June 7, 2014
The highest point of my life: Approximately
The rain had made the road very wet and muddy. Rain is like that. Gayle and John pushed on ahead again and it seemed like we were back to our smaller teams. Splitting up hadn't exactly worked the day before, we'd ended up sleeping all five packed in one room like sardines, but Gayle and John seemed to think it was worth another shot.
Gabor, Rob and myself soon came to a section of road which had flooded. And I really do mean flooded, the road actually having turned into a river. Up ahead we could see Gayle and John pushing across the rocks at the side of the road to get around the flood. Gabor, presumably because he was programmed by some mystery force to catch them up as soon as possible, disappeared into the river-road. At one point I think he was actually underwater, furthering my growing suspicions that he was not entirely alive.
I wasn't sure what my best course of action was. I remembered a sign that I had seen at the start of the road. Here it is:
| Heart | 1 | Comment | 0 | Link |
I needed to make a phone call. 992-701-10-20 'Ring-ring, ring-ring' "Hello?" "Yes hello, I'd like to report a defect with the road please. Yes. It's a river. No, no, the road, the road is a river."
I pushed around on the rocks just like the Sloths had. Rob joined me and found the going easier than me across what was essentially a large boulder field. And then we had to cross a perilous narrow wooden bridge over a fast-flowing stream. Just before it one of my rear panniers broke off, the clip snapping as I pushed over the rocky terrain. Rob went on ahead on the other side of the bridge and across the rest of the boulder field rejoining the road at about the same time as Gabor emerged from the water. Then they left me behind. The bastards.
| Heart | 1 | Comment | 0 | Link |
I managed to fix my pannier using some of the 200 cable ties I'd brought with me for just such predicaments, but I got increasingly angry as I rejoined the road and cycled on alone. So much for sticking together! And after I had waited for Rob the day before too! I was pretty mad by the time I caught them up an hour and a half later at a river crossing. And what a river crossing! The bridge was out and the only way across was by pushing through a series of fast flowing muddy waters that were growing stronger by the minute as more rainwater streamed down from the mountains. The others were all safely across on the other side and I was so annoyed that they had gone on so far ahead without waiting for me that I decided I wanted to cross the river without any help from them. I began by making a phone call.
992-701-10-20 'Ring-ring, ring-ring' "Hello? What is it now?" "Yes hello, I'd like to report a defect with the road please. Yes. There is a broken bridge here. Terrible river crossing, no chance of... hello?... hello?"
Gabor came over to help me but I told him I didn't want any help and took my front panniers off to carry them across first. Most of the way was fine but the last section the river was really strong and I was almost knocked off my feet. John was waiting on the other side and I told him I didn't want any help. "Chris you can't do this alone! You need to let Gabor help you! Don't be too proud!" he shouted over the roar of the river.
Well if there's one thing I can say for sure it is that I'm not too proud. "Gabor," I said after almost being washed away on my return journey to him and my bike, "I'm going to need your help. Can you push the back of the bike please while I push the front?" He nodded his silent consent.
We pushed the bike out into the fast-flowing water. Taking the front panniers off might just have been a mistake as it made it very back-heavy and I found it difficult to control the front in the face of the strong current. A lot of rocks were being carried downstream by the water and I heard these clanging against the spokes of my front wheel, battering it, forcing it to turn against me until the bike was almost facing downstream. Oh, was I ever glad to have a tall, strong Hungarian man that wasn't afraid to get his feet wet and could breathe underwater with a firm grip on the back. What chance would I have stood alone? Even now I struggled to wrestle the bike back towards the far bank, as the river continued to pull it away from me. For a moment it felt like the river would win, that my bike was going to be lost, all my dreams washed away. John was on the bank and I cried to him for help as I began to lose my footing, the rocks also bashing against my poor bare ankles in the torrent. The previous evening Spiderman had been playing on the TV in the background for Mahmoud's nephews and now visions of the superhero came back to me in the way John leaped from the bank into the water, with no fear for his own personal safety. It might be only my poor memory but I seem to recall him wrapping a super-spidey-web around the handlebars and hauling us all to the safety of shore; tall-Hungarian, bike and all.
| Heart | 2 | Comment | 0 | Link |
John will be played in the movie by Liam Gallagher in a Spiderman costume.
I shouted at Rob. I was very angry about the way he had left me. I may have overdone the shouting a bit. We had to wait a long time at a checkpoint just across the river but it was raining heavily so it was quite nice to be able to stand inside the little portacabin while the young official played with his phone for an hour. Eventually he decided we weren't going to give him any money, not while it was still raining anyway, and he gave us our passports back and told us to go.
Now the pass really started and we were climbing uphill on some very bad roads, made worse by the weather. I was trailing a little behind the others when my rear derailleur packed up. I'd been having problems with it for some time, having replaced a jockey wheel in Dushanbe and noticed it being slightly bent out of shape. Well, now it was very bent out of shape, with the jockey wheels at 45 degree angles to each other, which was not especially conductive to allowing a chain to flow through them. The others had been talking about stopping for lunch so I walked and pushed the defunct bike for some time hoping to find them, without much luck. But then Rob appeared on the road ahead, cycling back to see if I was okay! An angel of a man really.
I bent the derailleur back into shape using a wrench. I didn't wrench it back into shape though. Oh no, I bashed it back into shape. Wrenches are quite good for bashing, don't you know? Somehow I got the stupid thing working again and Rob and I were able to cycle onwards together for the rest of the day. Gabor had gone on ahead with Gayle and John. He didn't really understand the teams. But cycling with Rob was really great. My shouting at him had clearly had an effect and he was keen to make up for not having waited for me before, as he further waited for me to replace a broken cable, then re-affix my chain when it came off, then bash my derailleur back into shape, then re-affix my chain again.
The road got worse and worse, climbing very steeply up a valley on a bumpy road. In places the road was all muddy and sandy and we had no choice but to get off and push through some sections. At another strong river crossing we took it in turns to help one another push our bikes across and there was a nice feeling of camaraderie growing. Rob was different from me in many ways, being a forty-something year old analyst on a relatively short trip around Central Asia. But he was also similar to me in many ways, being a single guy riding a bicycle alone on a crappy road and no doubt happy for some companionship. He also ate a lot of biscuits.
We finally caught Gabor up when he stopped to clean his bike with a toothbrush. To be fair we had just cycled through a lot of mud, but on the other hand we were also about to cycle through a lot of mud, so it was a slightly pointless thing to be doing. At the same time we could see the Sloths just ahead on the next switchback, but, no doubt sensing their chance to escape the maniac with the toothbrush, they pushed on ahead and we couldn't catch them. Sloths are like that, surprisingly hard to catch.
Rob and I camped by a stream together high in the mountains. Gabor didn't stop and continued pushing on ahead of us even as thunder and lightning began to crash down all around. He was a man on a mission. And he didn't really understand the teams.
The next morning Rob and I made an early start and soon caught up to the other three, who had camped under the roof of an old tea-house. Also camping there were the German couple that I had met when I turned around on my first day out from Dushanbe. As they all packed up Rob and I carried on. We were ahead of the pack and I was leading the way. Out of the seven cyclists that left Dushanbe I was now in pole position to make it to the top of the pass first. I was going to be the champion! But the road was steep and still in quite bad condition. Rob, who until this point had been faster than me, was struggling a bit and I had to drip feed him biscuits to keep him moving. The Germans came up behind us and passed us. Then the Sloths. I was dropping back through the field, only Rob and Gabor remained behind me. At least I would beat Gabor, he was still busy cleaning his bike with his toothbrush again. He had very muddy teeth as I recall.
More thunder and lightning came as we neared the summit. Then a hail storm. The hail storm was fun. But it passed and the weather was okay as we approached what I believed was the highest point that I had ever cycled to at about 3200 metres above sea level. I can't be completely sure, because the highest point previously was when I cycled to approximately 3200 metres above sea level in Mexico. Whether I was now going to be higher would really depend on how approximate that approximation was and whether it was an over-estimate, an under-estimate or an accurate-estimate and whether the about 3200 was more than the approximate 3200. Regardless this was pretty darn high and we had been cycling uphill on terrible roads for days on end, so it was going to be a glorious moment, even if I was last to make it. But I didn't want to be last to make it so I went on a little bit ahead of Rob and Gabor as the summit, marked by the world's least-used bus stop, came into view. I was going to finish fifth out of seven, and I was happy with that. Then my gear cable snapped. Arrrghhh!!!!
I pushed my shameful bike the rest of the way to the bus stop where Gayle and John were waiting, looking anxiously over my shoulder all the while but somehow finishing just ahead of the others. Hurrah! I had finished fifth out of seven in a race that nobody else knew they were in! Hurrah! The final two soon arrived and we had all made it, all of us celebrating at the summit together! Well, apart from the Germans, they'd buggered off already, but they weren't really part of our gang anyway.
| Heart | 1 | Comment | 0 | Link |
Rob fixed us some noodles as I replaced the cable, and then we began a long and VERY awesome downhill. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so this should save me some writing, my fingers are getting tired:
| Heart | 2 | Comment | 0 | Link |
07/06/14 - 33km
08/06/14 - 34km
Today's ride: 67 km (42 miles)
Total: 20,377 km (12,654 miles)
| Rate this entry's writing | Heart | 5 |
| Comment on this entry | Comment | 0 |