where the rapidly decaying mountains seemingly display all the colours of the rainbow. Once out of the gorge, we travelled via the newly-completed Kokomeren Highway which the Kyrgyzs are, rightly, proud of, to a special lunch spot near Akkol Lake where fresh, deep fried trout filled our bellies. We returned to the new Kokomeren Highway and rode East to our night’ s accommodation in the village of Kazarman. In the village, our bikes were conspicuous causing interested locals to gather. We talked in gestures with older folk, but found the younger people spoke English. A new viaduct over the Naryn River near the end of our day looked impressive, and it wasn’ t until I continued on that I realised I had only seen the first quarter of it. Such is the volatility of the riverbed that there was nowhere either side of the river for a durable road. The answer is a 1.1km trestle.
DAY THREE Leaving Kazarman towards the East, we passed through miles of barren mountains to the village of Dyudyumel and up many switchback climbs to the Kara Koo Ashuu Pass at 2800m. An equal number of switchbacks followed on the descent down the other side to the plains. We stopped for fuel in Ak Tal, which came out of plastic bottles, and enjoyed some ice-creams. It was mid-afternoon when we ascended the third pass of the day, the Moldo Ashu Pass at 3346m, leading to a high plateau, featuring Son Kul Lake( Alt. 3015m) and our first Yurt camp of the trip. Our local hosts looked after us with a hearty meal of soup, breads and a rice and meat bowl. Every Kyrgyz meal is served with gallons of tea. Our yurt was warm thanks to a small firebox and our beds had plenty of blankets. Amazingly there was good cellular phone service and the camp even offered Wi-Fi
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