June 11, 2014
Going through Shidz: Sabotage?
I woke up feeling pretty rotten. The previous evening I had cycled on ahead of the others with plans to zoom on towards the high Pamir plateau. But now I didn't feel much like riding fast and instead stopped to talk with people, being invited for tea in one village and then spending a considerable time seeking a shop in the next. I asked for a shop and an old man told me it was the very next building, which was locked up and didn't look much at all like a shop. A small boy was dispatched to find the key and disappeared down the road. He came running back several minutes later, key jangling in hand, but rather than stop he ran straight past and off into the village in the other direction. Several minutes later an elderly woman emerged alongside him with a different set of keys to unlock the shop. From this strange set of events I can only assume that the keys that the boy had gone to fetch originally were just to unlock grandma.
The old woman unlocked the building and I walked inside. Once the dust cleared I saw almost nothing but bare shelves, brightened up only by a few stale biscuits and out-of-date tins. This was to become a familiar pattern for the rest of the Pamir. I bought what I thought looked most edible and thanked the old lady, before having a pleasant conversation with her step-daughter, a woman who had spent time in the USA and spoke good English.
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I took a long lunch break in the shade and was caught up by John, Gayle and Gabor. The latter was complaining about problems with his brakes which I strongly suspected to be sabotage, although I said nothing. We all cycled together for the rest of the day and camped by the river, a grenade's throw from Afghanistan. I was tempted to try and swim across but decided against it because of a) feeling sick and b) not wanting to get shot.
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We had just gone through the appropriately named village of Shidz so it was no surprise when in the morning I had the erm... the err... very poorly stomach. Gayle and John went on ahead again, leaving me behind with Gabor who almost immediately got a suspicious puncture. "Seriously Gabor, don't you think its strange that me and you keep having all these problems, and yet Gayle and John are doing fine? I really think they want to ride alone you know."
(four if you include the guy taking the photo)
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I decided that the best thing to do would be to leave Gabor to fix his puncture and go and catch Gayle and John up to annoy them some more. I found them at a beautiful spot, where a white sand beach rested next to the river with snowy mountain peaks beyond. It was a really romantic spot for the two of them, so naturally I stopped and walked over to them, jumping in the water to cool off and generally got in the way.
They cycled on to find another beach with a shady tree to rest under where no one would annoy them. They found it. Then I cycled up and stopped to annoy them. Then Gabor cycled up and stopped to annoy them and me. Then Rob, who had sped up since his rest day in Kalaikhum, cycled up and stopped to annoy all of us. Oh, it was wonderful to all be back together again! The only slight problem was my stomach, which was now in real turmoil and making it very difficult for me to hold down any food or water. Believing I may have consumed some dodgy water John diagnosed the problem as giardia. "It's the eggy burps," he explained, listing one of my less socially acceptable symptoms. "Yeah, but I did eat eggs last night," I countered. But John, who I might add is in no way medically trained, had decided, and fished out some antibiotics from his bag to treat me with.
The others cycled on ahead as I struggled to keep myself moving. Progress was painfully slow but I was determined to catch up to them so that we could all camp together again one last time before Khorog. My stomach really hurt and I couldn't eat or drink, but somehow I kept going until I finally rolled onto the point where they had all set up their tents. I collapsed onto the ground, barely able to move. Fortunately my four good friends all leapt into action, running over to get good pictures of me.
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11/06/14 - 52km
12/06/14 - 69km
Today's ride: 121 km (75 miles)
Total: 20,629 km (12,811 miles)
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