LIVIN MY DREAM - MY OVERLAND JOURNEY: DAY 10, TASH RABAT – BAETOV

31^st May 2013

Today’s ride will be a ride to remember. After having a yummy filling breakfast and said good bye to Elizet and her family who run the yurt stay, I made my way out of Tash Rabat and head north to Baetov.

Previously, I have thought that the distance was not very far (hv tried to check the actual distance in the internet but google map does not want to calculate the rural road to Baetov). However when I checked my GPS, it was actually 100kms to reach the small town. As soon as I turned right from the paved main road, the road changed to off road and the condition gets from bad to worse. At one time, out of a sudden, the road was gone. All I could see in front of me were rocks, rocks and more rocks. Where is the road? Ohh...this must have been the ‘road washed away’ part due to flood, avalanche or landslide which I have read in the internet. I rode slowly and carefully, trying to find the missing road and when I couldn’t find it, I stopped the bike and turned on my GPS, only to notice that I have gone about 500m away from the supposedly but missing road.

Where is the road?

After finding the road back, I continued my ride and before long I came across many more road washed away, some with wet crossings!!! There were times that DREAM’s rear tyre was stuck in between the stones in the stream. I had to use all my energy and play with the throttle to get the tyre out and moving forward again. Thank god that DREAM didn’t fall in the water as the last thing that I ever wanted is a wet carburettor.

I climbed up another pass – Kulak Assu (3390m), which was totally a sandy pass, and the road (or looks more like a goat track), get more difficult after that. There were no human at all that can be seen. At some places, I couldn’t even see wild horses and wild goats anymore.

Kulak Assu Pass

...totally a sandy mountain pass...

No pain no gain, huhhh?

I dropped my bike twice due to mishandling while descending the steep track filled with gravels. It was a very difficult ride and my fully loaded heavy bike didn’t help at all. It’s impossible not to brake while descending, but when I braked, the rear tyre locked and due to its heaviness and the loose gravel terrain, the tyre skidded and caused a fall. I had to untie and brought down all the stuff on the pillion seat, and took out all the stuff in the panniers before I can afford to bring DREAM to stand again. It took all my energy to do it.

Can u see my bike?

I spent 8 exhausting hours to cover the 100kms to Baetov, and all the while, I didn’t see a single human. I was so happy when I finally see paved road again, but to my surprise, the paved road disappeared after 2kms, and gravels took over again. I asked a local at the tiny town, and he said that it’s going to be gravels all the way to Kazarman, the place which I had targeted to reach for today, and the distance is 200kms more. OMG!!! 100kms on the gravels is already very taxing, what more 200kms more. I am not going to able to reach there before dark. As I am already very tired, I only managed to ride for another 40kms on the gravels. I reached Kara Bjurngon and due to the lack of a guest house or home stay, I asked a local if I could stay at her house that night, which she agreed.