July 26, 2016
to "dry lakebed" camp: stopped by headwinds
Our campsite has a beautiful view over Lake Karakul, but the mosquitoes are horrendous. We get up early and manage to beat a few that are sleeping in, but by the time we have our tent packed and are eating our cereal breakfast they are swarming. We have to keep moving, eat, clean the dishes, hang the bags on our bikes and get out of there.
Just a couple of kilometers down the road we pass a cemetery with interesting adobe brick monuments. It appears the dead are buried in a crypt underneath either a monument or just a pile of dirt. Several of the crypt ceilings have collapsed and revealed empty space underneath. On many of the graves are sticks holding bundles of yak hair. The views in all directions are inspiring, in life Karakul might be a desperate place, afterwards this is not a bad place to rest. Jo says, “Traveling is like seeing a thousand different lives you could lived”.
Jo is riding with us, a little later we meet up with the Swiss girls and Jonathan. From the lake we climb another pass, only about 300 meters in altitude gain, but there are steep sections. To our right is the Chinese built border fence way inside Tajikistan. We wonder how they got to build it so far off the actual border. One can also question how useful it is, we see several open gates and many places where large holes have been cut into the barbed wire. Let’s hope the Donald will learn from this.
At about noon the headwinds we had been warned about finally hit us. Cycling the Pamir Highway west to east you expect tailwinds from Dushanbe to Murghab, then headwinds to Osh. We did have our fair share of tailwinds on the first section and were prepared for headwinds here. So far we cannot complain too much, we have started early most mornings since the winds don’t pick up until after 10 or eleven and ridden relatively short days to rest in the afternoons.
Today the wind catches up with us. At about noon a fierce gale blows out of the north. We had planned to camp somewhere between the two passes between Lake Karakul and the Kyrgyzstan border. Our map shows a river, but when we get there it is just a muddy glacial trickle that will probably grow into a stream as the daytime heat melts the glaciers. We all decide to go on further, but we don’t look forward to climbing the second pass today. When we come across a second stream just a couple of kilometers further we along with Jo decide it is not worth fighting the headwind this afternoon just to gain a couple of kilometers. The German speaking cyclists continue. Just then Raphael also catches up; he decides to join the others that continue. This is the first time we’ve met up with Raphael since Khorog.
The campsite we pick is on a dried out lake bed. It appears these flats flood when there is a lot of snow melt and the river rises more than its usual daily fluctuations. We do not expect that to happen today and pitch our tents on the dried out mud flats, away from the wet spots that flood more regularly. The crack-patterns and small flowers make for a pretty campsite. This time it is not the mosquitoes but the wind that sequesters us in our tents. The storm builds to a gale that continues to strengthen into the night. We hunker down, have a freeze-dried meal and some cookies and read our books in the tent.
Just before sunset Patrick and Jo walk up a nearby hill where there is a dilapidated concrete machine-gunners nest, there is still a mattress inside for the truly desperate cyclist.
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Today's ride: 41 km (25 miles)
Total: 19,614 km (12,180 miles)
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