Kyrgyzstan - To The End of the Pamir Highway

We had to drive through 20km of no man's land to reach the Kyrgyzstan border post. The road condition was pretty dreadful and we were lucky to be doing it on a dry day. There were muddy rutted sections and we could see where the road had collapsed - we felt for the brave cyclists and motorcyclists who had to navigate this road.

We were stopped at a checkpoint part way down, and all was OK until they spotted the Polish guy (sorry we don't know his name) in the back. They looked at his passport and rightly pointed out there was no exit stamp for Tajikistan. We all countered that there can't be an exit stamp when he hasn't been allowed in the country, but the guards weren't interested in listening and kept repeating 'problem'. It soon became apparent it would only continue to be a problem until we gave them something. They suggested cigarettes or alcohol, which we said we didn't have. The Polish guy then started to rummage in his bags and produced a bottle of vodka and suddenly he had his passport back and we were waved on our way. Not a nice first impression to the country and we hadn't even reached the official border post at this point.

At the border, the Polish guy came in with Judith and I to get our passports stamped, while Colin and Eric had the vehicles inspected. The Polish guy was asked no questions at all, but as we jumped back into Lolly, we had another further check of the passports, and once again, one of the officials started to make an issue. Thankfully, the Polish guy now spoke a bit of Russian to the official which seemed to smooth it over.

As always, the scenery and feel of a new country is noticeably different. Sary Tash, the border town, has a spectacular backdrop of high snow-topped mountains, the water in the river was a red colour, and there were much larger herds of cattle and horses than we'd seen in Tajikistan.

Some interesting facts about Kyrgyzstan:

• Around 90% of the country is mountainous

• Horse culture is key to Kyrgyz life, often described as the Kyrgyz peoples's 'wings'

• Their yurts are a masterpiece of nomadic engineering which can be assembled or dismantled in just a few hours and provide excellent insulation against both summer heat and winter cold.

• The national sport of Kok Boru is a fast-paced horseback game where teams compete to carry a goat carcass into the opposing teams goal. Unfortunately we didn't get a chance to see a game. The World Nomad Games are taking place in Kyrgyzstan at the end of August/beginning of September which meant there were less regional games taking place through the earlier summer months.

• Walnut forests in southern Kyrgyzstan are among the largest natural walnut forests in the world.

  
  

As we headed towards the town, we had a group of kids on donkeys coming towards us, and they seemed to be deliberately spread out across the road. We had to slow to ease past them, and they all had their hands out demanding something. When we just waved and carried on they shouted things, which we're pretty sure wasn't 'welcome to our country'. The first four Stans we have visited have all been so welcoming and friendly, so we weren't feeling the love for the Kyrgyz people based on our first experiences.

We dropped off our Polish traveller at his guesthouse, then visited an ATM and a small general store to buy sim cards. We met a group of cyclists who had just come off the Pamir Highway, including a German couple that we had seen at the vegetarian cafe way back in Samarkand.

The shop keeper made hard work of issuing us all with sim cards, but at only £3 for unlimited data we weren't complaining.

We headed just out of town to a lovely open grassy spot with distant mountain views and horses galloping past. A local stopped by to warn us not to walk around late at night as wolves roam this area.

Our original plan had been to drive straight to the city of Osh, the official end (or start) of the Pamir Highway. Now Judith and Eric were feeling a bit more comfortable about the issue with their Nissan, they were keen to visit Lenin Peak, one of Central Asia's most iconic mountains. At 7,134m high, it straddles the border between Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan and is the second highest peak in the Pamir Mountain range. Despite its height, it is considered one of the most accessible and easy to climb mountains of its size. Although we hadn't planned to visit this area, we realised it would be mistake to miss it when it was only about a one and a half hour drive to reach it from Sary Tash.

We called in at another small town called Sary Mogul to top up water and pick up a few more fresh provisions.

From here, we were on a pretty decent gravel track heading towards the spectacular mountains. We passed lots of nomad sites with yurts and animals, here for the summer grazing. We decided that rather than park at the base camp site, which is the starting point for the serious hikers and mountain climbers, that we would head to the other side of the valley next to Tulpar Lake, which is one of the most beautiful alpine lakes in Kyrgyzstan. At 3,500m it looks up at the towering north face of Lenin Peak. There are several tourist yurt camps around the lake, but we fund the perfect spot above these, with views of the lakes in one direction and the mountains behind.

We decided this was the perfect time to crack open a bottle of red wine to toast getting this far in our adventures.

The following day, Colin and I set off to hike along the valley for closer views of the Peak. The marmots were much more chilled here, so we got some nice shots of them sunning themselves and nibbling on flowers. We had good views of the base camp across the river. There were some overland trucks parked up there, one of which we were pretty sure was Armin (this was confirmed when he hiked past us later in the day). In two weeks time, the camp would be at full capacity with climbing season underway. We were happy we'd got a much nicer park up spot.

By the end of the day we had been joined by two more German vehicles - Jorg in a Land cruiser, and Angela and Hansjorg in a Landcruiser truck camper. The evening light was just beautiful. We all agreed another day here was a must.

The following day was even more beautiful with clear views in all directions. Eric was going off to walk the Travellers Pass hike with the other Germans. A 15km 6-7 hour tough hike wasn't so appealing to us, so Colin went off to scramble up a steep hill nearby where Eric had said there were terrific 360 degree views, and Judith and I enjoyed some 'me' time in the morning.

When Colin returned, we went for a walk around the lakes which glistened in the sunshine. Angela and Hansjorg returned early from their hike, saying it was a bit tougher than they liked. Eric and Jorg returned a little later - it sounded like there were some pretty hairy sections to cover. We had now been joined by Jan, a deaf cyclist form Belgium who had pitched his tent near us, and a couple from New Zealand who had been mountain biking around the passes. Colin had seen them whiz past with admiration at their skills. We discovered that the guy, Jamie Nicholls, was a champion enduro cyclist, but he had suffered a horrific accident when working on a new mountain bike trail in Chile. I won't go into the details now, but you can read his story if you google 'Jamie Nichols New Zealand mountain biker' - very inspirational.

The following day we decided it was time to move on and head to Osh. We retraced our steps to Sary-Tash.

Once through Sary Tash, the road quality improved. We had a couple of passes to get up and over, and worryingly Lolly really struggled. We were still pumping out clouds of black smoke and she was losing power badly. It was a relief when we started going downhill which gave us the opportunity to enjoy the colours of the surrounding hills and mountains.

Osh is Kyrgyzstan's second city. After being used to the pleasant cool temperatures at over 3,000m, it was a bit of a shock to be hit with the mid 30's heat in Osh which sits at less than 1,000 m.

Osh is an ancient city of the Silk Road, so we were expecting it to be an interesting place to spend a few days and regroup after the intensity of the Pamir Highway. Judith and Eric had booked an AirB&B while they waited for their delivery of truck parts from Germany. We headed to a hotel that allows overlanders to park up and use their facilities (shower, laundry, breakfast) for a small fee. Armin was there when we arrived - he had taken a room. We joined several other German expedition trucks around the back of the hotel - not glamorous, but relatively quiet.

We headed to a beer garden to enjoy an ice cold beer in the heat, and had a tasty meal at a local restaurant.

The following day we followed a walking tour of the central area from our guide book, but we were a bit underwhelmed with what we saw. We decided to book a room for a night to enjoy some air-con and good WiFi to work on our blog and Instagram. In the evening we met up with Eric and Judith at an Italian restaurant (we had all been fixated on getting a pizza fix). Armin, Angela and Hansjorg, and Jorg joined us as well.

The following day, Colin had the excitement of visiting the Car Parts Market with Hansjorg to look for spare parts needed for repairs to Lolly. I think 'kids in sweet shop' springs to mind.

We went for dinner with Hansjorg and Angela in the evening and were joined by Judith and Eric. We slept back in Lolly and got ourselves ready to set off in a north-east direction to visit a couple of Kyrgyzstan's popular lakes.