Week 67: wild camp just before "yellow-roof village": No easy kilometers today

July 6, 2016

"We can camp now, then get into Tavildara early tomorrow for a half rest day" Patrick suggests. It's another 18kms to town, it's 4pm, and we hear rolling thunder from the mountains.

In the morning after the rain, it was sweet to have been under a shelter and pack up a dry tent. We head out after our cornflakes and chai before Will and Jo hoping we see them again sometime along the road. After crossing the bridge, the road climbs and then up on a plateau then after 8kms we reach the turnoff. The policeman sitting in the middle of the road shows no interest in us as we turn right and the tarmac ends. The left turn goes to Kyrgyzstan and takes most if not all of the traffic.

We stop for a rest break in a beautiful spot with a view of the Obikhingou River, then a car pulls up close by with a load of boys and they play loud music. Oh well, maybe the traffic will lighten up.

Rain continues off and on, the road has every conceivable type of surface...stony, washboard, sandy, patches of old tarmac. After one long climb, the road plateaus and there is tarmac again, briefly. And there were a few places where a stream crossed the road, the water not as cold as the "nula" crossings in Spiti Valley. In some spots the road is washed out and large rocks have been laid in placed. Kids along the way are carrying small paper bags and hand out bubblegum. We think this is part of the end to Ramadan and celebrating Eid al-Fitr with sweets marking the end to fasting.

All of a sudden we see a solo cyclist appear from behind. We are just cresting a hill that was too steep for us to ride, so we push our bikes to a flat spot and wait for him. To our amazement the cyclist mutters a "Hello" and keeps riding. Rachel had just taken a photo of him, disgusted she deletes it from the camera.

Patrick finds a spot to camp in a meadow that has a small stream flowing into the river. We can see a small village in the distance, one house has a bright yellow roof. We pitch the tent, fix dinner and just in time. There is rolling thunder all around us and the rain starts.

A good decision to stop.

The only outhouse in town is guarded by these mutts.

The Obikhingou River has carved itself through steep cliffs.

The road has been washed away at many of the smaller river crossings. Repairs have been made crudely. We are amazed to see Lada and Opel sedans with very little clearance tackle these obstacles.

Rachel makes a selfie while Patrick "piggy-backs" her across a stream. No use for both of us to get wet feet.

There are villages all through the valley. This road is inaccessible for most of the winter though, these people must be self-reliant.

Watersource. We fill-up our bladder for camping later.

Found a nice campspot. We're not completely hidden though and it does not take long for some youngsters to come check us out.

Kids discovered our camp. They are fine though, after some photos they hand us candy and leave us alone.

Today's ride: 45 km (28 miles)
Total: 172 km (107 miles)

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