Besides the beautiful view, we spent the night more or less with this discussion:
“Are you sleeping?”
“No”
“Me either”
“Yes, you have. You have been snoring all the time”
“Me ? I haven’t closed my eyes yet… It’s you has been snoring all the time”
“Me ? I have been awake all night”
and on and on…

I think our brains were bubbling because of the altitude. We had the impression of not sleeping but we actually did.

To tell you the truth this was an amazing night, looking at this great mountains!!!

Distance for today: 61km
Altitude difference: 2300m. -> 3500m.
Biking time: 7:20

Biking on unpaved road really slowed us down. Not to talk about the frequent trucks, busses, cars and all the dust in the air.

Unfortunately some members of an expedition lost their lives over there few weeks ago. Local people said the reason was the bad weather condition and they got frozen. But it looks so easy to climb and reachable.

A nightmare is going to start. The road will be unpaved until the border with Pakistan (200km)!!!! But just around the corner we got the first view of the impressive Muztagh Ata.

We have reached the lake Chakragil, surrounded by beautiful sand dunes. Really an unique place.On the top of the dunes there is the border with Tajikistan.

We are invited for a tea in a small house. There we meet a crazy Austrian biker who cycled all the way from Vienna through Turkey, Iran, Pakistan and now China. His destination is Lhasa. He has some 60 or 70 kilos of load, really a lot!! We ask him some information about the road to Pakistan. Soon the road will be unpaved and it’s in such bad condition that he’s reconsidering of biking till Lhasa. He also confirms kids like to throw stones to cyclists in some parts of the KKH (he got some 20 stones…) During the tea, his bike falls down and the left rear mirror breaks. The biker, probably a bit stressed because of the unpaved road, gets more irritated and, while mumbling “Schisse.. kamput.. damage damage… Schisse”, he jumps on his bike and leaves… Funny guy.