We spent the last few days buying the last pieces of our equipment. Some of them are probably unnecessary and we’ll scatter them along the KKH as soon as the road will get steep. Anyway, it feels great and professional to have them. We have a tent, sleeping bags, stove, cooking equipment, enough iodine to purify all the Karakul lake, warm clothes, tools for reparing the bikes, medical kits, biking gloves, hiking shoes, helments and basically all you need for a decent trek on the mountains. We just hope to find good bikes in Urumqi and all the spare parts that we need. Our cycling plan is not very detailed yet but we have a rough idea:
- Day 1 - Urumqi
- Day 2 - Urumqi (15:51)-> (overnight train)
- Day 3 - -> Kashgar (14:49)
- Day 4 - Kashgar -> Ghez (120 km)
- Day 5 - Ghez -> Karakul lake (70 km)
- Day 6 - Karakul lake
- Day 7 - Karakul lake -> Tashkurgan (100km)
- Day 8 - Tashkurgan -> Khunjerab pass (140km) (by bus)
- Day 9 - Khunjerab pass -> Sost (85 km)
- Day 10 - Sost -> Passu (40 km)
- Day 11 - Passu -> Karimabad (50 km)
- Day 12 - Karimabad -> Gilgit (100 km)
- Day 13 - Gilgit (saving day)
- Day 14 - Fairy Meadows trek (on foot)
- Day 15 - Gilgit -> Islamabad (by bus)
- Day 16 - Islamabd -> Lahore (by bus)
- Day 17 - Lahore (9:00) -> Stockholm (13:45) (by plane)
Good! The distances to cover are impressive, not to count the altitudes. But let’s not think about them now.