Distance: 43km
Altitude difference: 1700m. -> 2300m.
Biking time: 3h:40m

We got in Ghez in the early afternoon, on time for an excellent lunch (some fried rolls and noodles with mutton). Ghez is a very small place, just few restaurants and kiosks. For 2€ we slept in a room attached to the restaurant. We spent the afternoon fixing the bicycles and I managed to get rid of a noious noise in the front derailleur.

some different views.

For hours and hours, the same landscape. We are in the wide canyon formed by the Ghez river. The road is always uphill, now some 10-15m/km.The canyon is getting narrower as we approach Ghez …

As we start biking in the morning, we are stopped because of some road work ahead. Enough time for eating some noodles in a bar nearby and loading enough water for the day. Of course, all the people are interested in the bikes, not us -)

Distance: 83Km.
Altitude difference: 1300m. -> 1700m.
Biking time: 5h:30m

Finally we can have some rest. Ghez is too far away to reach and we stop somewhere along the road. We put the tent, check the bikes and we cook our delicious dinner: one package of chinese instant noodles, a fistfull of rice and some slices of wurstel. Claudio also got his first puncture. The dust (that doesn’t show in the picture) was everywhere!!

Another break.It’s about 2pm, the hottest time of the day. Our heads are cooking. We have been biking on the border of the Taklamakan desert on a slightly uphill road (some 10m/km). Really a strange feeling to be in the desert with a bike. We rested a bit in the shadow of that little house.

Very clos to it and very hot

A small restaurant in Upal.

First break and first maintenance for the bikes. We thought that the little metal bridge prepared by Sigma won’t last for very long. So, we added a very carefully engineered fix (a stone) that in theory should help the bridge not to twist…”

Here we start biking the KKH!! It’s Thursday morning around 8:30. Kashgar is waking up just now. We have packed our stuff and carefully attached the bags on the backsit. We are not sure it will resist till the end but we hope. The load is probably around 12kg per bag.

Funny to note that Simone is wearing an helmet. He won’t wear it for the rest of the trip except in two “critical” situations. I’m not wearing it at the beginning, but later I’ll wear it most of the time.