June 15, 2014
700 kilometres, no trouble, right?: That goes for you too, head
Over the next two days I cycled up from a height of around 2000 metres at Khorog towards the Pamir plateau, at 4000 metres above the seaside by far the highest I had ever been. The ride up was mostly extremely pleasant, on a paved road through the unfortunately-named-but-very-picturesque Gunt valley where the people were very friendly. Before very long though I noticed that my bottom bracket was broken again. I knew those jokers that replaced it in Istanbul were a bunch of cowboys! Not something that I could replace on the road either, not on this road anyway, but the kind of problem that I could ride on with for a while. Still, there was a long and empty road ahead, and I decided my bike needed a little pep-talk: "Hey bottom-bracket, I need you to hold yourself together for the next 700 kilometres okay? Please? And cheap Chinese rear derailleur, listen up, please don't fall apart for the next 700 kilometres okay? And cheap Chinese gear cables, no snapping, right? Its only 700 kilometres. And left crank arm, don't fall off too often please? And that goes for the rest of you too, we can do this, 700 kilometres, no trouble, right?"
But it seemed it wasn't so much the bike that I needed to worry about falling apart as it was myself. The first night I camped at about 3000 metres and had a bad headache which I assumed was partly because of the altitude. On the second day of course I climbed much higher and was now beyond the last of the villages of Gunt Valley, climbing alone towards the Pamir. The final climb was absolutely brutal. The road turned from tarmac to sand and gravel and from a gentle gradient to a horrifically steep one. As I struggled up those last few switchbacks I found myself pausing every few hundred metres simply to catch my breath, the lack of oxygen being surprisingly noticeable. Finally I made it to a remarkably unremarkable summit at 4200 metres and pulled over to camp soon after. I felt really terrible. The combination of my illness, the exertion of such a long climb, the heat and the altitude combined to make me feel wretched. I managed to put my tent up and climb in it through a pounding headache, forced half a tin of cold beans down, and did my best to get a good nights sleep. There was still a long, long way to go.
15/06/14 - 83km
16/06/14 - 92km
Today's ride: 175 km (109 miles)
Total: 20,824 km (12,932 miles)
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