No sleep till Almaty

8th June

No sleep till Almaty

The bikes in Bishkek that had been delivered by truck were in special steel frames/crates with screens removed, if they had them. Front wheels had also been removed to reduce the volume, so the bikes could be double-decked on the lorry. Most of them are a third the size of our bike. The guys seem to have been waiting a number of days for the arrival of the bikes; they worked well into the night putting the bikes back together.

We expect to be one of the last to leave in the morning, but we seem to be first - we are probably heading in different directions anyway, after all, we have already done the Pamir Highway...

Just 240km to do today and we cross from Kyrgyzstan into Kazakhstan. Our fears about not having any paperwork from Kyrgyzstan to exit the country were unfounded. The only thing that happened was that the soldier insisted Francoise went through with people crossing by foot and not as a passenger on the bike. The Kazakhstan guys were probably the friendliest of all - don't mention Borat or ask whether they are all brothers? They were charmed by the now quite dirty tails on the back of the bike. All done and dusted in record time and we are riding what should be the last leg.

Once we clear the border and are in open country, Francoise needed a loo stop. Plenty of suitable trees. Already to go again. We were only 20km from the border in Bishkek, so we still had the final 200km to complete. Getting closer. Toilet breaks are, almost as a requirement, away from everything. Nothing except wildlife. In this instance a lot of flies that have been bothering Paul whilst he has been waiting to get going again. All good to go. All not good.

Total electrical failure of the bike. Francoise cursing herself about having had to stop for the toilet break. Paul asking himself whether he had forgotten how to make the bike work? It was also very warm and the flies seemed to be congregating. Play around with the switches for a while. Turn the bike off and on again just to see - but it doesn't come on again. Surely, not with 200km to go? What was the Plan B?

Tools out, off comes the seat, take off the bits and pieces that sit on top of the battery box, swat a few flies and jiggle around with the leads from the battery. Seems to work as electric comes back on. Put everything back together, eat some of the flies and start the bike. But it doesn't start - it dies straight away. Repeat process but before putting bike back together, start bike this time. Paul now getting quite grubby. Bike starts and is put back together again. Whilst Paul is putting the bike back together two Rumanians from the hotel turn up and ask whether everything is OK? Francoise explains - they had probably never seen a dirty Harley before (the bike was clean now but they had watched Paul cleaning it yesterday morning) or a Harley rider actually looking under the seat. One has to note that Paul's abilities are very limited in this respect, but we seem to have power at least now...

We vow to ride the 200km to Almaty without stopping. No tea or toilet breaks. No stopping for roadworks to pluck up courage - or at least if we do, we don't turn the engine off - and no stalling the bike! 

 

We manage another 10km and then lose power whilst riding. Repeat process with regard to removing seat etc. No need to eat any more flies as we seem to have stopped in an area with none. Just masses of big black birds. Very Hitchkockian.  Re-jiggle wires and remove some of dust from terminals and re-tighten connections etc. Oh for some WD40! Everything good and we ride. Roads are good, road works minimal, even get above 70mph on some stretches! All about getting there now.

 

We reach Almaty with clearly some issues with dirt, vibrations and electrics and also the clutch. But we are there - round the world, two-up on an 'in-appropriate' motorcycle - back at the same hotel in Kazakhstan , where we had had to start in 2014 following Paul's admission to hospital. We made it!

 

And in the nick of time. Thunder and lightening, very very frightening and it is no longer an issue anymore whether we have covered the seat cushions as they are getting very, very wet because we don't have to ride tomorrow.

So what about Kazakh viniculture?