Day 89. Tash Rabat - Kashgar.

You might want to pour yourself a long one for this post, I needed one after writing it!  

We knew crossing into China was always going to be testing, we decided to up it a notch or two just to make sure our stress levels stayed at supermax. The rain I mentioned yesterday just did not let up and we had puddles on the floor when we woke up. Luckily I realised early on and put everything up high. 

We had a pot belly stove which we didn’t light, but on it I put passports and USD for safe keeping. What I didn’t count on was water running down the flue and pooling on top of the stove and our passports and money. Oh shit, shit and double shit. This must be a bad dream. Unfortunately not. 

So we headed to the kitchen the only source of heat, the lady was so nice, she sent out a man to start the generator and out came a hair dryer, so here I am at 7 o’clock trying to separate pages of the passports and blotting up the water with napkins and then getting to work with the hairdryer. At 8 another really nice man relieved me of duty so I could eat breakfast. The passports weren’t just damp but absolutely sodden, the covers have begun to delaminate, some visas have come loose and they are about double the fatness they usually are. 

In the meantime Robyn had turned our yurt into what looked like the divvy up from the great train robbery USD spread on every available surface. 

Everyone turned out to wave us off in pouring rain and the rough road didn’t seem any better than yesterday. We hit the tarmac and duly arrived at the first Kyrgyzstan exit point. 

I nervously handed over the passports but all was well. We then entered no mans land for about 60km. Absolutely stunning scenery incredibly bleak landscape with mountains galore. The Torugart pass did not disappoint and I think the bleakness of the day added to it. 

The temperature plummeted as we gained altitude until we finally reached the Khyrgistan final exit. There was confusion over a piece of paper that we didn’t have but they rummaged through our paperwork until they found something that would do the job. So a further few km’s down the road and after passing a long line of trucks we arrived at the Chinese frontier. 

Unfortunately for us our guide was nowhere to be seen so no further progress was possible. It was 11:10 and at 11:30 with still no guide the gate was closed and locked for lunch. And up here they have 3 hour lunches. So here we are at 3700 metres, sleet showers, and 4 degrees, nowhere to hide or shelter. 

Luckily for us a Kyrgyz guide waiting for clients offered for us to sit in his van. Thankyou thankyou. 

But of course our imaginations ran wild and we began to figure out what the hell we were going to do other than die of hypothermia. 

So after 2 1/2 hours some action occurred on the other side of the fence and our guide appeared like magic. 

We still had to wait for the gate to open but we started to feel a bit better. So the gate opened and people from both sides crossed, some tourists told us the road was bad with many slips, it turns out this was the reason our guide couldn’t make it. 

So after a brief discussion we decided that Robyn would go in the van which turned out to be a good decision. 

Just through the gate was out first passport check, we then descended 5km to the first major check which included an xray of the bike. 

We then had about 90km of potholed road with many slips to negotiate, the clay here is a reddish brown and the river which was in flood was just a heaving brown deluge cascading down the valley. 

The bike took on the appearance of something out of a mad max movie and I probably looked the same. 

We finally made it to the big customs control where we unpacked everything from the bike so it could be xrayed before being transferred to the van. 

Then we entered passport control and all went well until it came time for fingerprints. For some reason the scanner would not accept Robyn’s fingerprints. Many many tries a machine reset later and one of the staff used to trial it before it finally worked. 

I have to say every official so far has been professional and courteous so lets hope it stays that way. 

We then set of for Kashgar, about 65km away, with all the checkpoints it took almost 2 hours. 

We are knackered and on top of that we have lost 2 hours, we haven’t crossed a dateline but it is decreed that we will be on Beijing time. 

Our guide showed us to a restaurant where we ordered our food, he paid the bill and left. We hadn’t had a chance to get any money yet. 

Exhausted we flopped into bed around 11:30 local time. 

I cannot tell you how many hands have been on our passports today but it is a lot and no one even batted an eyelid about the state of them- incredible.