May 2008

Elevation profile Taldyk pass

The pass leads to the Kyzyl-Suu drainage basin, which forms a wide east-west extending valley plain at 3000-3400 m altitude. Before entering this completely tundraic environment, you need to climb the Taldyk pass at 3620 m, both the thin air and the gradient being the main challenges. And on the top of course a very strong and chilly wind, not inviting anybody for a long stay.
After this downhill to the village of Sary-Tash at the crossroads to Tajikistan and China.

Serpentines winding up to the Taldyk pass

GPS and photos: http://www.everytrail.com/view_trip.php?trip_id=25205

From the pass down to the town of Gulcho on 1600 m the road is in reasonably good shape, which it tends to be a few kilometres before and after each village. From Gulcho upwards the valley slopes are treeless but fell-like green and an excellent study terrain for landforms of mass wasting in the soft reddish marl-type bedrock and the thick river sediments: screes, solifluction, thalys cones and the like.
Wild camping for the chilly night a few kilometres upwards from the village of Kichi-Karakol. The low air pressure at close to 2600 mtres altitude makes itself felt in frequent breath cathing.

Poor road conditions on a rainy day

Mudflow

Camping at 2600 m altitude. Guess what the brown heaps are.

GPS and photos: http://www.everytrail.com/view_trip.php?trip_id=25211

Enclosed premises for camping near the city centre in Osh, but the gate unlocked: during the second night the thieves came and stole shoes, helmets, air pumps and camping gear. Nothing valuable, but everything irreplaceble in the middle of Asia.
The road to Irkeshtam starts from Osh with a fairly gentle rise, but the asphalt ends right outside the city. The first 60 km are under reconstruction, making cycling a dusty business. The serpentines up to the pass are not yet affected by the road works, but rotting asphalt with plenty of sizeable holes and gravel is a choice between bad and worse.
The pass area is settled with yurts. On the pass itself we found the only solid building - in yurt style - just big enough to squeeze in 20 people with their matresses and sleeping bags for the rainy night.

Kilometres cycled: 66.8. Height metres climbed: 1437

Yurts in the Chigirchik area

GPS and photos: http://www.everytrail.com/view_trip.php?trip_id=25234

Commerce in Osh in 1906 (Photo from Mannerheim collection)

Commerce in Osh May 20, 2008

Last night crossing the border to Kyrgyzstan, a three hour procedure that compares favourably with border formalities in Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. They didn't even screen our luggage. The city of Osh is located right behind the border, geographically still part of the Ferghana valley but already at close to 1000m altitude. Thinking positively, 1000m less to climb to the Taldyk pass at 3615m on the upcoming crossing of the Tien-Shan during the next eight days. (It took Mannerheim and Pelliot three months for the same journey but of course they had other business to attend to in 1906.)
So our stay in Kyrgyzstan is short, but Osh is a really lively town with a huge bazaar area and food choice is wider than it was in Uzbekistan - writing this after the first pizza I have had in two months.
Tour management is now busy to sell our support vehicle (Mercedes Sprinter) as it can't be taken into China and everybody has been requested to revise personal luggage and prepare for an indefinite number of kilometres after the Chinese border with all luggage on bike! The time schedule is now to set out into the mountains tomorrow Wednesday May 21, cross the border to China on Monday 26 May and arrive the following Wednesday in Kashgar.
The passes on the way are Chigirchik (KG, 2406m), Taldyk (KG, 3615m) and Karabel (CN, 2931m). We expect very poor road conditions. In fact the entire way up to Irqesh Tam is remainder of the Cold War between the USSR and China. So conditions are really little better than what Mannerheim experienced a hundred years ago...

Rest day in Osh/Kyrgyzstan: preparing for crossing Tien-Shan

In Central Asia the Silk Road connects not only East and West but also South and North. Amir Timur's empire (14./15. century AD) included a large part of present day India and from India Buddhism spread along the Silk Road into China and other parts of Eastern Asia as far as Japan. The area has been the object of the Great Game between Russia and Great Britain in the 19th century and once their respective spheres of influence had become delimited (and after Russia's defeat in the Japanese War 1905), focus shifted to the northwestern parts of China. In 1906 C.G. Mannerheim from Finland was commissioned by the Russian General Staff to explore the military potential of this area in an allegedly scientific expedition. The scientific part of Mannerheim's journey conducted together with French archeologist Paul Pelliot started in July 1906 in Andizhan and continued from Osh across the Irqesh Tam pass to Kashgar where it arrived in October the same year. After Kashgar Mannerheim continued until Beijing (old spelling in Mannerheim's travel account: Peiping), collecting a large number of ancient Buddhist manuscripts and artefacts mainly from the Xinjiang province that now form the Mannerheim collection of the Finnish National Museum. Commemorating the 100th anniversary of this great Asia expedition on horseback, Tony Ilmoni and Kristian Nyman rerode the entire route on horse from Osh to Beijing in 2007 and it is from their highly interesting website (http://www.mannerheim1906.com/en/The_Route/) that I adapted the title* for this blog entry.

Near Andizhan/Uzbekistan

For short description of the Mannerheim expedition: http://idp.nlc.gov.cn/archives/news15/idpnews_15.a4d

GPS and photos: http://www.everytrail.com/view_trip.php?trip_id=25267