Kashgar (again)

With only 16 kms to go to Kashgar we slept late, had a leisurely cup of tea in our room then meandered out onto the road.

The day was fine, virtually windless and clear. As soon as we stepped onto main road we were greeted with the clearest view of the Pamirs we had had on this trip. As we looked back in the direction we had come yesterday the horizon was utterly dominated by the icy white collosus of this range. It was a stunning sight to take in but at the same time it reminded me of the sense of forboding I had felt in 1988 when cycling towards these peaks knowing that somewhere among them was one of the world's highest mountain highways and the pass that we would need to cycle over in order to reach Pakistan.

Already at that time the Karakoram Highway (nicknamed the KKH) and the Khunjerab Pass were legendary despite having only been officially open to foreign travellers since 1986. In the years since the reputation and lure of this magnificant road has continued to grow. Since 2007, however, the section between Tashkorgan (China) and Sust (Pakistan) has been closed to 'free' travel (eg. no bicycles) so for the foreseeable future, sadly, travellers will have to settle for a journey by bus. It is not 100% clear why the road is closed currently to free travel but Khunjerab pass and the KKH are sandwiched into a very narrow corridor between some pretty rough territory with Afghanistan and Kasmir only a few kms away on either side so perhaps it has been deemed for our own safety.

After taking a few photos we turned in the direction of Kashgar and got underway. For the next little while we stopped frequently to take more photos of the mountains behind us, each time seemingly a better shot.

As we approached Kashgar we encountered a detour off the main south road due to works and found ourselves instead on a ring road that eventually headed back out into the desert north of Kashgar and that continued on towards Aksu, and ultimately Urumqi. We didn't know this was a ring road at the time, assuming all roads lead to Kashgar out here, so we rode on.

Huge stands of poplar trees provide much of the shade, cooling and protection from the desert for Kashgar and at road level they completely obscure the city. At about the 20 km mark we realised we were somehow missing the city and when the road began to climb into the hills above where we assumed Kashgar to be and then curve right we knew we needed to get off it. The city was on our right somewhere so we took the next road, a rough dirt laneway, that headed in that direction.

We bumped and bounced our way down several kms of potholed and dusty roady, much further than we expected to. We passed through small Uighur settlements, passed men on donkey carts and workers in the fields but still didn't see any modern looking cement structures appearing above the tree tops in front of us. Several times we came to crossroads but none that were sealed or lead into town. The crossroads even had barriers and checkpoints although for what exactly was a mystery - we ducked under the barriers without getting off the bikes and kept on going, our passage raising minimal interest. The bikes were getting a pounding they were never designed for but they were holding up well.

Finally the road became sealed, if you could call it that. It was a very poor scattering of tarmac that seemed designed to highlight and accentuate the many large and deep potholes blotted along its length. They were so large and deep that even cars coming along it had too crawl and weave their way carefully through. At last though the road began to descend and a few moments later we found ourselves out on one of Kashgars many wide and beautifully smooth main streets. As luck would have it were were also only about 2 kms from out intended hotel, the Qinibar.

Our little detour had added about 9 kms to the morning ride but was worth the extra effort to see the older Uighur settlement areas to the west of the city.

At the Qinibar we checked back into the same room we'd had the previous week. This was by request as the room had a large tree outside the window that provided privacy and shade and ensured the room stayed cool throughout the day.

After showering and changing we headed to John's Cafe, conveniently located right outside our room, for beer and lunch in that order. It was Friday which meant we had made it in time for the Sunday market and for me to extend my Visa on Monday, 1 week exactly before it expired.