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It is a cold morning about 4 C - we are still well above 3000 metres above sea level. The coulds look threatening over the mountains in Tajikistan where we came from yesterday.
Our farmhouse accomodation in Sary Tash, Kyrgyzstan, although basic was a lovely warm bed for the night and we got fried eggs and bread for breakfast.
Soon after we leave to head north on our 500 mile transit day we quickly start to lose height and by the time we got to Osh we had dropped to about 1000 metres and the weather was very warm gain, touching 30C.
Getting around Osh was a nightmare, so much traffic and we lost so much time on our long day. As we travelled further north however the road become considerably less busy and we had some really lovely riding through mountainous areas. We then start to climb again and get above 3000 metres, jackets back on! On the 3000 metres plateau we saw a multitude of people living in yerts tending to mainly horses grazing on lush green grass. These people appear to be very poor and it's difficult to contemplate how they survive the harsh winters. The families seem to be happy and content with their lifestyle however - I guess they do not know anything else.
On the same plateau there were 3 sets of police in different locations checking for speeding motorists. Steve and Chris unfortunately got caught for being over the limit and got fined $50 each.
On leaving the high plateau we were hit with a massive storm which made riding down very difficult indeed. To add to the problem the heavy rain was dislodging rocks which were falling on the road, one fell just behind me at one point. We survived and got into Bishkek but there was heavy traffic and our riding group got split up and caused a bit of stress between us to say the least. Nice comfy beds in the hotel and Steve and I grabbed a local restuarant meal. Then silly me decided to watch the England Columbia world cup match, so didn't get to bed until about 3am. Still, it was good to see England go through to the next round.
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