Day 87. Song-Kul - Naryn

A beautiful morning clear and crisp.

After breakfast we packed and headed back down the trail. The track took us along a slightly different route toward the main road and consequently a different river crossing. At first glance it didn’t seem as tricky as yesterday certainly not as deep but lining up the exit looked tricky as there was less than a bike length to turn out and it looked like pretty loose gravel. Sure enough half way across the bike hit a boulder which steered me in exactly the opposite way I wanted to go but after a few tank slappers I wrestled the thing onto the opposite bank and then managed to get it turned back into the track, not pretty but no swim.

The road then wound up and up and up and to the top this mountain range, we pulled over to let a four wheel drive past, they pulled up beside us to say gidday, an Aussie couple travelling in their serious 4 wheel drive from Vladivostok to Munich. This seems like a popular trip, we might have to pencil it in. 

Anyway they told us we had some fun coming up and boy they were right.
We arrived at the summit and looked down down down. I’m not sure if the photos will do it justice but the steepest and gnarliest set of switchbacks I have ever seen. Very tight corners, loose rocks and potholes galore made for a very tricky 1st gear descent.

Looking back up its a bit hard to see the road- but the top is where we came from.

The thought of going over the side I decided not to allow into my consciousness. It took us 21 minutes and 38 seconds to the bottom, how do I know this?  I turned on the go pro at the top and couldn’t take my hand off the handlebars to stop it!
Probably the most boring 20 minutes of footage ever recorded.

Anyway the rest of the gravel road was straightforward and we are now in the town of Naryn.

Tomorrow we head to Tash Rabat and then China. It is probable that this will be our last post until we enter Pakistan.