Day 83, July 19, 13km before Kyzyl Oi - 20km before Kizart

103km - 5160km, warm 35C, slight tailwind, 0 shots, 0 Lenin, Camping, flat tire

Woke up before the sun hit my tent (a first!) and collected firewood to make the breakfast fire. Had a roaring blaze going in a few minutes and warmed a pot of water resting on a flat stone in the fires' midst. Andre woke up about 20 minutes later just as the water was boiling and we had large cups of coffee watching the sun slowly creep down toward the valley floor. We packed up and were on the road by 930h and continued to head down the canyon beautiful canyon along an increasingly poor road. Arrived in the town of Kyzyl Oi and stopped at the store. For some reason I was craving fish, so I bought a 300g tin of Latvian "Sprats in Oil" that I downed immediately. We then rode 25km of really rough roads down to Aral, a town at the valley bottom located at the confluence of two glacial torrents, amongst some pretty amazing sandstone dominated geology.

Started to ride uphill toward the Kizart Ashoo (pass), eventually reaching the modest city of Chayek. Looked for a cafe, but, being Sunday and finding all closed, we opted to lunch on a delicious combination of bread, Fanta, and chocolate bars. On the way out of town we ran into four Belgians sunning themselves (and their bicycles) roadside who were on a three-week cycle tour of Kyrgyzstan. The now six of us saddled up and rode about 15km to a little town where the Belgians road/horse track struck off uphill. Andre and I continued on toward the pass going through little villages and pasture land on a patchwork of pitch tar, asphalt, concrete, sand and gravel. After earning the 100km of the day, we began to look for a camping spots and finally hit upon a grassy knoll hidden 300m back from the road along a tortuous eroded valley path. Had a dinner of rice and tomato with kippers and tea while watching the sun set over the distant snow-capped mountains. Fell asleep fairly quickly on a thick bed of cedar-scented grass in the cool 2000m elevation air.