Bikepacking Kyrgyzstan [Cycling Adventure with my Girlfriend]

Lovely sunny morning here in Kyrgyzstan and Ashur and I have packed up our bikes. We're going on a little bit of a cycling adventure. We don't totally know where we're going to go but we've got enough food for a few days, we've got camping gear, so I guess we'll just see where we end up. Recently the regulations here in Bishkek regarding kind of the quarantine and lockdown have kind of loosened up a bit. We've sort of left what was called the state of emergency so Ashur and I took this opportunity to go on a little bike packing trip. So we bought these bikes a while back, they're kind of, I think they're, I don't know much about bikes, but they're old German bikes that we bought here in the city and we loaded up sort of backpacks onto them with sort of big bungee cords, all very makeshift stuff, we don't have proper panniers and we decided yeah we'd take a little bit of a trip and just to get out because we've been a bit stuck inside. We've been stuck at home for almost two months in a quarantine so it was very nice to go out. We left early in the morning because in Bishkek it gets so hot during the summer and we decided to leave at six o'clock in the morning. We left, yeah it was quite pleasant to be always living in the morning and ride to the mountains. We found our way through sort of unpaved roads up through the villages which was yeah it was very nice wasn't it, it was nice riding, still uphill, yeah still tough but it's on paved roads. We've been going for about three hours, three and a half I think, and we've gone about 15 miles, something like that. It's so tiny for three hours isn't it? It's a lot of uphill, it's a lot of uphill. And this is where things get a little bit more bumpy but believe it or not we're still on a kind of marked road. In about 200 meters we're going to get a glimpse of the track that we're going to be going down. Gonna leave civilization there. Where we were riding was just basically just rolling hills, rolling grass hills which I mean I think primarily used just for grazing animals weren't they? Yes. But beautiful, like really really pretty out there. Our bikes really aren't designed for this kind of off-road stuff, we don't have any suspension but we figured you know as long as we didn't take all that much stuff and we weren't that weighted down we should be all right. And no, you did you did pretty well, especially on some of those downhill sections I think you were enjoying yourself, even though you were screaming. And? You good? Yeah the first thing that we saw it was huge fields and yeah people were collecting lots of how you say grass. Oh yeah so they were collecting all the hay bales, big I don't know there's probably a name for it the big forks which spike into the big hay bales and then lift them up onto the truck so it was fun to see that. Yeah and I guess it was about to rain so they needed to collect everything today so they were asking another truck to come. There were several trucks getting everything today, that day and leave to I don't know where they were heading to, probably to the village. It was about seven o'clock evening I think when I started feeling very tired. So tired but whoo. And fields were everywhere so we were trying to find place. Yeah the view was majestic. Majestic view, panoramic views. No it really was though wasn't it? It was a properly good campsite. I'm making pasta with courgette and mushrooms and also gonna put a little bit of chechel, it's cheese, and egg. And we're gonna eat it with cucumber as well. Oops it's gonna fall. Sounds wonderful. I know I think it's going to be very delicious actually. Are you satisfied? Yeah I'm very satisfied. I'm very proud of you. Thank you. I was really shattered. I was so tired. I had a very good sleep. The next morning Ed is like oh you know I think we passed the section where were lots of hills and the next part will be only downhills. Yeah. Not true. Not at all. The second day it was the day when I started having doubts. I was thinking no this is impossible what section it is actually? Why am I here? Because these hills were never-ending hills. Right come on you can do this. Push, push, push, push, push. I was losing my energy so quickly and it was you know like riding nicely and you know hair is in the air all is good and I was like oh I'm so tired. I think that's why the first tandem trip we went on four years ago however long it was worked really well because you know you take two people with slightly different fitness levels you throw them on a tandem and they can kind of work as hard or as light as they want whereas when you've got your own bike and you have to do your own ride I mean I took as much camping gear as I could so we tried to level it out that way but even so there was still this disparity between our fitness levels so trying to mediate that was yeah it was a challenge wasn't it? It was but it was a good challenge as well. Yeah at least people can't say that I wasn't pedaling. People all the time say that I wasn't pedaling in the tandem video comments I think. But I was. You were, of course you were. So first hill, second hill, okay and then we're coming to the road and then there's a little house and we hear dogs and we're like okay well you know lots of dogs in there and I see five dogs Go on, they're slowly, hey, hey, hey. Maybe I was sure that they're not gonna attack but I yeah I was afraid. Come near me, we'll look bigger. Honestly I didn't want to be in a situation where if something happens we're in the middle of the mountain and there's no one to help. Sure being attacked by dogs it's not a great situation. Yeah. So we stayed put for a bit and then we eventually noticed there actually were people in this little kind of building and they came out and that gave us the confidence just to walk through. Slowly, very slowly. Yeah and if the dogs come put the bike between you and the dogs all right. Like this? Just like like like this, just do that, block them off, use the bike as a thing but honestly we'll be fine. But yeah eventually people came out and they kind of caught the dogs back. So one of them asked us to come for a tea and another one was like no no no no no and we're like no no no thank you it was very nice that you keep your dogs from us but you know we have to go as well. Yeah maybe when this pandemic's over we'll be able to do this kind of stuff. I mean that's the fun of this stuff it's it'll be fun to meet people like that but at this time I think it would be silly to to put people at risk. And there were other people as well that were met during this trip and I think it was very unusual for them to see cyclists as well going through that pass because no one really has done this I think and kids on the horses who take care of the cattle and people who live and they saw us and they were you know approaching us coming to us and giving a you know hand to shake and we're like no no no no and they're like hmm that's weird but like well quarantine you know you don't want to get virus and but we had a little bit of talk some people like oh that's you know that's crazy heels well well done that you're doing it with bike some were like why are you torturing yourself well and yeah that's questioned me I was also asking myself why I'm torturing myself We're coming to the end of the track now we could do another 10 miles but I think we're deciding to to call it and we'll uh we've got to a point where we can kind of intersect with a bigger road bigger track maybe we'll find somewhere to camp and then we'll head back tomorrow and it'll be a nice short day back to the city yeah that second night was was very pretty also wasn't it we found a spot right next to the river which is great because it gave us water to wash with and and cook with and yeah again lovely views in a different way wasn't it with the horses next opposite the river yeah oh it was so pleasant because imagine you're riding a whole day under the hot sun your skin gets so boiling and you just come to this cold mountain water and you dip yourself and it's like oh it's so good very cold though wasn't it and I was very good yeah yeah a lot of this water has run off from the the tops of the mountain so it's just like some snow that's run off and it's just cold cold water but no you're right it was very very refreshing so good something like that you still go yeah all right it's the final morning of the trip today we head back to bishkek which is about 35 miles away and the good news is that most of that is downhill so we should have quite a good time leaving the camp there was these sort of tracks slightly bigger tracks now that we were on just yeah beautiful and and really fun riding because it was much smoother now and all downhill so you didn't really have to pedal you just need to control the bike through the kind of rocky rocky track it was just so nice if there's back to the road quiet lots of horses walking around sheep yeah it was so nice to see sheep and when we get to the middle of the village and kids were chasing us on the bike and I don't know it was so nice I guess we were just happy to see people as well because when you're when you're in isolation you just see you know I was seeing it all the time it was seeing me sometimes we see neighbors outside but yeah not so many people it's quite fun because we're going to cover in like half a day what we covered over the last two it's so much quicker on these roads and obviously we're not in the hills anymore we were I don't know if you can see it but in the distance there we were in those hills and we're basically just finishing off the loop so we we rode over those just fun to see and we got another 15-16 miles to go until we get back home and I think we're both looking forward to a proper shower. So in order to get to Bishkek we have to pass through the post and Ed and I talked about it and I said you know if they ask us how we managed to come or if they will not let us go to Bishkek we probably have to go back yeah and we were kind of yeah we're preparing ourselves to be stopped and questioned and asked like you know where are you what are you doing um and we got to the post we could see it in the distance I got my camera out because I thought this might be an interesting interaction and then we just rode straight past and nobody stopped us nobody seemed to be stopping anyone actually we actually recycled on a little bit and then looked back at the post and all the cars were just going through but I guess at this time regulations have been relaxed a little bit um so it wasn't such a big deal I think we got away with that do you think they are checking people I think so yeah I felt for sure we were going to be stopped there we were about 30k from Bishkek when it started raining and it started raining so hard shops with an old soviet bus stop didn't we it's so wet outside and the drops are so huge they were smashing me like you know this um what what do you call this winter thing is oh hail like hails they hurt those drops yeah I was thinking it also made me a little bit blind to find this little shelter yeah let's have some food let's wait out the rain such dry bread now isn't it even just a few days old it goes dry and we got wonderful blue skies again very changeable weather gosh busy old road this and then yeah we got back home just gone sunset and actually yes so it was basically a full three days we were out um riding yeah really nice really nice trip I really enjoyed it I enjoyed doing it with you oh even if it was a challenge with yeah just trying to keep everyone happy it's very different riding with someone to riding by yourself when you're by yourself you can push yourself you can you know what you're feeling but there needs to be a lot more communication when there's the two of you but I think we handled it pretty well I think you were very patient about it yeah because sometimes when you know when I get tired when I get frustrated I can actually shout it out saying like I'm tired stop it I don't want to go anymore and you were very patient about it you said okay yeah but you uh which was I find it very nice because I could uh look at the view relax a little bit gain the energy back so it was a good balance okay but no I think I think at the end of the day you've got to remember this is we're doing this for fun aren't we it's there's nothing more serious than that it was just to get out just to spend a few days out in the mountains somewhere very pretty and we're very lucky that we're living in Bishkek and that you know 20 miles away we can just get to the mountains and suddenly be in the hills away from the city away from from people and just the beautiful nature so that's you know that's what it is it's all about fun and riding bikes in the mountains is fun yes do you agree I agree I agree and I think it was very nice experience just to see how capable we are riding together I hope you enjoyed watching that video it was really good fun to get out with Oshala and see a little bit more of this country as always thank you very much everyone who supported me on Patreon especially those of you who are supporting me on the third tier and you are Adam Wan, Alec and Theo Beer, Alan Alley, Baby Bear, Anibal Miley, IP, Campbell Daff, Damon Walker, Daniel Perry, Derek Donovan, Electric Unicycle Collective, Gaia De Nevaiah, Gary Hull, Jeff and Kelly Elder, Gerald M Neville, James Wallace, John Rothwell, Justin Lewis, Kiki Teja, Malvin Zen, Marcus, Mark Harris, Philip Merritt, Sophie Vunn, Stephen Jones, Neil Brooks, Travis Kapita, Warren Snyder and finally Yoshi Chu. 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