Out of Osh

In Osh, I ran into a German two-wheeler named Christian. We both were staying at the same guesthouse, I having arrived from the west and he from the north. During his time in Kyrgyzstan he had been having some trouble with the locals, most notably kids throwing rocks at him. We decided to ride together out of Osh south into the Alay-Pamir mountains and cross into China. There is only one navigable road that goes into the mountains and since we were both riding to China, it seemed like a good idea to have a little company as the riding would get more challenging and desolate. Within a few miles of leaving town, the distant horizon showed the jagged shadows of the mighty hills. I had never heard of the Pamir mountains before this trip and I suspect they are among the least known impressive mountains in the world, at least in America. Of course, on our first day cycling, we would start with a bang.

A storm gathers

After climbing 3,400 feet mostly at the end of a 50 mile day, storm clouds were fast rolling in and within the third or fourth thunderclap in the distance, decided we didn't have much time to find shelter. We pulled over next to a peasant's field nestled in a narrow valley and asked if we could pitch our "palatka" (Russian for 'tent') in his graasy patch. Even though my tent takes less than 7 minutes to set up fully, within 3 minutes of stopping, the sky fell on us. We struggled amidst the violent winds and heavy, cold raindrops to erect our tents but had to quickly give up and leave our half-assembled mess of tent poles, flies, and stakes in the mud and seek shelter in the peasant's house as the hale added to the impossibility of success. By this time, we were drenched and chilled to the bone, and ran to the house to ask if we could warm up by their wood stove. The house itself was built from mud and had only two rooms, each about 10 foot square. In this house of 200 square feet, lived two peasants and their five kids; no electricity, no indoor plumbing, just one wood stove. They offered tea and bread and we offered a selection of our dried fruits and nuts, which we guessed they rarely had the pleasure of eating. Though we spoke virtually no Russian, we managed to gesticulate a fair amount of our story. After about 90 minutes, the storm had passed and we had warmed up enough to go back to our damp tents and finish setting them up. My tent was an absolute mess having been abandoned in a mud puddle so Christian was good enough to let me sleep in his tent which was designed in a way that kept the inside fairly dry (not needing a separate fly). After eating a few M&Ms and pistachios we fell asleep, day one was over.

Christian admires the view