Altay, China
the front shocks have gone and the exhaust has fallen off, but the nippa refuses to give in. Plenty of dramas over the last week that we won't go in to, but all is well. It has been well and truly off roading for the last few days and there was some serious rallying today. Jonny reached a new level in ridiculous driving. Hotel tonight, hopefully with running water.
Shar, Kazakhstan
roads horrendous, bike no more. 4 people now in the nippa; this is going to be tough...oh and will someone please text me the last 2 man city scores? Ta.
Dzhalal-Abadskaya, Kyrgyzstan
The nippa made it over the pamirs with flying colours. We climbed to over 4200 meters and conquered about five river crossings. The pamirs claimed at least one team that we know of, but our convoy survived. The mountain scenery in Tajikistan is stunning, with lake karakul being the highlight. We stayed in no man's land between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, which was a first, but other than a rabid dog, we were undisturbed. camped up now in a stunning location in the mountains in Kyrgyzstan. Went through osh and jalal-bad. All good, but some of the scenes in osh hit home what it must have been like a few months ago! On to bishkek and almaty tomorrow to meet Charlie and algie who wrote off their car in Uzbekistan. They have been missed.
Dzhalal-Abadskaya, Kyrgyzstan
The nippa made it over the pamirs with flying colours. We climbed to over 4200 meters and conquered about five river crossings. The pamirs claimed at least one team that we know of, but our convoy survived. The mountain scenery in Tajikistan is stunning, with lake karakul being the highlight. We stayed in no man's land between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, which was a first, but other than a rabid dog, we were undisturbed. camped up now in a stunning location in the mountains in Kyrgyzstan. Went through osh and jalal-bad. All good, but some of the scenes in osh hit home what it must have been like a few months ago! On to bishkek and almaty tomorrow to meet Charlie and algie who wrote off their car in Uzbekistan. They have been missed.
Dzhalal-Abadskaya, Kyrgyzstan
The nippa made it over the pamirs with flying colours. We climbed to over 4200 meters and conquered about five river crossings. The pamirs claimed at least one team that we know of, but our convoy survived. The mountain scenery in Tajikistan is stunning, with lake karakul being t ** some text is missing **
Dzhalal-Abadskaya, Kyrgyzstan
The nippa made it over the pamirs with flying colours. We climbed to over 4200 meters and conquered about five river crossings. The pamirs claimed at least one team that we know of, but our convoy survived. The mountain scenery in Tajikistan is stunning, with lake karakul being the highlight. We stayed in no man's land between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, which was a first, but other than a rabid dog, we were undisturbed. camped u ** some text is missing **
Dzhalal-Abadskaya, Kyrgyzstan
The nippa made it over the pamirs with flying colours. We climbed to over 4200 meters and conquered about five river crossings. ** some text is missing **
Arab, Uzbekistan
just hoping through the Turkmenistan/Uzbekistan border. Turkmenistan has been and interesting experience. It's a strange police state, where there has to be the greatest disparity of income I have ever seen. In ashkabat there are Dubai-like sky scrapers, spinning buildings and wide boulevard, while five minutes down the roads, the normal people live. They have people brushing the highway, police are everywhere and they have an 11pm curfew throughout the country! Last night we stayed an a place called Mary, it was a bit of a dive, but we were invited by this genius kid who at 11 has already visited oxford university twice and spoke perfect english, to his dad's roller disco/wedding venue/barbecue where we had some good grub. Stayed at a trucks and are going to bukhara tonight.
Osmancık, Turkey
our mates car has both electric windows not working and in the down position. We're in some strange garage area in central turkey trying to get it fixed. Not being able to put your windows up is not a good thing security wise! Slept in a quarry last night to avoid people who may want to rob their car. Our clutch is also running high.and Jonny is paranoid It's going to go... Turkey is a stunning country, not what I expected to be honest.
Istanbul, Turkey
we left Bucharest and made our way to varna on the Bulgarian coast. Bulgaria is much more developed than Romania and generally a pretty nice place. We swam in the sea and generally ogled the talent on the beach. It was quite outstanding. After varna we headed down to nessebar which is a world heritage site near varna. Unfortunately the beautiful ancient town has been ruined by tourism. We ate an overpriced meal and swiftly moved on to the nearest campsite. We then powered down to Istanbul on terrible Bulgarian roads. The Turkish border was a warm up of things to come...Turkish roads have been superb so far and the Turks are very friendly barring the little street urchins we met before we found our hostel. We had dinner on a roof top in between the blue mosque and the hagia Sofia. When the prayer started it was absolutely incredible and Istanbul is a beautiful place. Unfortunately its Sunday today and the bazaar is closed we need to decide if we're staying another night or moving on to the north coast. Turkey is huge and we have a long way to go!
