Page 2 of LorraineJ Travel Blog Posts


Asia » Kyrgyzstan » Bishkek July 13th 2012

Magnificent Monuments of Bishkek - 13thJuly 2012 – mile 10,229 With the appearance of the rainbow over our camp-site we thought the storm was going to clear up. But no – the thunder continued all night long constantly moving up and down the valley. It really was pretty spectacular at times, especially when it was directly overhead. To leave the Suusamyr Valley we have one last 3500m pass to cross. The roads are wet and the clouds are low as we make our way up the hairpins. You can hardly see the bike in front through the mist. Its a shame, I expect there are wonderful views back down into the green, yurt dotted valley below. Yesterday the roads were in perfect condition but typically now we are negotiating hairpins in bad weather they are really ... read more
climbing to 3600m in the rain
heading through the Kyrgyz Ala-Too Range
entering the purple zone

Asia » Kyrgyzstan » Suusamyr Valley July 10th 2012

Kyrgyzstan: Jalal-Abad, Jalioos & Perfect Riding (part 2) – 10 July 2012 – mile 10,018 as I said in part 1 I have too many photos so here are the rest of them: We're still climbing higher and higher through the rugged Kyrgyz Ala-Too Mountains – very gnarled and folded and colourfu. We're following the Naryn River through the hills. As part of Kyrgyzstan's hydroelectricity programme there are 5 dams along this stretch “the Lower Naryn Cascade” - this makes for enormous stretches of beautifully coloured green and blue reservoirs which provides perfect reflections of the colourful mountains. Once upon a time the Naryn River used to flow all the way to the Aral Sea. We steadily climb a 3000m pass. At the top the sheer rock sides start to become more “gentle” with patches of ... read more
a warning sign
riding through the rugged bits
Toktogul Resevoir

Asia » Kyrgyzstan » Suusamyr Valley July 10th 2012

Kyrgyzstan: Jalal-Abad, Jalioos & Perfect Riding (part 1) – 10 July 2012 – mile 10,018 Kyrgyzstan immediately feels different from Uzbekistan. We're riding through beautiful scenery; gently rolling hills and you can't predict what's going to be over the next rise. Sometimes its a vast expanse of green dotted with tall slender tress that look like they should be in Tuscany, sometimes its harvested wheat fields, sometimes its bright yellow sunflowers in fields so big that they just disappear off to the horizon. Somehow there's a sense of freedom and you want to be riding through it. We stop briefly in Osh to top up on money and petrol – both experiences totally unlike Uzbekistan. There you have to track down the “official” black market money changers and try at least 3 or 4 petrol station ... read more
 ...and vast sunflower fields.
a traffic jam Kyrgyz style
eying up a potential camp site

Asia » Kyrgyzstan » Osh July 9th 2012

Uzbekistan: the Fergana Valley and onwards into Kyrgyzstan -9th July - mile 9617 We ride out of Tashkent and head east up and over the mountains into the Fergana Valley. Its a beautiful days riding with great views of snow capped peaks, babbling brooks & alpine lakes and then dropping down into the green & fertile valley. This is supposed to be the most densely populated region of Uzbekistan but it doesn't like feel it. Apart from a few factory chimneys belching out smoke we are riding though small agricultural villages where every house is fronted by pergolas draped with vines. It has a very rural feel about it. The crops are all in very neat lines in the fields, the road is edged with neat lines of trees with their bases painted white, there are ... read more
getting higher
near the  Kamchik Pass
Akhangaran Reservoir

Asia » Uzbekistan » Fergana July 7th 2012

Uzbekistan: circling through the mountains – 7 July – mile 9273 Last time we were in Bukhara we spent a lot of time admiring the intricate & colourful Suzanis – the traditional embroidered cloth. This time we left a new “naked” day-bed back at home and it absolutely needs a generous helping of colourful cushions – the perfect excuse for a spot of shopping. As expected, in between the shopping we fit in a few museums and colourfully tiled Madrassas & Mosques. The Ark, the main fortress, defeated us again; last time we arrived in town too late, this time part of the outer wall has collapsed so its closed to tourists!! We did get into the main jail and see the Bug Pit where Stoddart and Conolly, British Officers in The Great Game, ended their ... read more
Suzanis at home
The Ark
The Ark - the collapsed wall that denighed us entry

Asia » Uzbekistan » Bukhara July 4th 2012

If only the bike would run on watermelons!! Watermelons are not necessarily the first thing you thing of when Uzbekistan is mentioned but they are everywhere. Every road is lined with stalls selling them, every vehicle we pass is crammed full of them - I never knew there were so many watermelons in the world. What isn't everywhere is petrol. You have to check out at least 6 petrol stations before you find one actually selling petrol. Most of the local cars run on gas which makes for some very weird looking gas station with big blast barriers between all the pumps. The trick in towns is to loiter with intent in the first petrol station and wait for a local car to turn up, you then stick to it as it drives round town trying ... read more
...in sleepy villages...
...in the middle of nowhere...
..in/on every vehicle we pass

Asia » Uzbekistan » Tashkent July 1st 2012

To get to the Uzbekistan border we have a final 50miles of Kazakhstan to cover. What a 50 miles – its totally different to the previous 1300miles!! There's hills, there's green fields full of crops, there's snow capped mountains in the distance. There's people and life: roadside markets and stalls. Its like we have entered another world. There's some weird stuff too – mostly in the form of very wacky sculptures – a ship on the top of a mountain pass, rings and suns in the parks of Shymkent. I'm sure they all mean something. The tulip lamppost I can work out – Kazakhstan is where tulips come from !! You can tell when we get near the border as suddenly there's lots of trucks all queued up – don't know where they came from as ... read more
hills
Kazygurt Holy Mount, Kazakhstan
green fileds

Asia » Kazakhstan » Southern Kazakhstan » Shymkent June 29th 2012

When you look at the map it feels like we're just riding straight through Kazakhstan to get to Uzbekistan – almost like we wouldn't be going there if we didn't have to. But that's so not true – there are some really exciting places to see, well they're exciting to me! There's a brief stop to register our visas in Aktobe, a big city with a modern, clean, European feel to it – partly due to the influx of Europeans to service the extensive oil & mining industries. Then its onto the 1st exciting stop – Aralsk, though exciting is not quite the right word. Once a booming town, with a prosperous fishing industry, on the shores of the Aral Sea. Now its a desolate, dusty, little village with abandoned fishing boats lying in what used ... read more
instructions on the back of our hotel room door
Aktobe War Memorial & Aliya Moldagulova
Aktobe War Memorial

Asia » Kazakhstan » Western Kazakhstan » Aktobe June 24th 2012

It only takes 2hrs 45mins at the border – that's amazingly fast to get 12 bikes out of Russia and into Kazakhstan. They're friendly too, as soon, as we get the last stamp on our little piece of paper the official shakes our hand and says “ Welcome to Kazakhstan”. From the border the Kazakh steppe stretches off into the distance. In the sunlight the grass seems to be a mix of all shades of green, yellow and brown and the streams are the deepest blue - all very scenic against the clear blue skies. At first glance it looks just the same as the last 20 miles or so of Russia. But its so not the same, as soon as you start riding through it its so totally different – its quite a shock. There ... read more
....there's enormous herds of cows
... there's camels
...there's children playing

Europe » Russia » Volga » Samara June 23rd 2012

From Kazan we're follow the Volga River south to Samara. Well it used to be the river now its the Kuybyshev Reservoir, the largest reservoir in Europe and 3rd largest in the world by surface area. And it really is big, it takes us the whole day to ride its length, mind we did stop off at a few places on route. We're riding through green, rolling hills. The roads are great – good quality and hardly any traffic, certainly none of the queues of trucks we had entering Kazan. It is really enjoyable riding. We call in at Ulyanovsk, originally called Simbirsk, in 1924 it was renamed in honour of Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. He was born here in 1870 and is better known to the world as Lenin. Having visited the house where Stalin was ... read more
gingerbread house villages
they do a great line in roadsigns in Russia
Welcome to Ulyanovsk district & town




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