Today, we fell pretty tired. Probably because of this morning hike…

Uphill… again. Even when cycling down

We hiked up to the Passu glacier. These glaciers in Pakistan are really huge and impressive. The hike took longer that we thought, probably because of the altitude or because it’s not easy to estimate the distances with such huge mountains.

Our plan for today is to wake very early, hike up to the Passu glacier, be back for lunch and then cycle to Karimabad (some 40km). We are not sure if the road will be only downhill, we hope.

We sleep in a small guest house managed by a mountain guide. In the evening we have a nice discussion with him about the Pakistani culture. He tells us that women in this region are very strong and they usually take care of all the work for running the house, while the men are usually earning the money for the family. We also have a discussion about the terrorist attacks in London and we agree on the conclusion that the acts of few deviated people shouldn’t compromize the reputation of the whole country. In the Hunza valley (the region where we are) we found very hospitable and nice poeple always ready to say ‘hello’ while we are biking or to help us. The region is also very safe, probably safer than my hometown in Italy.

We are finally arrived in Passu, a small and relaxed village. Just few hundreds meter above there is the Passu glacier and the peak Batura Muztagh (7785m.). We have an excellent lunch with a big group of Belgium “cyclists” who are biking with the assistance of van that is carrying all their luggage, too easy!! ;-).

The summary for today (Sust -> Passu):
Distance: 42 km
Altitude difference: 2900m. -> 2500m.
Biking time: 3h:10m

My bike and the kkh!

Most of the old trials of the Silk Route have been wahsed away with the time. But on the Pakistan side, if you watch carefully, you can still see some trails, sometimes running very high cutting the slopes of the mountains and sometimes very close to the current KKH. We saw one trail very close to the road and we couldn’t resist the tempation of walking on it. We did a little climb and then we were up on it. The trail is very narrow but large enough for the camels and their load to pass. Just with some immagination, we could visualize the trains of camels loaded with silk and spices to slowly crawl on these trails.

Now we are in Sust, Pakistan. We start biking early morning. We pass near the first suspended bridge. As we were wondering if the bridge is safe and stable, one jeep starts to cross it from the other side… Amazing.

Today it’s an easy stage, only some 40km from Sust to Passu. We can take it easy.

We want our bikes back!!! It’s a torture to be on a bus. China has forbidden cyclists to cross the border to Pakistan, so we are forced to sit for some 200km on the bus. At this point we realize how much nicer is to travel by bike. On a bicycle you are part of the environment, on a bus you just are watching it from your window.You can stop anytime, talk to locals, be invited for a tea in their houses. With a bicycle you move very slow and you can feel the world around you in a much more relaxed way: sounds, noise, smells, wind, temperature, condition of the road. It’s a totally different experience.

All the morning went in passport/bags/whatever checks and loading the bus. We had to rise the level of our voice a bit to make those guys to load our bikes on the top of the bus, but at the end they did without saying a word and for free (some travellers had to pay even 50€ to get it done… ridiculous because the price of the bus ticket is about 25€).

We spent the day recovering from the yesterday “tragedione”. Not much to do in this small village. We ate some noodles, check the timetable of the bus and bought some food for the next days. Of course, we also spent some time fixing the bicycles (someone said that guitarists spend half of their life playing and the other half tuning their guitars, it seems to be the same with mountain bikes…).

Here we go with what we called “il tragedione”. Today it was supposed to be a resting day, after the 60km of yesterday. However, when we reached the Karakuli lake we decided to continue to the pass. First mistake: we didn’t buy more water at the hotel in karakuli. We lacked water for all the rest of the day. We reached the pass at 5pm and we started a very nice downhill (finally, after 3 days of only uphill biking). Sometimes the road was paved, sometimes it was in very bad condition. We calculated that we were some 40 or 50 or may be even 60 km from Tashkurgan. I don’t know how, but we got the crazy idea of biking till there. That was the second mistake of the day. No water and still some 60km of biking. On paved downhill we were pretty fast, but on the unpaved we were really slow. Our only concern on the unpaved downhill was with the backsit and at some point Simone’s backsit broke down. We tried to fix it but at the end the only solution was to put the backpacks on our shoulders. In this way we could bike much faster on the unpaved road and it was also a lot of fun (luckily we didn’t have panniers). But the tragedy just got bigger. At 7pm we were still biking and we didn’t have a clue where we were. It got pretty dark, the only lights were our lamps. At least it was a beautiful starry night. At some point, the road became again unpaved (damn!!). We calculated that we were probably some 10km from Tashkurgan, but in reality it was still some 30km… We entered in a very dark canyon. We couldn’t see much but we were pretty sure that there was a river on the left, some road work on the right and a narrow road for us, cars, jeeps and huge trucks. Not to mention the dust and that the water was finished. At some point a jeep stopped and asked if we need help. Help ? The only thing came to our mind was “Do you have any water ?” They gave us one 500ml bottle of water that we drunk in a couple of seconds. The two Chinese in the jeep were driving all the perimeter of China, quite a long trip… So, we continued. The road was downhill but we had to be very concentrated because of its bad conditions. At some point, the road got flat. We cycled till 10pm and still we had no idea how far we were from the city. Sad to say but at some 8km from Tashkurgan we gave up and we got a lift from a pickup.
We really had finished all our energies. My bike computer showed 108km for today. The driver left us at one hotel. We quickly check in, bought a lot of water and went straight to bed. Simply dead. We promised that tomorrow it would have been a really resting day…

The summary is:
Distance: 1008km
Altitude difference: 3600m. -> 4300m. -> 3200m.
Biking time: 9h:50m

This photo is dedicated to our friends who didn’t believe we could make this trip, we couldn’t buy a decent mountain bike in China, we couldn’t bike at this altitude and we could reach this pass.

Silence, please

It’s about 4pm. We have a little rest and eat a couple of energy bars, even if we didn’t believe in them so much. In front of us there is a rather steep stretch of unpaved (argh…) road till the pass at 4300m. We start biking that we are very concentrated. Not too fast (4-5km/h) but continuous with no breaks. The uphill is tough. Just after the first turn, we both got blood from our noses. Probably because of the altitude and sun. At the base we promised to reach the top even we have to spit our blood, so we continue, always very concentrated on the road.

A proof that Simone prefered to protect the head of his bike and not his head

We finally reached the Karakuli lake at some 3700m. It was not far away from the place where we slept yesterday, but after 60km we were too tired to continue. We met some kids on the way that were running from their homes to say hallo to us.

We have reached the lake Chakragil, surrounded by beautiful sand dunes. Really an unique place.On the top of the dunes there is the border with Tajikistan.

We are invited for a tea in a small house. There we meet a crazy Austrian biker who cycled all the way from Vienna through Turkey, Iran, Pakistan and now China. His destination is Lhasa. He has some 60 or 70 kilos of load, really a lot!! We ask him some information about the road to Pakistan. Soon the road will be unpaved and it’s in such bad condition that he’s reconsidering of biking till Lhasa. He also confirms kids like to throw stones to cyclists in some parts of the KKH (he got some 20 stones…) During the tea, his bike falls down and the left rear mirror breaks. The biker, probably a bit stressed because of the unpaved road, gets more irritated and, while mumbling “Schisse.. kamput.. damage damage… Schisse”, he jumps on his bike and leaves… Funny guy.

Distance: 43km
Altitude difference: 1700m. -> 2300m.
Biking time: 3h:40m

We got in Ghez in the early afternoon, on time for an excellent lunch (some fried rolls and noodles with mutton). Ghez is a very small place, just few restaurants and kiosks. For 2€ we slept in a room attached to the restaurant. We spent the afternoon fixing the bicycles and I managed to get rid of a noious noise in the front derailleur.

some different views.

For hours and hours, the same landscape. We are in the wide canyon formed by the Ghez river. The road is always uphill, now some 10-15m/km.The canyon is getting narrower as we approach Ghez …

As we start biking in the morning, we are stopped because of some road work ahead. Enough time for eating some noodles in a bar nearby and loading enough water for the day. Of course, all the people are interested in the bikes, not us -)

Another break.It’s about 2pm, the hottest time of the day. Our heads are cooking. We have been biking on the border of the Taklamakan desert on a slightly uphill road (some 10m/km). Really a strange feeling to be in the desert with a bike. We rested a bit in the shadow of that little house.

Very clos to it and very hot

First break and first maintenance for the bikes. We thought that the little metal bridge prepared by Sigma won’t last for very long. So, we added a very carefully engineered fix (a stone) that in theory should help the bridge not to twist…”

Here we start biking the KKH!! It’s Thursday morning around 8:30. Kashgar is waking up just now. We have packed our stuff and carefully attached the bags on the backsit. We are not sure it will resist till the end but we hope. The load is probably around 12kg per bag.

Funny to note that Simone is wearing an helmet. He won’t wear it for the rest of the trip except in two “critical” situations. I’m not wearing it at the beginning, but later I’ll wear it most of the time.

We had a walk in the old city of Kashgar in the evening. Really a nice atmosphere.

First test of the bikes, few kilometers and the first puncture for Simone… really good start

Two taxis to rush to the airport. We also need to purchase the flight tickets…

It’s about 9:30 pm. In about 4 hours, Sigma assembled two mountain bikes, customized them for us with the disc breaks and the back sit (that required a metal part prepared on the fly from a nearby workshop), and finally he re-packed the bikes in the original packages. Impressive. We are on time to catch the 11pm flight to Kashgar, if we run back to the airport

It still needs some fixes in Sigma’s “workshop”. His experience in assembling bikes was really impressive.

Simone’s bike is almost completed

Simone doesn’t really trust the food on the street

While waiting for the bikes, we had a quick walk in the center of Urumqi. After the lazy Novosibirsk, Urumqi gave a totally different impression. It was full of busy people everywhere: students, builders busy with new constructions, painters hanging down from the walls, people moving stuff with trolleys and other people selling food on the street. Really a busy and fast-growing city. Impressive was that totally new commercial center, 5 or 6 floors, built with western standards and selling all possible products. Just with a short walk, I think we got a glimpse of the big change that is happening in the whole country.

The Giant shop really exists and it’s full of cool mountain bikes. We tried some of them and at the end we picked up two mountain bikes with half suspension, shimano gears and disc breaks for a reasonable price.. The seller (renamed “Sigma” because he was repeating that word all the time) promised us to prepare the bikes in a couple of hours. Simply amazing, we couldn’t believe it. We landed at 2pm and at 5pm we had already purchased the bikes.

First task: change money at the bank. We couldn’t find an exchange office or ATM in the airport, so we had to catch a taxi and drive to the closest bank. Not an easy task since our taxi driver spoke only Chinese, he didn’t understand the word “bank” and he didn’t have a clue when we were waving some dollars in front of him. At the end we found a bank and also some luck.

The clerk was very nice. She spoke English and instructed the taxi driver to bring us to the Giant shop downtown Urumqi. She understood that we were some kind of “alpinist”….

Excellent start for our plan. One hour for the immigration in China with some nurses over there ready to spread disinfectant on us…

We made it to Urumqi. Very soft landing. Siberian airlines must have the best pilots in the world if they can drive those old planes. During the flight, we played with the idea of buying the bicycles today and catching immediatelly the flight to Kashgar. We hope in some good Karma

We are finally on the plane from Novosibirsk to Urumqi. Not exactly the latest model of Airbus, probably it has some 30 years of service. At least the price was adequate