As nice as it was being in a city for a change, it was time to leave.
Late start, my usual. Am I lazy, or nervous sometimes ? In my head, there are a million logistics issues floating around – food, currency, weather, gear, route, the effort required etc. That can be draining and I think I deal with it by moving slowly in the mornings.
The Cube House is a nice hotel run by fantastic people. You can see the design work they’ve put into it, but their friendliness is amazing. On my first night there after 100kms in the heat, the lady made me a meal after I asked for a restaurant recommendation. I clearly looked tired.
Anyway, breakfast at the hotel was late too and I definitely fuelled up and ate all of it.
I also found out where the money changers were, so when I left, I headed to the bigger supermarket and then to the money changers to get some Tajik Somoni. It’s hard to get these days. Banks don’t sell it and not all of the money changers had it, and when I found some, they didn’t have 100USD in it.
Finally off, and I was definitely late. It was about 11am as I joined the throng of smelly traffic and headed out of Osh.
I met Dragan from Serbia who is a bit of a hard nut by the looks. Nice guy but he’s travelled through some tough countries and said that he had bad weather most of the way. Glad he was heading in the opposite direction.
The route was a 64km climb, gentle in most parts with a steep 5kms at the finish. Then there was a swooping, fast 20km downhill.
Soon I had numb fingers and stopped to rest my wrists from braking. I couldn’t trust the roads or the oncoming drivers so the brakes got a good workout.
I booked a nice guesthouse, and had a great dinner but I was dead tired and slept early. The host spoke very good English and his mum cooked a very nice meal. His sister did the breakfast, so it was a complete family affair.