Kyrgyzstan and the Kashmir

When you travel for a while you have time to consider questions like where is the most beautiful place you have visited? For me, the alpine lakes of Kyrgyzstan  and the Kashmir feature high on this list.
By the time I cycled to Lake Issyk 5000 feet up in the Kyrgyzstan  mountains there was already snow on the peaks. I couldn't cycle over the pass to Almaty and so I stayed for a couple of days by the lake before returning to the capital - Bishkek. The hostel was home to several other cyclists escaping the wintry conditions.
I flew to Srinigar in Indian Kashmir via Delhi - which was like bedlam with tasty food. Now I am staying on a houseboat on a beautiful  lake in Srinigar. The owner has a small boat that we use to get to the city, but as the streets are full of police, beggars and salesmen I prefer the tranquillity of my houseboat.
Tomorrow I set off on a four day ride to Leh, high up in the Himalayas, the weather forecast is brilliant and so I can't wait.

View from my houseboat in Srinigar

Lake Issyk, Kyrgyzstan

Stopping on the Steppe

Three months might not seem like a long time to you, but it feels like a lifetime to me. Everyday is an adventure, everyday is different. Last week I was sweltering in 38 c desert heat, now I am shivering in 8 c on the Kazak steppe.
When I was camping in the desert there some cold mornings when a chill wind told me that winter was approaching. I want to get to the Himalayas  before snow blocks the roads, so I kept rolling eastwards.
In cities I try and stay in hostels. They are cheap, the home cooked local food is lovely  and you meet an interesting mix of fellow travellers. All the stereotypes are there - laid back Aussies, travel bores, couples where only one of them speaks.
The kindness of people always lifts my spirits. At random times kazak drivers would stop for a selfie, or press money into my hands - to buy dinner. A couple of days ago I was caught in a thunderstorm on the flat plains. I had been told there was a hotel a few miles down the road, but couldn't find it. I asked and asked, sodden wet and shivering in the cold darkness I queued  at a petrol station to ask the cashier when the manager  tapped me on the shoulder  and simply said "coffee?" Saved; he fed me and let me sleep on a sofa in a warm office.
Shepherds have a knack of finding me when I am wild camping. The last one told me I should sleep in his stable, it rained overnight so I glad I did. He gave me dinner - meat stew  (his goats), milk, butter, yoghurt from his cows, and bread baked in his clay oven. Their self sufficiency was eye opening.
When I do stay in a hostel or hotel I try and check the weather forecast. When I saw it said rain and 8 c for two days, I decided to stop cycling. I went to the train station but the next service to Bishkek (capital of Kyrgyzstan) was at 9 the next evening, so I squeezed my bike and gear into a minibus with the locals and did the pretty dreary  250 km across the rain swept Steppe in a dry 4 hours rather than a wet 2 days.
From here I want to ride to Lake Issyk, the forecast is for a few bright autumnal days, it should be beautiful. Then I will loop around to Almaty to fly to the Himalayas.

Breakfast at the dhepherd's house

Wonderful scenery  on the Kazak / Kyrgyzstan  border

Samarkland looks the set of a Raiders of the Lost Ark film

Crossing the desert

The route from western Kazakhstan into Uzbekistan has the reputation for being the worst road in the road. Not only is just a dirt track in places, but also passing trucks kick up clouds of dust, the headwind is infamous and there are few places to get food or water on this 600 mile stretch.
It does have its plus points though, the wildlife for one. Camels stare at my bike and me as if we're weird. Wild ponies somehow manage without water, eagles patrol the sky and gerbils scuttle down burrows as I psss by. The headwind was real torture - blasting me all day long with no shelter, no respite - my average speed some days was under 9 mph. A lot of the old road had been replaced with smooth, fast empty tarmac.
Due to the lack of foodstops I carried plenty of snacks and meals. Once, after almost two days with no shops my snack supply ran out, fortunately a town was on the horizon. There was an army checkpoint at the turnoff but they wouldn't let me go to the town. The soldier said there was a cafe 5 km further down the road. There was, so I didn't have to break into my emergency rations.It turned out that that there is a maximum security prison at that town, it's put in the middle of the desert so escapees would probably die - it is that isolated.
I am glad I didn't know about the prison when I was wild camping. It was blissfully quiet with no farmers or other people to worry about. The culvets (drains) under the road are a traditional place for desert cyclists to seek shelter. I tried a couple, in the evenings it was relaxing to lie back on the sun-warmed concrete and look at the stars.
Now I am in Nukus (Uzbekistan) for a couple of rest days. It has a big museum/art gallery and huge food market. Next I will ride to Kyrgyzstan via the old cities of Bukhara, Tashkent and Sanarkand.

Most of the route was traffic free, but that doesn't make a good picture.

Lots of wild ponies and camels in the Kazak desert

The camels were quite shy

Clean out culverts before you camp , i found a dead scorpion in one.