The Silk Road
Turkey
Day 1
The start of our journey, Negotiating the hectic traffic in Istanbul on a motorbike is quite a risky thing, you have to stay 100% concentrated on all vehicles around you and have an idea what they will be doing next, I was very happy when we got onto the highway even though it was unusually cold once we got going, we were headed to Ankara 580km away and around 7 hours of riding, this is a long time to be on a motorbike with such a hard seat, after 200km I was not so worried about the hard seat the problem was i could no longer feel my fingers or toes and then it started snowing, it was raining and suddenly i could not see anything, i lifted my visor which was a big mistake it made it even worse, snow flakes hitting your eyes at 80 kmh hurts like hell, I had to pull over. Knowing that the snow was not going to stop I carried on for 30km to the next fuel station they said if i carried on for another 20 km it was raining not snowing so I continued, my gloves were wet and my fingernails were burning they were so cold, my feet were sloshing around in half frozen water. As soon as i arrived in Ankara i checked in to the hotel filled the bath with hot water and jumped in.
Day 2
Rain and cold, this is turning into an adventure already and a pretty demanding one at that, was it not for the rain and cold it would have been an easy ride but the weather can make a boring ride into an adventure that is worth writing about. Fortunately I had prepared well in Germany and had a good rain suit, without this I would never had made it this far. My biggest issue was my gloves were not waterproof and water was somehow getting into my boots.
Day 3 we spent the day in Cappadocia……………..repaired land-rovers 
Day 4 575 km long day, today the GPS got a little confused and I ended up on some dirt tracks marked as main roads, it was a whole lot of fun and got to use the bike for what it was designed to do, This bike is fantastic on the offroad sections and onroad is comfortable and fast, I am enjoying every minute I am riding. ended up doing 650Km but the detour was well worth it and will be taking the group on some of the dirt roads that I had found which are suitable for the Disco’s
Iran
We have averaged around 500 km a day over the last 4 days and I am looking forward to Teheran where we have a 2 night stay, that is 3 days away and still quite a distance
The border crossing was as always fun, 10 hours to get all the paperwork done and it is also a very expensive process but we won’t go there, a short ride to our stopover after taking some pics of mount Ararat, I am sleeping like a baby these days, feeling the long distances a bit, woke up this morning to a wonderful blue sky, not one hint of a cloud, packed all the winter ware into the suitcase and dumped it into the Landrover, BIG mistake, not 100km into the ride and i had left later than the vehicles so my winter clothes were gone and I was riding straight into some pretty nasty looking clouds, the sun disappeared and it got cold and believe it or not, you guessed it started raining again %*%*&^&^(*)*&%&$#
We have now reached Tehran and the weather has improved, 2 days to rest get the vehicles sorted, change oil on the KTM and get the blog and photos sorted out
Where the people are so friendly and the picture painted is so far from reality, If only more people and mainly those that have made an opinion based on media like TV and newspaper reports, and the opinions of others came to have a look for themselves. I could go on and write a whole lot about how nice the people here are, but that would just be another persons opinion. Just do it for yourself and come see how different the reality is. I highly recommend Iran for a holiday.
.
Turkmenistan
Turkmenistan, Long roads, hot weather and Sandstorms. Our route took us from Mary to Ashgabat for us it is time to service vehicles and Motorbike, So Bruce and I had the vehicles washed and vacuumed a few Kg’s Turkmenistan dust from inside the cars, I fitted a Brand NEW set of tyres to my bike, Nothing like a new set of rubber, then we continued through the Karakorum desert to Dashagous, I had been waiting a long time to test out my new motorbike in the desert, !!!What a blast!!!!! I have not had so much fun since riding the roof of Africa, riding a heavy bike in soft sand sounds like hard work and is!, but this bike was built for just this and was designed to be ridden hard, so the faster you go the better it performs and the more fun it is, I had a great time riding in the dunes and soft sandy tracks. Back on the main roads we were blasted with sand most of the time, it gets in everywhere and your eyes are bloodshot and feel like sandpaper at the end of the day. After a great night camping in the desert we left for the last stopover before Uzbekistan
.
Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan
I am slowly getting closer to the highlight of my trip, in a few days I will separate from the group and take a side excursion through Tajikistan, Jumping the gun a bit here though. Uzbekistan……Khiva, Bukhara, and Samarkand so full of history it is like stepping back in time, Got some great photo’s and enjoyed the comfortable hotels, My butt is getting a little sore these days, We have now completed half the Silk Road and I have done over 12000 Km on my bike from Munich.
.
Tajikistan
TAJIKISTAN
From the start I knew that this was going to be an ADVENTURE and was not to be disappointed, I left the Group in Samarkand and headed for the border fully loaded with all my camping gear, Not to many tourists go here and even less on a Motorbike and this was very evident at the border post, no one was sure what the procedure was, The officials were super friendly and soon all was done and i was free to go…..Huh that easy, This is so unusual there were no long forms to fill out or complicated documentation, just 40 Euro insurance for the bike, a stamp in the passport and Off you go.
Most of the roads to Dushanbe are under construction and the temporary alternative roads provided are more like a 4×4 trails track, I was in good spirit and made a beeline for Dushanbe, I had 3 days and a long long way to go, 1200Km to be exact and judging by the roads I would be in the saddle for many hours each day
My First big obstacle: I had been told about a tunnel, 4Km long and filled with water, knowing that sometimes conditions can be exaggerated I took the info with a pinch of salt, it was way worse than anyone could imagine, even in Africa this would be closed and a BIG scull and crossbones put at the entrance, When I arrived the entrance was partially blocked by a vehicle that had gotten stuck trying to exit………Great start, he was up to his doors in muddy water, steam belching from the engine. Inside the tunnel dimly lit there were a few light bulbs dangling in the air giving just enough light to see water dripping in large amounts onto electric cables hanging from the roof, shiny puddles of water some 10 metres long, unknown depth and lots of steel spikes sticking out the puddles, The water was from the melting glacier above and I immediately felt the drop in temperature already barely over Zero Degrees. Needless to say the light at the end of the tunnel was like heaven and it truly was, from 200 meters inside the tunnel I could already see the most amazing view dropping down from snow capped mountains into a stunning green valley.
After a distance I came across a Austrian couple riding 2 heavily loaded bicycles so stopped to say Hi, We exchanged stories of the horrific tunnel and I carried on, Deciding it was getting late and cold stopped beside a river and set up camp, Along came the 2 Bicycles and they joined me for the night, We combined my tinned can of beans and meat with a type of bean rice they had and had a good meal,
In the morning I was ready to go at 6:00 and Patrick stuck his head out his tent and announced that the border that I was headed for was closed to tourists, he had read it in his lonely planet. This was bad news for me, if I lost a day I would never catch up with the group and this would be a disaster, decision time go back or take a chance, I did the 80 Km to The city of Dushanbe to see if I could verify this information and confirmed that it was right so immediately started back with the thought of doing the tunnel again, it was a race against time now I had a lot of distance to cover and not that much time, I basically had to make the border to Kyrgyzstan today and it was over 300 hard km away. All went well even the tunnel, I then started gaining altitude and had a 3500 metre pass to get through, the weather turned and blue skies disappeared, caught in a blizzard at 3000 metres is no fun at all, and I had left my rain jacket in the Landover, ice cold sleet rain hammered down and gale force winds threatened to blow me off my bike… No exaggerations, I now know how easily mountain climbers can get into serious trouble and how quick it can happen, the roads turned into slushy slippery rivers, problem is I had to keep going to get to the border. With frozen fingers I started the decent on the other side of the mountain and the rain stopped, road condition improved but not that much.
I made the border at 4:30 and had been on the bike since 6:00 that morning, that’s a long time, one more test for the day, having done border procedures I was given the free to go signal so pressed the start button and it just went ba!!!!!!?????, my battery was flat….shit what now, the one thing about a KTM 990 it has no kick start, I tried several times to run start just locked the back wheel so pushed the bike to the top of a long hill, this is at high altitude so I weeeeezing even in 5th gear downhill it is impossible to run start this bike, after 1 ½ hours a friendly local offered to take out his battery and we held it up to the aux plus and the frame, It worked and I hit the road not wanting it to stall, I did 100km and stopped at 9:00 dead tired, quickly set up camp, made some food and slept.
Kyrgyzstan
Next morning was up early and making up the distance, I was dead tired and my whole body hurt, the pounding I had taken the last 2 days were having their effect, I had blisters on my hands and my knees hurt like hell, The dirt roads continued and they were mostly stony and corrugated, so needed full concentration. Twice I had come close and once resulted in a big dent in my front rim, I was at 140kmh and the rock I hit was like an iceberg, it did not look that big but more than half was hidden in soft sand, The front wheel glanced off to one site at high speed and could have ended up nasty, I just managed catch it by accelerating even more which pulled the bike strait. Bad weather was honing in on me, there was an ominous black cloud a few km behind me, my reaction was to ride faster, over the next 80km it stuck to me like glue, I could see this was a big storm and was trying to get ahead, I could not believe every time i looked up the black clouds were right on top of me and just a little further were bright blue skies. I finally got back onto Tar roads and could pick up the speed a little, What was about to happen would shake me for a long time.
I had just come into a small town and just wanted to get through, this storm was catching me again and the wide open blue sky was only a few km away, I could see on my GPS that I made a turn away from the direction we had been heading over the last 100km and it was unlikely that the storm would make the same turn, that would be just too weird, I was just a little over the speed limit and what do you know a cop jumps into the road holding a hand held radar, SHIT man can he not see the storm?/?, I looked behind me and saw a big tree about 2 stories high fall over the road and total chaos erupting. I opened my visor and looked pleadingly into the cops eyes. Then the storm hit us, the full blast of wind, sand and dust hit the cop straight on, his hat, books and the radar gun went flying, I wasn’t going to wait around, he was running to try catch his stuff so pulled off like I was at the start of a super cross event, as quick as that I was out of it again until the first corner, I was doing around 100kmh when I came into the corner and a full blast of wind hit me from the side pushing me out, I leaned more than twice of what you normally would and was still running wide, I could not lean anymore without going down, the wind was so strong I was in a two wheel drift almost lifting me and my bike into the air, as I was about to go over the side of the road into a big ditch, the wind suddenly stopped and I was thrown over into the middle of the road because I was leaning so much, I stopped on the side of the road heart pumping like mad and was shaking a little. Too close for comfort that one.
Just before dark I pulled into the hotel where the vehicles were parked outside.
China
The first problems start, Cause unknown at this stage……… bad or dirty fuel maybe?, Malfunctioning sensor, OR….. Fuel injection problem???, total loss of power, turn the ignition off and back on and the bike runs like new for about 20km then looses power again. Sometimes I can ride 200km before it starts spluttering,
We were in convoy and had 60km to destination, it was a really hot day, how hot I was still to find out and is evident in the photo I made, when moving you don’t really feel the full effect of 50 deg plus, it feels like an oven but still bearable, you are cooled by your sweat being evaporated by the wind as you move. When you are standing still and there is no wind or shade then you realize just how hot it really is.
So needless to say in a valley (pan) where it is the hottest, my bike just spluttered to a stop. The convoy did not see I was in trouble so continued on, after 20 minutes I realized they were not coming back, I guess the call of an ice cold beer waiting at the hotel was just to much………… they did not realize my predicament, with very little water on me I was stuck out in the scorching sun, temperature was 55 degrees and the sun was directly above me so not even my bike provided any shade, I stripped all my riding gear off to stop from overheating which did not help to much, and stared to strip the bike to see if there was anything I could do to get it running, seat off air filter out (big job) checked everything, put it all together and it started, quickly got everything together and started riding, in the end it turned out that my fuel pump needed to be replaced as it was not providing enough pressure, no big deal when you can get a spare.
