Day 6 cycle 64 km 5hr25
Woke to light rain so breakfast in bed. By time got up the rain had stopped and sun was not too far away. On bikes at 8.30am. First section was to the checkpoint for the Zorkul Strict Nature Reserve.
Even though this was only just over 20 km it was a slow rough road taking 3 hours. Through hhe checkpoint and we continued on for a couple of kilometres to stop for lunch. Back to the biking at 1pm and the roads had improved marginally. I went for a tumble when I hit the sand. Mind you to maintain a speed of 5 to 8 kph you are doing well.
Stuart had a couple of falls in the boulder sections of the “road”. I haven’t used the big gear ring yet and we seem to spend most of the time in the granny gear. We entered the Zorkul Strict Nature Reserve but we could not see the difference. There are still people living here, grazing their animals just as they do outside the reserve.
The valley is now quite wide with snow capped mountains on the Afghanistan side. In fact the river is getting smaller and it would be easy to wade across to Afghanistan. A marmot ran across the road in front of me. He had a huge bushy tail. We could hear them calling. We eventually found a side stream and a place to camp arriving just before 5pm. Another long hard day.
Rick's travels 