Nice to have two consecutive days to chill out.
As usual this morning after breakfast the storage area was busy with the cleaning and oiling of bikes. All got very grimy coming into Almaty on the highway on Tuesday with the rain and parts of construction. The four leaving busied themselves packing their machines into boxes for the long journey home.
And then we have four new riders joining the tour and two have Irish connections. Just a short chat with each of them; will find out more later. Robert Gix (Ireland) doesn't actually live in Ireland but carries an Irish passport, less complications with that. He was born and bred in USA and now resides in Hungary. But his grandfather (on his mother’s side) came from Puckane up by Lough Derg and he still has relations around Nenagh. Robert cycles with the tour from here till they arrive in Tehran on Sept 6 i.e almost 40 days cycling.
The second is another Richard, a native of Bangor, Co Down but resident in England for the last number of years. He’s cycling for 10 days as far as Osh (like myself). How will the group refer to the two Richards? We’ll see.
I wandered off down to The pedestrianised section of Zhibek Zholy (or Jibek Joly) i.e Silk Road with the city back to normal, offices open after yesterday’s holiday. All the usual pavement activities along here. Spotted one familiar trademark offering storage solutions.I notice the streets patrolled by parking attendants (official or not?) busy calling motorists to a vacant spot and directing the parking....”lock hard, sir”.
Nearby, is the gold-domed Central Mosque built in 1999 and one of the biggest in the country with space for 3000 worshippers in the main prayer hall. As I was in shorts, I couldn't enter (in Istanbul they provided a wrap to cover the bare legs in that situation). As I was there mid-day prayer was just finishing and mostly men were emerging.
I took the metro back to the general location of the hotel. Almaty’s new underground system was opened in 2011 and has just one 7 km line in a L shape. To travel any distance on the line just costs 80 Tenge (about 23 cent). It wasn't overcrowded as I took it around 2pm.
Now back at the hotel, it's a matter of repacking for the final 10 day (3+7) section to Osh.
The board has gone up with an overview of the next 3 days to the next Rest Day in Karakol (Kyrgyzstan). As one can see, as we move away from Almaty (beyond the Red Cow Roundabout) the road conditions deteriorate. And a good bit of climbing to be done on day 2 into the bargain. Looking forward to it.
Thank God for a lovely day.
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