Kirgizstan gets a gold medal in free camping! The country is amazing. High mountains, wide valleys and only very few people make Kirgizstan the perfect playground for adventurers. I cycle on the “famous” M41 from the capitol city Bishkek to Osh, a town further south. I changed my cycling routine a bit. In the morning I get going as usual, take more time during the day and cycle till eight or nine in the evening. This is necessary because the temperature in the lower areas climbs up to over a 40° Celsius. It’s baking hot and I rest over the lunchtime hours somewhere hiding under a tree. Up in the mountains though everything is different, it’s colder, even freezing cold once you reach elevations over a 3000m. The Kirgiz people still keep their nomadic lifestyle high up there. Taking care of their herds, living in yurts and mostly riding around on horses. One night I stayed with a family getting introduced to their lifestyle, which seems like it stays the same over the centuries.
After Osh I will leave the lowlands. The famous “Pamir Highway” lies ahead with high over 4000m passes, wild landscapes and lonely roads. But that’s another chapter, because the Pamir Highway runs mostly through the Gorno-Badakhshan autonomous region of Tajikistan.
