Steppe-in' Up 3

Bye Bye Kazakhstan

I felt like I'd only just arrived in Kazakhstan, and here I was already leaving it. I've actually gotta be in the Kyrgyz capital of Bishkek by a certain date, so I wanna make sure I have enough time to get there taking the route I want.

So incredible to wake up to this view.

And the riding to the border was spectacular.

The last border settlement.

Watch tower.

The border post, in the middle of nowhere. One of the smallest border outposts I've ever crossed, just a couple of sheds and boom gates. It was very smooth sailing, with only cursory checks of our stuff.

Kyrgyzstan, like Kazakhstan, is visa free for all of us, for a period of 30 days.

As soon as we crossed, the road was bad, with a long stretch of dusty gravel roadworks.

Snack stop. A little calf kept licking us, sweaty salt-encrusted as we were.

Footy game

The local police chief was super friendly, giving us his card, and telling us to contact him if we got into any difficulties.

The road then became a steep dirt track for a few kms. We needed to push our bikes most of the way up.

Posed smiley faces

Posed suffering faces

Chivalry isn't dead. Julian helping to push Anna Lena's bike up the hill.

We stopped by this pond and had lunch with the horses.

This woman actually came out and asked Anna Lena for a selfie. On Anna Lena's phone. Go figure.

Panoramic view. As for the road, well ......

It was a long road to the town we were headed for, the larger town of Karakol.

We rode through small settlements, the road was pretty bad, and the traffic slowly started to pick up as we got closer to civilisation. It rained too.

We also got our first real taste of Kyrgyz drivers on the road leading in to town. Some of them are bloody crazy. Unsafe overtaking, driving way too close to us on the bikes (both in cars and trucks), and some seriously unsafe driving manoeuvres left us feeling pretty dubious about riding on the road itself. Sometimes we decided to ride on the bumpy gravelly shoulder off the road, just so we didn't have to spend so much time and energy watching our backs in our mirrors.

Julian, I must say, was an absolute Godsend in that regard. I dubbed him our "Cardian Angel," as he was completely reliable in his warnings of approaching vehicles when he was at the back, it really felt safe riding in front of him.

I mean Julian's just demonstrably angelic anyway, in so many ways. Anna Lena is too, for that matter. They're a good celestial match.

Beer in plastic bottles. Just like Germany.

Famous Kyrgyz philosopher and statesman Kidr ake Baisary uulu.

Carcerated At Last

We rolled into town late in the day.

We were hungry, had very little money, (besides a little that Anna Lena had exchanged with a French couple we met coming the other way), and we needed a place to stay with wifi, so the Deutschies could organise some important stuff for themselves.

Unfortunately the scene with Penny had reverted to type, with the constant criticism of me firmly reestablished, but this time hidden from Anna Lena and Julian. We were all a little unsure as to what to do about the whole situation, but I knew that there was no way I was gonna share a room with her, and hoped that being in a town could provide the perfect opportunity to make a getaway.

But that proved unnecessary, as Penny suddenly decided she was going off to a particular guest house, right then and there, no matter what the rest of us wanted. The other three of us weren't quite ready to find a guesthouse yet, as we badly needed food. So we suddenly parted ways, and when Penny decided not to give any of us her contact details I realised, with euphoria, (immediately followed by a weird inner guilt), that this would probably be our goodbye.

It was the strangest thing.

We'd just spent a few days together, and it'd been really weird and difficult at times, most particularly for me, and for Penny too I'm sure, and also for the Deutschies. But we'd still been together in some incredible places, sharing the journey, all four of us.

And then suddenly she was gone, riding off into the sunset, cutting whatever loose ties had been formed with us, with no acknowledgment whatsoever of what had transpired, no good wishes for future journeying, really just nothing.

I gotta say, as unexpected and strange as it all was, I wasn't slow to express how relieved I felt.

The three of us subsequently headed off, we got food, money, a room in a hotel, and then washed off days of cycling and camping grit with hot running water.

What a complete and utter joy that was.

Finally getting all that sweaty grime, and Penny, off my back.

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Go to Part 4