Anyone for BBQ Camel? China

Location:	Kashgar
Mileage:	0 this week!

Arriving in Kashgar early now gives the team a whole week here, which in many ways turns out for the best. There is a lot of work to be done and more paperwork to get Chinese licences and registration plates. Everyone has to go to the local hospital to get their eyes tested and medical (haha) done. Bikes, people and clothing need a massive clean up – ahh! Hot water! Some riders get Chinese torture massages (!) and go to the barbers for the closest shaves possible. Parts for the drowned GS turn up from the UK.

Pic:  Team with Chinese Licence Plates - at last!
Then there is also Western food and drink – a welcome relief for many as they find down from the hotel they can get an expresso coffee, pizza, chips and cheesecake. After yak and before the delights of the cabbage and duck to come, Kashgar is a perfect haven to rest up, clean up, feed up and get prepared for the next section.

We also have trips organised to go to Shiptons Arch, an overnighter at Taxkorgan on the KKH and then the famous livestock market, where Michael, our resident Cumbrian farmer, gave us the lessons on what made a good sheep, or donkey or even camel! Apparently camels cost £1,000. Then came the invite to a celebration feast – the locals had BBQ’d a whole camel! That’s right a whole grown camel – so big, the spit stuck up its behind had to hooked to a crane to be hoisted clear of the flames. Once again, CCTV (national Chinese TV) was there to mark the occasion and as we were the only foreigners, we also became the centre of attention. Another interview and we were given the honour of the first taste of the camel. Chicken, anyone?! No, pork, maybe . . . . (Look at www.youtube.com/globebusters)

China - A road too far?

Location:	Kashgar
Mileage:	6,475

So the day has arrived. The day when we should all cross into China. This is a momentous milestone for us all and, logistically, its significance to the trip is huge. Once in China, we have no more border crossings and a Chinese support vehicle to assist us across the Tibetan plateau (in addition to the GlobeBusters Support Van). I get the team up early. This pass is untested due to the late change with the Kyrgyz revolution and although it is much closer to Kashgar, I am worried about the weather and what conditions could be like. What I didn’t anticipate was this being the most difficult riding day I have done, let alone the team.

Over than the snow, it started off OK. There was even a bit of tarmac for a short while. When it disappears and the snow banks rise further, we are left with a track hacked out by bulldozers. It is treacherous and riders start falling like dominoes. Unbelievably we’re having to fight our way with trucks and then we get to the point of white out.

I’ve never encountered such severe conditions; but we have to cross the border today or all bets are off. Every rider is fighting their own personal battle, they’re picking each other up and clawing a hundred yards at a time. Finally the clouds lift and we see blue sky and the descent commences, but the surface is still evil – it’s completely chewed up and frozen. We get a bit lower and finally something resembling a road appears again. It’s taken 7 hours, 40 miles and between us we counted 40 bikes drops to get to the border. We’re all ecstatic at the achievement, not quite believing that we have all made it.

It’s our last lot of order border formalities to get into China and it takes hours but it who cares? We’re just bursting coz we’ve made it to China. By the time we get to Kashgar, it’s eleven at night – everyone is exhausted but riding high. We celebrate with our first (of many!) massive Chinese meals and some Great Wall red wine.

How's the revolution? Kyrgyzstan

Location:	Sary Tash
Mileage:	6,499

Another border crossing day. Back in 2009, this had been horrific conditions, paddling through deep snow. Now it was still pretty cold up there – it’s still 4,000m plus, but the snow had disappeared. Only to be replaced by the deepest, stickiest mud quagmire that I have ever encountered on what was supposed to be a road.

I guess because the road is in no-man’s land, it’s totally uncared for.

The group slithered past trucks which had tried to get up but just got stuck and wedged in. Did I say no snow? Stupid me. We get to our home-stay in Kyrgyzstan and by the time we wake up there is four inches of snow over everything.

Tajikistan - There and Back Again

Location:	Murghab
Mileage:	6,361

It’s a glorious day today and sun stays shining. We’re headed even further south to the Wakhan Valley before we climb again, north to Murghab and then into Kyrgyzstan for the one night. This route remains stunning and we take the group up to the 3rd century Yamchun Fortress, which overlooks the whole valley and across the Hindu Kush into Afghanistan – the enormity and serenity of the view belies a turbulent past. It is in Langar, our overnight stop, that we learn that the road ahead in closed – another landslide. Tajikistan is as unpredictable as expected. Apparently it’s gone only about 5 miles out of the village, so we decide to take a look before having to back track. We’ve got over landslides before!

This landslide is a bit different. Rather than the road being impassable because there is a huge heap of rocks on top of it, this time it is the road that has collapsed and has formed a huge heaps of rocks further down. The road just has a massive, definitely un-crossable gap. The GS would need wings for this one. So we have no alternative to head back to Khorog and try another road to try and get to Murghab. We’re covering a lot more diversion miles in Tajikistan than I expected but it sort of falls into place because we have to miss out 3 days in Kyrgyzstan. Its 2 days and 300+ miles later and we’re back in Khorog. On the bright side, it was another chicken curry!

We’re on the alternate route today. With a 4,600m pass and then a high altitude lunarscape plateau to get to our last stop in Tajikistan – Murghab. This town has a frontier feel to it – it’s bitterly cold, we buy fuel from drums and settle down to another group home-stay experience. It’s a good job we all get on! It’s time to crack open a bottle of Welsh single malt to go with the bread, yak and onions. We share it evenly around the group and get a good night’s sleep.

The M41

Location:	Khorog
Mileage:	6,093

With brand new knobblies fitted to all the bikes, we leave Dushanbe. The new road is hopefully called the M41 but shed any motorway imagery. This main road disintegrates into gravel and river crossings only 60 miles out of the capital. We stop at Tavildara overnight before the main high pass, in some basic bunk rooms. I’m relieved I’d advise the group to get some decent 3 or 4 season bags with liners as it’s not warm. Most of us sleep in our thermal underwear – my Icebreaker Merino Wool stuff is snuggley. It’s raining hard and it’s only 70 miles to do tomorrow, but I warn everyone that it’s going to be tough.

As suspected the rain makes going very tough the next day, lots of mud and we have the mother of all river crossings facing us. Mark (my number two guide) manages to take Adam (our cameraman) across two up. Adam is clutching the precious camera in a waterproof Ortlieb bag and is praying.

This river took out a few riders, but with no more than bruises and one R1200GS which ended up in the van having got submerged in water and the rider trying to crank it up straight away. A few Touratech parts certainly saved the day on a number of bikes – hurray for crash bars and bash plates! (http://www.touratech.co.uk/). Amazing two up river crossing also went to our only remaining two-up couple – gutsy one, Lorraine and Ed.

Yes, it was a very hard day, but hats off to the riders - days like this give them a huge buzz, rather than complaints. Each challenge they face, they tackle, bond and keep going. Kailikum has a decent enough home-stay – everyone is shattered so it’s an early night.

We’re following the Afghan border now with the river on our right and today gives us some respite from the rain and the road conditions ease up. After its water dunking, Simon’s bike, the R1200GS, is in the van and we’ve had to order a part in to meet us in Kashgar. Simon’s naturally a bit peeved to be missing the Pamir. This section is awesome, with single track dirt roads clinging to the cliff faces and massive views of huge jagged green mountains wrapped in white misty clouds. Probably the best bit of dirt road riding on the trip so far.

Our destination is Khorog and we have found a hotel there run by an Indian family that has a great restaurant attached. Indian, of course! The group can’t quite believe they can get a serious chicken curry here – no more meat on a stick! We’ve got a day in Khorog to recheck the bikes – the F800GS bikes have developed a taste for fork seals but the R1200’s are holding up well (except for the water logged one . . . . ) HOWEVER! It is in Khorog that we find an old Yamaha Tenere abandoned here about 3 years ago.

For Simon, it is a golden day! Jeff look over the bike, fixes it up and gets it running! Simon now has a ride to the border, where upon, Ali, our Pamiri guide will ride it back to Khorog. I love it when a “plan” comes together.

Kevin Sanders

Dushanbe, Tajikistan

Location:	Dushanbe
Mileage:	5,733

When Julia and I first rode to the Uzbek / Tajik border last year on the recce it was no problem. At the Azerbaijan border it had been cups of tea, “$5 please” and at the Tajik border, the request was “Any Sex DVD’s?” - but other than that and a US$10 payment for a missing “eco” certificate, all was fine. Not this time. It took six hours to get the group through. Every bag and item of clothing was searched and any cash over the amount declared was confiscated! With the first riders being searched the word spread and cash was counted and declarations changed, but for some it was too late. Having handed in his declaration one rider decided the best thing to do was to stuff a role of $1,000 between his arse cheeks. He gets strip searched! Down to his pants at the border, and if it is discovered then we can all look forward to the same. But they stop at his pants and he gets away with it!

Into Tajikistan still sore from our treatment. This is eased with a brief 5 star stopover in the capital and another day for the support crew to finish off work on the bikes for the next leg. By the time we leave here all bikes need to have the knobbly tyres on, change of oils and a thorough checking over. Most of the riders pitch in to help. It has to be said that the 1200s are holding up well, but the F800s are starting to feel the pace – we’ve got fork seals that have blown, an iffy fuel pump and one whose battery won’t hold its charge. To be fair one bike has 50,000 miles + on it (it did the Trans Am last year too).

In Dushanbe, we’ve heard it’s kicked off again in southern Kyrgyzstan and the town of Jalalabad (where we have booked the group in for the night) has just had a bit of a confrontation along the main street and shot a few more people dead. The FCO has flung out another travel warning and it looks a bit uncertain. It gets quite complicated as our Chinese permits allow us entry only via the Torugart Pass (and we would need to get ourselves through Jalalabad first). Back home Julia is back on the case, re-jigging all the arrangements with our Chinese agent and we find a solution that allows us to change our port of entry in just enough time. This means we cut short the stay in Kyrgyzstan to just one overnight stop in Sary Tash, then get into China 3 days early. It’s a good plan, do-able and brings certainty back into the journey, so we break the news to the team, who naturally are more happy about securing their entry into China than 3 days in Kyrgyzstan.

The next piece of news is that the southern road to Kailikum is closed. This is the road we are due to take tomorrow! The rains have been very bad this year and the road has collapsed. Our local Pamiri guide assures us the northern route remains open and the map shows a nice bright red line indicating main road.  Fingers crossed!

Uzbekistan

Location:	Samarkand
Mileage:	5,381

Another border crossing – we exit Turkmenistan and enter Uzbekistan. It’s relatively painless and with only 10 miles to get to the hotel in Khiva, it turns out to be more straight forward than expected. In Uzbekistan we have to change money – their largest note is 1,000 som – worth 50p. We all end up with stacks of the stuff! Khiva is the first of the Silk Road cities.

It’s the smallest but impressive surrounded by a huge ancient wall and filled with mosques and minarets all explored through tiny narrow streets. It’s also warm (at last!) and we have a rest day over a festival week-end. There’s lots of traditional music, dancing and animal fights (eek) As national TV is covering the event, we get to be interviewed again about our amazing journey.

It’s more desert to get to Bukhara – pretty uneventful. Lots of tea, even more sand and one puncture. On the road, some of our team get to meet a couple of French riders on Honda Varadero 125s – they don’t have a full bike licence and fawn over the GS bikes. Maybe one day, eh?


The police showed out in force for some of the riders the next day to Samarkand – the boys avoiding tickets by showing the police pictures of themselves being interviewed on national TV back in Khiva!

We’ve got another day off in Samarkand – there’s loads of Silk Road World Heritage stuff to see and we need to work on the bikes. We’re getting close to the half way point and we need to start changing tyres here and finish off in Dushanbe (two days away with another rest day). Most of the team head out to do the tourist bit, exploring the ancient centre – the Registan, packed with bright turquoise tiled mausoleums, mosques and medressas.

Today, we’ve got a short day’s ride to get us within easy reach of the Tajik border, stopping in a small town with a big local wedding on at our hotel. Ah yes! We get to be the guests and entertainment for all, together with the two fully clothed belly dancers who grab the team to have a bit of a gyrate! Some were a little more reluctant than others, but it’s amazing what a drop of vodka can do! We’re off to enter Tajikistan tomorrow.

Turkmenistan

Location:	Ashgabat
Mileage:	4,496

Turkmenistan is an oil rich nation still steeped in the old Soviet empire this is a proper police state. The locals are curious but nervous and so are the police. Is the group to be feared or trusted? It’s a long straight desert road from the port to the capital, Ashgabat. We narrowly avoid being wiped out by suicidal camels and then it rains (in the desert?!).

Max manages to snap his chain and then the rest of the F800 group end up taking the old road?!! How does that happen? So about 20 miles before the capital, we get an unrequested police escort. Maybe they have seen the mayhem! 

Ashgabat is a weird city, all clad in white marble, with gold roofs and golden statutes of the old leader Turkmenbashi. It’s artificial, lacks personality and its people look on at us cautiously. Ann’s ankle was still giving her gip (from the tumble on the river crossing in Turkey), so she had it checked out here and we find out she’s broken a small bone in her foot. She decides it’s best for her to go home and we’ll try and fly her out from Uzbekistan. It’s a real blow for Ann who last year broker her other ankle riding the Trans Labrador in Canada.

We set off the next day for Erbent and the burning gas crater of Darvaza. A few of the team seem to have got the squits, so they bung themselves up with Immodium, we all do a quick national TV interview outside the hotel and head north for our first spot of desert camping.

The crater is best seen in the middle of the night and as its located well into the dunes we take a couple of 4WDs, who are intent on racing against each other. The crater look as if a meteor has struck the earth but in reality it’s the result of incompetent Russian gas drilling. The locals call the place the “Mouth of Hell” and it’s an apt description; it certainly looks more impressive than its reason for being.

Is this the gateway to hell?  It feels like Hollywood have created this set!

Kevin Sanders

Across the Caspian Sea

Location:	Baku
Mileage:	4,122

In Sheki, I gave the team a comprehensive briefing about Baku, Azerbaijan’s capital, and the port where we would catch the ferry to Turkmenistan. I use the term “ferry” loosely. Let me try and create the right image for you. Remove every normal facility from a ferry, let it rust for sixty years, never replace any fixtures and fittings, leave maintenance to a bare minimum and chug across the Caspian each day, with only a handful of passengers, train freight and an aged crew. This is a ghost ship on a voyage of the damned.

I told the riders to stack up with drinks and nibbles – it wasn’t unheard of for the boat to stay out at sea for over 2 days – and to take their own sleeping bags as the mattresses were still the originals and very well used. As the support crew, we piled the van with rice and meat for the ship “chef” to cook plov and a reasonable quantity of vodka.

Arriving in Baku, we were in luck – a ferry was due in the next morning and we were down to the docks to secure our place on it. The next day, our bikes were lashed down in the belly of the ship, next to the massive train carriages, using our own straps, whilst a couple of deckhands smoked tabs, totally uninterested in our presence. We were joined on board by two other passengers - Azerbaijan Footballers who were going to play for a Turkmenistan team. They smoked and drank lots of Vodka so no different to back home then! Alcohol and arm wrestling was the evening’s entertainment. God Bless P&O!

A bleary eyed breakfast was courtesy of Cotswold Outdoor (http://www.cotswoldoutdoor.com/) who had provided us with a huge quantity of boil in the bag camp food – the “all day breakfasts” went down very well! It was a couple of hours wait for the Turkmen Immigration to visit us on the boat and check out we were all healthy enough to be allowed to enter the country and another 7 hours trying to complete formalities to get the bikes in. (At least we were only one night on the boat!)


What seems to take the time to enter is the little man who has to draw your intended route on the vehicle permit, then calculate the distance you are covering and charge you a fee to make up for the fact that you are not entitled to the cheap fuel in Turkmenistan (which is about 20p per litre). Oh and then there’s no computers and all documents have to be done in triplicate.

Kevin Sanders

Georgia & Azerbaijan

Location:	Sheki
Mileage:	3,942

We cross in and out of Georgia in only two days, with just one overnight stop in Tblisi. Georgia is a Christian tiny country surrounded by its Muslim neighbours and Russia to the north, with whom it had a big spat with in 2008.  The back roads are quiet until you start to get close to the capital.

Amidst kamikase Mercedes drivers and crater size potholes, there’s a lot of dodging about to be done getting in to Tbilisi.Our hotel is located with a spectacular view of the golden statue of George and the Dragon (yes, “our” St George – am I the only person who did not appreciate that St George was not English , but of Middle Eastern origin whose mother was Palestinian and father was Turkish?)

From here, it’s Azerbaijan; Azerbaijan is one of those countries that doesn’t appreciate getting visitors and makes it difficult. Their London Embassy refused to issue a visa to Jeff, our NZ driver. He had to fly to Berlin to get one! Even at the border, they won’t allow you more than a 3 days transit visa for the bike. On the plus, they got us through pretty quickly and it was a short ride onto Sheki for the night, staying at the 18th century caravanserai.

Eastern Turkey

Location: Kars
Mileage:  3,502

Along the route in Turkey, we get to see the weird and wonderful rock formations and cave dwellers in Cappadocia. 




It’s a 4am start to take a hot air balloon to silently drift over them as dawn rises. Serene and breathtaking views.   From here it’s the Fish Springs – where we all soak in big warn tanks as small fish eat away our dead skin . . .

Then it’s our practice river crossing day. I’ve stuck this in the route as I know there’s going to be some bigger river stuff waiting in Tajikistan, so let’s get the group to try out something basic first. Tackled successfully by all, except Max on his F800GS, who both go for a quick dive. (Look at www.youtube.com/globebusters). Luckily Max bounces and rolls well and so does the bike. 

We finish of the day, in a local restaurant and the speciality of the areas – “testes”! It would be easy to think these belong to the undercarriage of a bull, but luckily for us, it’s a way of cooking kebab in a clay pot that is then broken to eat the food. Phew!