First awoke at 630h, but, with only 50km to ride today, decided to loll around in the tent for a few hours. Eventually arose at 1030h when it got to be too hot in the tent to be of comfort. Packed up, dumped out 5L of craptastically tasting water, got out on the highway, and soon was riding a pleasant clip. I am often amazed at how much difference a good night's sleep and a 11lbs lighter load can make!
Rode to the Qarataw Jotasi ridge top and had a steep 5km descent back into the steppe. About halfway down I noticed that some funny noises were coming from my back wheel (sigh .. again). Pulling over, I noticed that the back axle was not completely locked with one of the nuts on the disk-brake side coming loose, allowing some of the all-important grease to ooze out. Tried to tightened the nut as much as possible, but, not having two wrenches, found this quite difficult. Realized that because the new back wheel rim was a little bit wider then the old one, the mechanical system was trying to accommodate this by spreading the nut out wider to prevent rubbing of the disk on the pad. Evidently, I will need to head to the bazaar in Taraz to get some metal washers to act as spacers so that I can tighten everything up before heading into the Kyrgyz mountains!
Had lunch at the bottom of the ridge and was joined by five German drillers working on the new gas pipeline. Showing off my hard-rock drilling experience gained at Hager GeoScience, Inc., of Woburn, MA (shout out!), I found out that they had managed just 1m in four hours of drilling in the brutal quartzitic igneous rock. These guys are part of the drilling effort involving 3000km of hard-rock tunneling for two parallel, high-pressure, meter-thick gas pipelines. I have now observed first-hand where a lot of China's global profits of the last 10 years are going - securing an energy future via a 7000km corridor from the Caspian Sea to Beijing.
Rode another 20km before stopping at a Helios gas station for a quick drink. In exchange for an autograph, the lady working the cash gave it to me free after finding out that I was from "Amerika". Worked a little bit more on my back wheel to tighten things up before heading into town. Found the Hotel Dzambul with little problem, had my first real shower in a few weeks (proper hot water and an upwall location for the shower head), and sat in the hotel patio typing away with a few muscle relaxants going down the hatch.
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