to Jan and headed off towards Toktogul and then on towards Talas. Scottoiler started working bonusJ.The area around Toktogul lake is stunning, it took me about 3 hours to ride around half of the lake. The scenery is similar to the Serra Nevadas in Spain. The mountains are red/brown and the water is bright turquoise and very clear. After about two hours I stopped for breakfast at a cafe on the cliffs overlooking the lake. Later got stopped by the police, last time this happened they talked to me and I did not have a clue what was going on, so this time got my helmet of quick, smiled and started to tell him my life story in English. Talking constantly throwing in words I knew he would understand like Tash-Rabat, Son-Kul and every other town or place I had visited. The benefit of spending the last two weeks in Kyrgyzstan was I knew a lot of place names. Then I started on about British, London, Olympics ect till he looked like he had had enough, then I pointed to go and he nodded so his mate took a picture and I was gone.   

Arrived at Talas about 17:00 rookie mistake decided to stop at the first Gastinista I found another crap room with no running water. Good day though all in all covered about 250 miles at a leisurely pace.

-- Edited by Schoe000 on Monday 30th of July 2012 02:45:17 PM

Pics

I've read top to bottom of the thread nick seems unreal your there what with the yuk milk etc lol bikes holding up ok I hope ? Me thinks you have your sensible head on not pushing your luck to much ridding alone ! Another conflict will we never learn ??? Has the sink plug come in handy yet lol told you, watching micheal pallins travels is a eye opener .
Not a lot going on here except Olympics went to weymouth watched the sailing cool I've been to the Olympics lol
Keep threads coming mind how you go and now and again stop along the trail take a pic and say to yourself I'm really doing this well done chum best wishes Kerry aka lost

Brilliant write up and pics Nick, am very envious!

A few picture

Looks like some high quality fuel in the 2nd to last pic! Stunning pictures Nic

Great pictures, both yours, nick and chris brights, what a fantastic trip. 

Starting to sound tiring now Nick. Is there no way that you can avoid these highways or are you on a tight agenda??