Toughest day

To get to Kathmandu by the 25th Oct to meet Giselle, I need to get across three passes, Tajikistan to Kyrgyzstan (2 passes) and Khunjab Pass into Pakistan, two at 4700m and one at 4200m.

I was 2 days late to exit Tajikistan and paid the price, with about 4 inches of snow on the passes I experienced the toughest day so far.

The first pass, Kotali Aqbaytal pass at 4755m, I fell over at the bottom doing 15km/h and ripped a hole in one of my panniers, not happy! I slowly made my way up dropping the bike only a couple of times. Once at the top the downside wasn’t too bad, just let the bike idle in first gear and the snow was fresh and soft.




A further 100km down the road was the next pass with the Tajikistan border at the top – what a cold remote place to work. Once through the border and another 200m I was at the top of the Kyzyl-Art Pass, 4283m, at 4pm. Now only about a 1000m vertically down to the Kyrgyzstan border post. The Kyrgyz side was very steep with switch backs and ice. Over the next 3 hours rode, slid and walked the bike down about 1km to where the ice and steep roads finished. In the process I had the bike fall on me several times, dropped and dinted the panniers and became physically exhausted. It was -6C and starting to snow so I pushed on a further 5km and setup the tent at 3600m at 9pm – very cold night!!