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Kyrgyzstan

Mar
2004-09-14 15:23:35

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unpaved road takes a lot more energy than we thought. When it gets stony the back wheel either spins the stone away of the whole bicycle slips to the left or right side. We plan to pitch the tents after 70km at 1600m, some 10km before the first big challenge of 3000m.

Again we are ready to go, let’s hit the mountain. ‘I don’t feel so well’ Raymond says. He ends up laying flat on his belly over the edge of the slope giving yesterdays dinner back to nature, or at least it doesn’t look like he’s studying insects and Mekka is in the other direction. Jan continuos alone and Raymond promises to meet in a couple of hours at the summit. Raymond spends the rest of the day laying flat on his back under a tree getting rid of more food and a fever. Luckily we placed our tent near two yurts where we can buy, more than healthy, brown bread. The yurts (‘yurta’s’ in Kyrgyz) are big round tents, that are placed on jailo’s (pastures) only in the summer by nomads. The wooden frame keeps the white felt in place and on the ground are thick felt carpets and blankets. Carpets serve also as wall decorations at local homes, although not so much in the yurts. The wooden frame is also used to hang various tools, kitchen stuff and toys for the children. I am offered a meal twice and enjoy it. Jan told us what you can mostly buy at these yurts like: smetana (cream), ayran (yoghurt), lipjoska (bread), qumus (fermented horse milk) and sometimes honey.

09/08/2003, We have given up hope to ever reach the summit of our first challenge. Raymond needs another day to get the energy back and we prepare our bicycles to get loaded on a truck, taking us over the mountain to Kazarman. We place our stuff along side the road and wait for a truck. We wait, and we wait even longer. Something is telling us that this must be a signal that we must do it ourselves (it can also be due to it’s Saturday).

10/08/2003 Okay, ...