Still on the plateau – Murghab to Wild Camp behind Rocks

Today’s ride on Komoot 

Ralf and Marion and I arranged to leave early but Marion had been sick and vomiting last night so it was a slow start. What a trouper Marion is. I doubt I would have had the resilience to start riding today.

Last night I spoke to Graham the eccentric english guy that we met a couple of times before Ak Baital Pass. He’s still eccentric and there seems to be something happening all the time with him and it’s never far from chaos.

He actually saw some of us on the climb up Ak Baital.  We were worried about him as he caught up and went ahead of us quite late in the day. It was a cold night and we knew he wouldn’t make it over the pass but we didn’t see him  the next day. 

He was sleeping in a culvert and saw Ralf and Marion’s heads go by as they ascended early in the day. He later got up, made it up the pass and down to the yurt on the other side where he stayed the night. The next day they gave him a lift to Murghab where he sold his bike to the helpful guy at reception at the Pamir Hotel. He’s now on his way to China … hitchhiking. I found his story rivetting, not only for the content but in the random way he jumped from episode to episode.

So, at 7:45, Ralf, Marion and I left Murghab. They made it 30kms before they made the wise decision to stop for the day and camp so that Marion could rest. If I had been in her position, I would have had another rest day.

I carried on in beautiful weather, then turned I to another valley and saw a big storm coming at me. I kept going until I was sure it was coming my way, made a quick lunch of Nutella and bread then donned my wet weather gear and huddled behind a rock.

The temperature dropped dramatically and there was small hail and lots of wind then some rain. I waited it out until it was almost finished, then got going. I was a bit wet (rocks don’t provide much shelter) and my fingers were getting very cold so I ended up wearing plastic bags around my gloves for nearly an hour.

There was a fairly gentle uphill that was never ending until of course, the obvious happened. By this stage the character of today’s journey had changed. Only trucks and I were using the “asphalt” road. And they were zig zagging like drunkards on a Friday night so they could avoid the huge potholes and broken road. It wasn’t so bad for me but I had to avoid the potholes which were insanely deep in sections. The car drivers followed paths off the road. The paths were badly corrugated and of no use to me, but the car drivers drove like car thieves and flew across the ground. 

There was also the curious sight of earth moving equipment being driven in convoy along the off road paths. They’d be passed by similar sized convoys of EV delivery people in their little white EVs heading somewhere (I have no idea where).

In Murghab, we had seen them unloading EVs from Chinese car carriers and being driven off by locals. I’d assume that the M41 simply can’t take the weight of a car carrier or earth moving equipment. The next 5 days would certainly confirm this.

I picked out a camp spot on iOverlander which was a rock formation that gave me the unique ability to camp in the lee of the rocks. It was 500m off the road sticking out from the the flat wide valley like the proverbials.

I had no sooner selected the calmest campsite, and the wind changed. So I waited 15 minutes thinking I was on Candid Camera, scared to put the tent up for fear of another change.

I decided on a good spot with a small fireplace nearby. There was dry cow dung and with my petrol, I could have a nice fire happening. In the end, it was too cold to be outside. I cooked pasta with onions, capsicum and a tomato-herb sauce and ate it inside the tent.

It wasn’t long before I crawled into my sleeping bag. I love that thing. It’s my coccoon, a One Planet Sonder -8 from Melbourne (they should know about cold weather), and I absolutely love it. I’ll do a review one day.