vue du campement à 3500m
Bakyt de Bishkek
Ca ondule
camping-car surmené….
…. a crevé
défilés de camions
Bitume retrouvé
un cavalier solitaire
petite balade!
Nura, dernier village avant la frontière
enfants de Nura
droit devant
dernier ravitaillement au Khirghistan : c’est Ben
premier ravito en Chine : c’est Ben
au campement ….
….chacun fait sa pause posée
Rémi et Liu nos nouveaux compagnons de route
en exclu photo de ce vendredi matin !
D131 – 65.2Km
THURSDAY, APRIL 27 27
N39 39.497 E73 35.354 (3443m) – N39 48.882 E74 05.231 (2732m – chiqen, China)
65.2 km – 11H15′
This morning we woke up with the side effects of having spent a night at 3500 meters of altitude: our thoughts weren’t very clear. We all slept in the warmth of the camper, where the temperature is 8° Celsius this morning. Shafhat and Bakit slept in their car and started it from time to time to have some heat. From Osh to Kashgar we were completely autonomous: water, food and fuel. Off the beaten track, we felt an enormous freedom, even if we were beginning to be rather dirty: no laundry done and only spot washing.
The camper is cracking up, it has had enough of this rough treatment. Yesterday a tire exploded — it went flat in less than 20 seconds. With the help of our Kirghiz friends we changed it in less than 30 minutes and took off right away. Serge went much faster than we did and we had trouble catching up with him.
Strangely, at the 30th kilometer, a beautiful, freshly asphalted road materialized. We felt very relieved. Sary-Tash was not the last village before the border. Nura, a desolate hamlet planted in the midst of these mountains is 5 kilometers from the Kirghiz border post. We let Serge go on to this post: 40 minutes later we were on our way to China. We said good-bye to our guides, to whom we owe sincere thanks for their participation in this rather unusual project
2 kilometers from there, we found another military post which manages the transit of trucks transporting goods because they have difficulty passing each other on the road. A system has been put in place to regulate their coming and going between Kirghistan and China.
500 meters after this last post in Kirghistan, we were registered by the military at the Chinese post. There were still 4 kilometers to reach the Chinese border post, where our guide and the correspondent from Kashgar were waiting for us.
Serge had his passport stamped so he was free to go on his way, while we had to go through all the customs and administrative formalities for the vehicles. All our fruit, butter and the 3 remaining pieces of cheese were confiscated but that was the only trouble we had. All the formalities had been scrupulously organized by our Chinese agency and in 2 hours we were able to leave with the vehicles, which had new license plates and their laisser-passer. We have new registration papers and new driver licenses.
We camped near Chiqen, which is the western most village in China. We interested the police, who came to see us twice: once to register us and once to take photos of us and of our vehicles, which were given a careful examination by their dog….. Are we spies or drug dealers? It all made us smile.
We have gained 2 hours so we are now 6 hours ahead of you in France.
We finally went to bed at 23H00. It will be a short night since the fatigue and excitement of the day will surely keep us from going to sleep right away.