Naryn to Karakol, (3/X); 29th July

29th July

Morning view, small stream running to the right of the tent

We set off with the aim of trying to reach the pass and descent if we could.
We encountered our first stream crossing early on. We unpacked the panniers and carried them one by one, and then carried the Thorn over, conscious that the Rohloff should not be submerged. Once we had attached all the panniers on the other side and were ready to go, a Lada passed us — they had crossed further down towards the river, where the stream widened and passing would have been shallower, and we probably could have just pushed the bike across.

First of several strem crossings. Very cold water, probably snowmelt

After the first crossing, a small truck passed us, sounding the horn as it went passed some yurts. Further down the road, the truck had stopped and there were a bunch of guys with shovels out working on something. I didn't ask, but my guess is they were working to get the building that housed the hot spring working again.

the building next to the river used to house a hot spring (Jyluu Suu)

After about 10km we met two British cyclists who were on a month long break from their teaching jobs in Shanghai, and were cycling the Tian Shian mountain range, using the route from bike packing.com. They were on their third day of cycling Tosor Pass, starting from the other side, and gave us some forewarning about the road condition and stream crossings up ahead.

Shortly after leaving them, at another stream crossing, we met a group of ‘volun-tourists' (UK, German and two from the US) who were on a two week trip helping to identify where snow leopards may be living, by looking for and recording sighitngs of ibex, who are hunted by them.

They joined us for lunch, and told us how the snow leopard population had decreased dramatically over the decades, possibly partly due to the over grazing of livestock in the valley, which outcompete ibex for food, which in turn affects the snow leopard population. I had been cycling through these valleys thinking they were completely natural, but turns out they are also overgrazed, just like most of the hillsides of the U.K.

We said goodbye and continued cycling. Shortly after noon, at about 15 km from the pass, we decided to camp. It would have been too challenging to complete the ascent and down the other side in one day. After a dinner of five packs of ramen and boiled lentils we called it a day.

In the evening a tremendous thunderstorm was happening on the valley over. Even though it wasn’t too close, and we only got a small shower of rain, seeing the lighting flashes and accompanying thunder made me feel very exposed and weak in the face of such a natural force, despite knowing that the chances of being hit by lightning were incredibly small. Out of an abundance of caution I moved the steel bike further from the tent.

Rate this entry's writing	Heart	0
Comment on this entry	Comment	0