So I missed the deadline to cross China, last Tuesday lunchtime.
And that was pretty gutting to be honest, because of all the effort I’d gone into in three days beforehand to fix the bike up after facing a fairly major problem - not once, but twice.
To ride in China is a biggie - you have to organise a Government-licensed guide and you need a fistful of paperwork too - getting the permits takes at least a month, and you have to follow a daily itinerary so that the authorities know where you are, when.
Photo credit: Lucasz & Anna Linka
There’s no flexibility in that; once you miss your deadline, you miss it - and I missed it.
The first problem came when a pump failed on the Friday before, but I got that one sorted after spending 20 hours criss-crossing the country in a series of taxi rides. The second problem came when the front-wheel took a hit on the Sunday which basically meant that it had to be replaced and the cooling system had to be fixed.
After feeling sorry for myself for a couple of hours, running around like a headless chicken, a series of panicked WhatsApp messages and phone calls to the only English-speaking mechanic for 2,000 miles on the other side of the country, a 4.30am rendezvous in a car park and then a 2 hour break-neck taxi journey back to the bike to fit the parts in time, I was pretty chuffed with myself.
With about 20 minutes sleep under my belt, I fixed up the bike in the dark, loaded my gear up and hit the road early on Tuesday morning. I thought I’d nailed it.
The 5 hours to the border were going to be tough - sub-zero temperatures, crappy roads, 12,000ft passes and potentially ice and snow.
But despite that, I was looking forward to sealing the deal, pulling a rather sizeable rabbit out of a very small hat in the process.
Problem was, I’d fixed the damage to the bike that I knew of but the hit to the cooling system only came clear once I’d fixed the other stuff and left town. By that time I was out of ideas, out of options and out of time.
So - what now?
First off, it’s going to take a month to sort another plan.
So I’m parked up in the Kyrgyzstani capital, Bishkek, and it’s going to be a waiting game until I can get the visas and permits necessary to hit the road in early November. Frustrating, but worth it.
BUT the good news is as follows:
- I’ve done the maths and luckily that doesn’t jeopardise the plan to make to Sydney. I'll just be there a bit late. Standard.
- It may be in one of the poorest countries of the former Soviet Union, but Bishkek (map below) is a pretty nice place to be - and cheap too. And it may not have all the home comforts and there aren’t many Westerners about now that it’s the end of the tourist season, but the hostel I’m in is a good one. Hopefully there’ll also be some good opportunities to do a bit of work, volunteer or just learn some Russian whilst I’m here. Whatever happens, it’s an experience!
- There is a good curry house two doors away, an excellent kebab house two blocks round the corner, an alright burger joint a five minute cab ride away, I have a Netflix account and decent WiFi. #winning
Sadly it does mean that I won’t make it Sydney to spend Christmas and New Year with some friends from the UK - something that I was really looking forward to.
But’s it’s time for Plan B. And boy, it has all the hallmarks of being a corker.
It’s times like this - when you face a fairly major set back - that you realise that the best remedy is the simplest; to come up with a plan that is even better than the original. For me, that's the difference between real adventure travel and just playing around at the edges of it.
So it's time for Plan B - the Karakorum Highway, India and Burma instead .
That’s right - India.
CURRY!
