Today was the big day. After exactly three months of travelling Iran and Central Asia on bicycle, I was travelling back to Switzerland and finally meet up with Ilinca and my family again. I was quite nervous about that day whether everything will go smooth, but in the end I have to admit my worries […]

On my last full day here in Bishkek I went with Kurmanbek and one of his friends that will have a wedding party tonight to the animal market because they needed a sheep for dinner. While I had a lot of meat here in Kyrgyzstan, it was the first time where I had to witness […]

Bishkek is a nice city for just being. It does not have a lot of attractions and the few that exist I have already visited, but it has plenty of infrastructure to feel comfortable. Today was one of my first days since my departure where I did not have anything specific planned and the only […]

The goal for today was, to find a suitable cardboard box for transporting my bicycle safely back to Switizerland. As expected, it turned out to be much more difficult than just asking at the airport (like I did in Switzerland). After visiting Alamedin and Dordoi Bazaar in Bishkek without success, thanks to the help of […]

Everything comes to an end eventually. In the past three months I was cycling through five countries, covered a distance of almost 5500 km through rain, sun, green fields, mountains, deserts, cities, rivers. Apart from some minor incidents with my bicycle (5 punctures, loose chain, fixing some bags), the whole trip went smooth and without […]

Thanks to a shop owner of the small village named Toru-Aygyr I spent last night in a house instead of a tent in the storm. Today’s goal was Tokmok, a city 60 km east of Bishkek. As Tokmok is already at a much lower altitude than Issyk Kul, temperatures rose to 33°C at noon, which […]

On day two following the north shore of Lake Issyk Kul, things continued the way they stopped yesterday. Beautiful weather, nice landscapes with lots of trees and fields, and view on lake and mountains. The more to the west I went however, the landscape got drier and the wind stronger. In the end the wind […]

The Southern Shore of Issyk Kul was rather disappointing, so I had hopes in the morning that at least the northern shore would be worth cycling. It did not start well however, because the road out of Karakol was horrible, both from the surface and the traffic. But after around 40 km when I actually […]

Karakol is the eastern-most stop on my cycling tour and at the same time my turning point of the tour around Lake Issyk Kul. I had to cycle a total of 132 km today to reach the unspectacular city at the foot of the Tian Shan Mountains. Due to some problems with my bicycle on […]

With a length of 182 km and a width of up to 62 km, it will take me 4 days of cycling to get around the lake, excluding any breaks. Today I did part one and arrived at Bokonbayevo, a small town close to the southern coast of the lake. Due to the mediocre visibility […]

After a cold night in a yurt at Lake Song Kol, I was welcomed by perfect weather when I got up. After a small breakfast and my last two pictures with my Sony camera (which completely refused to work afterwards). From then on, my smartphone took over the photography job. At around 10 I left […]

Song Kol is a large mountain lake located at 3000 m on a huge plateau and is surrounded by hills and mountains. It can only be accessed from June to September via a few high passes. The one closest to my location was Moldo-Ashuu Pass with an altitude of officially 3346 m, and it was […]

After spending the night with nomads, I continued today on my path to Lake Song Kol. After a short descent in the early morning, I had to climb 1000 m on a difficult road. After briefly enjoying the view on the top of the pass on 2800 m, I started to descend again. I did […]

Today I was cycling up and down basically for the whole day. This was a bit unexpected because I was supposed to follow a river for 100 km, but instead of following the river, the road went through the mountains behind the river. While the scenery was beautiful, it was of course much more exhausting […]

After a night on 2200 m at the foot of the Kaldamo Pass, I started the final climb of 800 m in the morning and reached the top of the pass 2.5 hours later. After enjoying the fantastic view from up there for a while and chatting with some Dutch tourists who went over the […]

After spending in total 4 days in the flatlands, the time has come to cycle in the mountains again. Today, the weather was great and therefore I could start my trip through the backcountry towards Kasarman. I however still don’t know about the road conditions after the Kaldamo Pass, but I asked several locals that […]

In the next two days I plan to go through a remote mountain region over a pass above 3000 m to Kasarman in the middle of Kyrgyzstan. For a safe ride, I depend however on good and especially dry weather, which was not the case today, therefore I spent a day in Jalal Abad. Why […]

After cycling in the mountains for several weeks, today was the first time since Uzbekistan where I was cycling in the flatlands again. This part of Kyrgyzstan resembles Switzerland’s middle part a lot: it’s green, lots of trees, water, fields, and some small hills. Cycling through this part on the one hand convenient because no […]

As one day of recovery was not enough, I decided already yesterday to stay another day in Osh. And also because I watched the final of the Champions League on television last night, which started only at 0:45 due to the time difference. I used the time to visit the bazaar in Osh and filling […]

After the though weeks in Tajikistan, I need time for recovery. My hostel here in Osh is a good place for that, as it has good Internet, comfortable rooms, and nice people around. Cleaning my bicycle The Pamirs not only left their tracks on my personal fitness, but also on my bike. Sand, dust, and […]

After a quiet night in Gulcha on the countryside, today I cycled the remaining 80 km to Osh. After climbing Chyiyrchyk pass with 800 m of altitude difference, I descended on the other basically constantly during 60 km towards Osh. In Osh I will take some time for recovering and regaining some strength from the […]

My first impression of Kyrgyzstan was a muddy road that lead down from a pass on 4300 m to Sary Tash, which again was on 3200 m and hence the vegetation is very sparse and the climate is harsh. Today I had to cross two more passes of around 3600 m of altitude to reach […]

After spending yesterday the whole day at Karakul due to the miserable weather, I started today another attempt to cross the pass to Kyrgyzstan. The weather at the Kizil Art Pass (4336 m) looked much better as compared to yesterday so I left the homestay. In the evening I arrived in Sary Tash, Kyrgyzstan, but […]

Sometimes thing come different as planned. Today, I wanted to cycle on over two passes to Kyrgyzstan. But when I got up in the morning I saw that the weather at the passes is developing in a bad way, so I decided to spend the day at Karakul. The decision was right, because later in […]

There are quite a few high passes on the Pamir Highway, the highest of them is Ak-Baital Pass at an altitude of 4655 m. It connects the city of Murghab with the plateau of Karakul, a salt lake that was formed after a meteor strike. Today I crossed this pass and reached the village named […]

Yesterday’s 8 hour ride left me quite tired in the evening. Also, the next two or three cycling days will be above 4000 m and very remote, so I could use some time for reorganizing myself, buying food for that time, and last but not least visit Murghab, even though there is not too much […]

After a beautiful morning ride through a very remote nature road along Bulunkul Lake, a non-existing Geyser, a very remote farm at Ak Jar, and around one hundred small descents and climbs in desert-like environment I reached the Pamir Highway near Alichur after 38 km. After a short lunch break, I decided to continue as […]

For more than two weeks we have been following the Tajik-Afghan border. Today it was time to say goodbye to Afghanistan as we were heading north over the 4344 m high Khargush Pass in order to reach the M-41, also known as Pamir Highway. After that we planned to go to Bulunkul, a lake and […]

After a cold night on 3550 m we continued our climb towards Khargush Pass. Even though we only have to climb 350 m net, the road and the up and down made our lives hard again. In the afternoon we reached Khargush, a military base and also a stop for shepherds migrating in spring to […]

The last two weeks we followed mainly the Panj River from village to village. Every day we had at least a shop, a village, or even a restaurant available. For the next few days however we will have to live without all the amenities of civilization, including mobile phones and we will camp on the […]

Today, we started the day with a bath in the hot springs of Yamchun. The spring is located 600 m above the valley floor on a steep and rough road, so for once we moved there with the car of last night’s host. Only after that we started cycling towards Langar, the last village in […]

The Wakhan Valley is a small stretch of land belonging both to Tajikistan and Afghanistan. The Afghan section of the valley is enclosed by Tajikistan in the north and the high mountains of Pakistan’s Hindukusch in the south. In the next two to three days we will have to follow this scenic valley towards North-East […]

After a night at the Garmchashma hot springs we cycled down to the Panj Valley again and continued to climb this valley along the Afghan border. Today’s destination was Ishkashim, a border city at the southern tip of Tajikistan. Hot start in the day Last night I spent in a tent around 200 m away […]

It is very nice to relax after another exhausting cycling day in hot springs in the middle of beautiful mountains. Today we reached the hot springs of Garmchashma, one of the many natural not springs here in the Pamirs. But we had to earn this with a very steep ascent for the last 7 km. […]

Nothing really spectacular today. Anne is slowly doing better, but still she is not able to continue cycle. Therefore I have another day in Khorog. Compared to yesterday, I did not feel like doing another day trip, instead I took care of some things in Khorog. Getting Cash In theory it is easy: If you […]

Today we had another full day in Khorogh due to Anne’s recovery from her stomach problems. As we have seen the city already yesterday however, it was a perfect occasion for a day trip. While Lucie preferred running up some mountain, I chose to explore the Shakhdara Valley on my bicycle. Because I could leave […]

After a full week of cycling, today our bicycle will stay at the Pamir Lodge in Khorog. As this is the last city before the high plateau of the Pamirs, we used the day to restock with dry food and trying to get a new battery for my cell phone. As the city otherwise does […]

It has been exactly one week since we left Dushanbe. After cycling two days through populated areas we had 5 days of cycling over passed, through gorges, and little villages in places that I could not imagine that people can survive. It is nice to finally arrive in Khorog which I thought we would reach […]

As in the previous days, today we followed the Panj River towards Khorog. In the morning, nothing eventful happened and we were following the bumpy road through steep gorges for 45 km in sunshine and blue sky and after 85 km we reached the village of Rushan. Beautiful morning After a nice night sleeping on […]

It seems like we need more time than planned to reach Khorog, which in the morning was still 200 km away. On the partially very bad road conditions on the Pamir Highway we only made 50 km today. However, the scenery today was stunning again. In is incredible how a road on which trucks of […]

In Kalai Kumb we finally reached the M-41, the famous Pamir Highway. During the wars with Afghanistan, this highway served the Russians for the supply delivery to their troops at the border. During that time, the highway must have been in good condition, but nowadays, the surface of the road is a mixture of old […]

In the next few days we will follow the Panj River upstream and gain more and more altitude until we reach the high plateau of the Pamirs. Following the Panj River also means we will also follow the Afghan border. Today, we cycled the first 90 km and gained in total 400 m of altitude. […]

Today we had to climb Shuroobod pass and descend into the Panj Valley. The valley is named after the Panj River which separates Tajikistan from Afghanistan on a length of several hundred kilometers. Starting early in the morning again Just like the night before, we slept again at some local farmer’s house. This time we […]

On our second day towards the Pamirs, we passed in the morning through beautiful green hills and descended from our sleeping place around 600 m to a wide plain. At only 500 m above sea level it got quite hot today, definitely more than 30 °C. In the evening we arrived at the foot of […]

The Pamirs cover the largest part of Tajikistan and are located in the eastern half of the country in the autonomous region of Gorno-Badakhshan. From Dushanbe it is roughly 500 km to reach the Pamirs, so today we did the first part of this journey. My back pain got a bit better, but it is […]

Because of my continuous back pain and the heavy rain in the morning, we all stayed another day in Dushanbe today. Since we have seen most of the sights already yesterday, we did not do any sightseeing today, but we changed to another hostel because the old one was too far out of the city […]

After a long day of cycling yesterday and in total 9 cycling days in a row, I was happy to have a day off today and to visit the center of Dushanbe, Tajikistan’s capital.¨ The Bazaar After a nice breakfast we were heading first to the green bazaar, which in fact is a market with […]

Today was a very eventful day. When starting to cycle I discovered that my rear tire was out of air so I had to start a repair session which took longer than expected. After 15 km I had to take a rest for 2 h because my back pain did not allow me to continue, […]

After yesterday’s very steep climb to Iskanderkul and a peaceful night at the lakeside in our tents, today we went to explore more valleys in this wonderful region. The whole area reminds me a lot of the Swiss Alps, with the difference that everything is around 1000 m higher and the valleys are much more […]

Iskanderkul is a very beautiful mountain lake that is located at an altitude of 2200 m. It is only a short 24 km detour from the main road linking the Zarafshan Valley with Dushanbe, so we decided to cycle up to this lake today and enjoy the afternoon there. Steep climb Last night we spent […]

Today was one of the days I was looking forward most when planning my bicycle tour. We crossed the Turkestan Range of the Fann Mountains via the Shahriston Pass and then climbing again the Zarafshon Range towards Dushanbe. In perfect weather, we were rewarded with fantastic views in deep valleys and up the rock walls […]

After a morning of running errands (Tajik SIM Card, changing money) and visiting the Bazar and an old mosque of Istvarashan, we started climbing the Shahriston Pass after lunch. There were still more than 2000 altitude meters to climb from Istvarashan, so it was clear that we would not reach the pass in only half […]

Today we finally crossed the border to Tajikistan after an unwanted detour of 260 km and followed the Uzbek border down another 40 km, this time on the Tajik side. Today’s goal was to get as close to the Fann Mountains as possible so we can start the first day of the ascent to the […]

After a very relaxing and pleasant night and a nice breakfast, we left from Alec’s home. Today we only planned to cycle 85 km to Hovos so that we can reach the Tajik border comfortably the following day. Wonderful cycling conditions While yesterday we had to fight a lot against the wind, today the wind […]

Uzbekistan so far has not impressed me at all with very repetitive landscapes with some hundreds of kilometers going through semi-dry flats. But after Samarqand, Uzbekistan changes. First you see beautiful green hills and impressive mountains in the east. The land is very fertile here, there are forests, grassland as far as you can see […]

After three days of cycling, we left the bikes at the hostel today and went exploring the historic city of Samarkand, once one of the greatest cities of Central Asia due to the strategic location along the Silk Road. Bad weather for once Last night there was heavy rain here in Samarkand, and the morning […]

After spending the night at a drunk guy’s home we needed to cycle around 90 km to finally reach our target Samarqand after in total three days of cycling. The road was basically a not very frequented highway, was just like the other two days mainly flat, and had around 10-20 km of very bad […]

After an extremely unpleasant day yesterday, things could only get better. Since we only covered 85 km instead of 90 km yesterday however, today’s target was to cycle 95 km to catch up on the schedule again. We were hoping that the conditions are a bit more in our favor today. Starting at sunrise In […]

After the relaxing sightseeing day in Bukhara the time had come to start the 270 km transfer to Samarqand, the next historic city on our roadmap in Uzbekistan. It was Anne’s first day of cycling here in Uzbekistan so we wanted to start things slowly by cycling this distance in three days, 90 km each. […]

Today our bicycles stayed in the hotel and we went visiting the historical center of Bukhara. The whole historical center is like a big architectural museum, and combined with the perfect weather today, visiting the fortress, mosques, courtyards or mausoleums was very exciting. Getting SIM Card and local currency As in every country we visited, […]

Today was one of the typical transit days on bicycle. First, we needed to leave Turkmenistan as our 5-day transit visa expires today and second we wanted to reach Bukhara in Uzbekistan because there is really nothing in between. The total distance to be covered is slightly more than 115 km. Passing the borders We […]

After a peaceful night in the desert, there remained around 85 km to reach the border city of Turkmenabat, Turkmenistan’s second largest city. Just as yesterday, we started early in the day to avoid the strongest winds in the afternoon. Floating through the desert Compared to yesterday, the wind was much more in our favor. […]

While we crossed the first part of Turkmenistan by car, we definitely wanted to cross Karakom Desert, Asia’s hottest desert, by bicycle. Up to the Uzbek border there are 280 km to cycle in 2.5 days. As in every desert we have been on this trip, also Karakom desert has a strong winds, and it […]

Today we went to see sightseeing with Guvanch and Aygul, two local brothers and sisters, Guvanch drove with us from Sarahs to Mary yesterday. But first we had to take care of some administrative things such as getting a SIM card or changing our Iranian money to Turkmen Manat. Interesting architecture in Mary It is […]

Today was dedicated to passing first the Iranian and then the Turkmen border posts. Afterwards it was planned that some friends of a friend will pick us up and take us in a 4-hour bus ride to Ashgabat, Turkmenistan’s surreal capital. Good-Bye Iran Since my arrival in Shiraz on March 24 I spent in total […]

After a good night in Abravan we left today at a more decent hour in hope of good wind. However, even though the traffic and the road conditions were slightly better than yesterday, the head wind was already strong in the morning, and my stomach was still causing some problems to me, so it was […]

This is our second last day in Iran. Today and tomorrow we have to travel around 200 km east to the Turkmen border at Sarakhs, which should be doable with reasonable wind and weather conditions. But first we needed to cross the whole city of Mashhad, because Aresh’s home is on the western side of […]

From the religious point of view, Mashhad is the most important city in Iran. During Iran’s public holidays such as Noruz (New Year, comparable to Christmas), hundreds of thousands if not millions of pilgrims travel to this city, and this not only from Iran, but from all Shiite countries. Therefore the city center around the […]

Stomach Problems The night before, we ate some of the fresh cheese that we received from the family in Badianly as a good-bye present for dinner. It already smelled a bit weird, looked also a bit weird, but we thought, well, it can’t be too bad and since we did not have too many other […]

Leaving Golestan After our rest day in Golestan, we started today our path towards Mashhad. And Golestan National Park remained tricky terrain for biking. It continued going up and down for the first 30 km through wonderful green fields and small canyons. And then suddenly the climate changes. Only a few km after the last […]

Planned Sightseeing and Change of Plans After last night’s busy evening we decided to start cycling only in the afternoon so we can do the hosts a favor and stay a bit longer with them. Therefore we planned to visit what they call the “jungle” of Golestan in the morning by car. Jungle sounded great, […]

Lowe and the waterfalls After our host offered us fresh bread for breakfast, we went on a short car ride into the hills for seeing Lowe waterfalls. Wonderfully embedded into the green forest it was a lovely place to start the day. And because it had rained during the night, the colors of the leaves […]

Visa for Turkmenistan First the good news of today. My transit visa request for Turkmenistan got finally approved. Which means that I will start crossing Turkmenistan on April 18 and should leave the country again on April 22. So I have 5 days for 500 km. As the visa is strictly bound to the indicated […]

Leaving Alborz Mountains Around 40 km were between us and the Caspian Sea when we stopped yesterday after almost 140 km and stayed the night at a forest camping. The night was not particularly quiet because the camping was right next to the highway, but we were tired enough to get the sleep we need. […]

Across the Alborz Mountains The Alborz Mountains are between the capital Teheran and the Caspian Sea. These mountains have several peaks above 4000 m, the highest of them is Mt. Damavand (5604 m), a volcano. At this time of the year there is still a lot of snow in these mountains, making them a wonderful […]

Catching up by bus Because we have to enter Turkmenistan on April 18 due to Lucie’s visa, we had to accelerate things a bit to reach the border in time. Therefore we travelled the roughly 400 km between Esfahan and Teheran by bus. Cycling in Iran’s Capital Once arrived in Teheran the first surprise: we […]

Running Errands Today we needed to take care of some things in Esfahan. Lucie needed to get a visa extension, and I needed to get my camera sensor cleaned as a result of the dusty and sandy conditions in the past few days. And of course we wanted to see a bit more of the […]

Even though Esfahan calls itself bike-friendly, we decided not to use our bikes today. First, because we live at a local family 30 km away from the city center and second because the traffic especially in the suburbs is everything but not bike-friendly. So we went there by car together with the host family and […]

Sunrise in the desert We learned from our mistake yesterday: We got up as early as possible to avoid the strong desert winds in the afternoon as much as possible. So I got up at 5:15. It was still complete night at our campsite and temperatures have dropped close to the freezing point, and the […]

After being stopped prematurely by strong head wind yesterday, we decided to leave at 7:00 today because the strong wind is known to set in at around noon and we wanted to cycle at least 100 km today in order to reach Isfahan the day after. But because we slept at a local family, we […]

Bad awakening for Lucie Just like the night before, we spent the night in a public park, me in my tent and Lucie simply without a tent and close to her bike. To our surprise, the next morning one of the panniers of Lucie’s bike was missing. The bike was maybe 3 meters away from […]

Cycling-free day After our long cycling days, today we only use the bicycle to get around Yazd. Even though the center of Yazd is easily explored on foot, it was still convenient to have the bikes with us. Morning Hours After a night in a city park we were up early, and that was a […]

Getting up early After a rather noisy night by some locals who had the need to turn up the car stereo to full volume at 3:00 and making sounds like wolves or other wild animals, I decided to get up early to catch sunrise in this mountain valley. The sky was however completely clear, making […]

Starting the day When we arrived in the dark last night and were looking for a place to put up our tent, the criteria were: outside the city limits of Abarkouh and not too close to the highway. And we thought we found a place that matched both criteria. However, the Iranian like loud music […]

Late start After a long night in Aspas with around 20 family members, we only started at around 10:40 that day. The first goal was to reach Erhlid for lunch where we were already invited by the brother of Ahmad, our host from the last night. To warm up, we had to climb a few […]

Tired of highways The last two days we were basically driving on busy roads or on the highway’s emergency lane. This was fast, but not really that exciting and not the reason why I went to Iran on a trekking tour. Today, we decided to go through the back country instead. On Google maps, the […]

Early Start After a comfortable night at the place of some very traditional locals we wanted to go out earlier than yesterday so we have more time, so we already left at around 9:30 in the morning. After a few kilometers however Lucie’s front wheel started making some cracking noises. After some investigation we realized […]

Luggage has arrived Today, my luggage has finally been delivered by Qatar Airways, so I went to the airport and prepared the bike for today’s ride towards the antique ruins of Persepolis. The bike survived the transport without problems, only the power cables for the lamp had to be reattached. The first ride As predicted […]

When you hear about Iran, you probably think about heat and dry desert. However, today we experienced the complete opposite. It was basically pouring down all day, it was windy and chilly, and for those who have read my previous posts, I still don’t have a rain jacket as it is in Doha together with […]

Layover in Doha After the difficulties with the checking the previous day in Zurich I was hoping that the rest of my trip would go smooth. And actually when I boarded the plane, more than 50% of the seats were not occupied so I could choose my favorite seat in the economy class: in the […]

Packing everything into two boxes All the equipment that I have collected piece by piece in the past weeks had to fit in two cardboard boxes. To be honest, until yesterday, it was not completely clear yet what I will bring along on my trip. I wanted to bring along my paraglider for some flights […]

After having assembled my bike this week together with my friend Phil, the time has come to put the material and also myself to the test. Because I had a meeting later in the evening in my hometown Basel, it was convenient to cycle from Zurich to Basel. This route had everything to offer that […]