TYUNGUR – UST-KAN

Finally we are back at the bikes: five days without have still been long. Today we prepare to cross the pass unsuitable for cars since it’s merely a path for herds. Some of the locals claim that we might be able to pass it with our bikes, there is just one link we should be careful at: 10 kilometers long narrow path with the sheer rock at one side and the cluse on the other one. If we pass there we could make our way much shorter. However, if we don’t, we’ll have to return back to Ust-Kan. In a village we stop by to ask about the route we almost run into a very unpleasant company of the Indians (as we began to call Altayans): they are very aggressive and we barely avoid a tougher conflict. There are 7, 620 kilometers to drive by the road along the Katun River beaten by herds until we hit the 40 meters large mountain river, certainly too deep to cross it with no bridge. However, we decide to try. Janis succeeds and I am falling right in the middle and swimming together with my bike. Yay! When we come to the dangerous place we’ve been warned about, we realize immediately that we’ll have to drive back: there is the rock and the cluse, just like we’ve been told, but it’s too narrow even for our bikes with their boxes. The first rock we’ll catch with these, will be our last one. So, we just go back to Ust-Kan and we get there by 6PM. It’s pretty cold, about 6C, and we barely can move our fingers after driving. What we have to do next is to finally dry up our clothes, and this is what we do when we sign in the hotel. The only hotel with the heater. We don’t know where to leave our bikes since the receptionist warns us not to leave them outside or else we could hitch-hike tomorrow. The only safe place in town is militia. The militiaman on duty, however, is not very welcoming: we too much look like Chechen terrorists, especially Janis, plus, he doesn’t know what’s there in our bike boxes. Nope. Well, is the boss permits, we can leave them. So, we wait for the boss who turns out to be a cool guy and after some chat, he shows us a place to leave the bikes, in the militia garage.