Life in Urkadurkastan...

This is it…the moment I have been waiting for since Feb…HOLIDAYS.

For me a holiday is a little different….instead of a trip away it’s a trip home to the familiar…Speights, Vegemite, road signs I understand, good fenced roads, no hoiking goubbies on the foot path, low altitude, Battered Blue cod, Pepper steak or venison pies, television I can understand, people I can converse with….and my bike.

These breaks, 3 times a year are necessary to re focus and recover. Will take a little adjustment. If I am stopped by the police, I need to remember not to hand him a 300 som ($10) bribe and ride off….When riding, my sole focus is, not to avoid potholes and wandering stock (Although be alert for these) I can enjoy the ride.

It is autumn here now, in the town it is quite pleasant, colours are changing, cool at night. But its getting colder at site, pick the coldest NZ winter conditions, we get that every second or third day at site. It’s a 1 km walk (or ride) to my office. I usually walk whatever the weather. This morning was about minus 5 and light snow or Sneg as it is known over here….But tomorrow I escape ..Waahooo!!

8 am its to security and into the Van. For the 500km ride across 80km tundra, down the pass, 130km around the lake, 90 km through the gorge running the gauntlet of corrupt police around every bend, and 200 km across the plains home to my wife, who I have not seen for 9 days. A small feed and scotch or glass of wine and by that time I am ready for bed and a good …nights sleep. (What else had you in mind )

It takes 3 or 4 days for me to adjust to sleeping at altitude, but when I get down to low altitude, its lights out Larry. Maybe I am not as tough as some others but when I get home I cannot go out for a feed and a few drinks, my red blood count is high because of time at altitude with the low air density (oxygen levels) and all I need to do sniff an open bottle of Baltica 6 and I am asleep.

Baltica 6 is the nearest I can find to, but almost completely unlike Speights old dark.

Tuesday Morning, Manas Airport, queue for security, queue for check in, queue for passport control. Then to the BMI lounge for the 1 hour wait. Kyrgyz queuing is a chaotic art form that naturally falls to order. No structured English queues….just a mad shove and jostle for the little opening like sand falling through the orifice of an hour glass, you get through in the end.

Boarding call and another queue. Then the Taxi past the rows of US military aircraft and take off. Alma-aty, then London and civilized queuing. 9 hours so off to Hounslow for a bit of browsing and English newspapers. London…Singapore…Sydney…Auckland…Christchurch, and more sleep.

Manas is a large US air force base that is used as a stepping stone into Afghanistan. Tonnes and tones of supplies and hundreds of personnel travel through Manas to and from Afghanistan. I have to admit I am pleased that the US military personnel do not get leave passes in Bishkek. The place would be a mess. As it is, you sit in a taxi and the driver is a little cold…sooner or later you always get the one word question…Americanski? I shake my head “Nyet…Nouve Zealandia” It like flicking a switch, the smile comes on and you would swear the driver and I had been buddies for years.

Friday Morning 9th, To Casbolts where Craig and Jim have my baby prepped and primed and ready to go. Sort out some details, try on some new boots and head for Te Anau. Saturday sort some stuff out around the house, Sunday Teretonga track day. Monday Chch, Tuesday Palmy, Wed North of Auckland, Thur Cape Reinga back toAk, ATNR. Friday Turangi, Sat and Sun Rusty nuts GC, Monday Picton, Tuesday Karamea Wed Chch. Thursday recover, drop the bike back to Casbolts until my next visit. Friday depart Chch…

March break and the Rusty nuts 10 000km challenge is only 4 ½ long slow months away…..