(3.7.2012)
Kuscha, kuscha. It means as much as food or meal.
Every time we pass a cafe or bar at the street people ask us if we want to eat.
This time we couldn’t say no.
Paul is at the end of his power and feeling kind of sick, I am feeling better but not totally fit yet. A cool shadowy place is what we both longed for in the moment when we came out of the tunnel in the mountains, and that’s what we found. A parking area surrounded by cafe’s and restaurants. For only 3 euro we can eat lunch and drink tea here.
Decision is made.
As soon as we stop Paul is getting worse. Fever and headache are the symptoms. Maybe just to much heat, maybe the same I had yesterday. We will stay here until the heat is over and try to cycle again in the evening if Paul is getting better.
Again and again we have to notice that half a year is hardly enough time to cycle from Berlin to Shanghai, at least if you want to take some time for relaxing as well. Until today we didn’t have any problems but now after I was sick and Paul is getting sick, we will have to think about hitch hiking a part of our route through Kyrgyzstan. Our Chinese visa is only valid until the 12 of July and so we have to enter before that date.
Our plan to cycle every meter of the 13.000 km is honorable, but sometimes we ask ourselves if we put to much effort to this plan. We already denied many invitations, hurried through beautiful landscapes, suffered in the heat of the prairie instead of staying at a cold lake. And all because our time-schedule is quite tough. Staying one day longer or taking an invitation would often mean to cycle more the next days. Planning with a buffer for eventual delays is the only flexibility we have.
Now we are at the point were we have to make the decision.
Cycle all the way, even more kilometers per day as planned because of our illness-delay. Or take a truck or bus a few hundred kilometers further to have the possibility of relaxing a bit before arriving at the Chinese border.
Maybe our body’s try to tell us just that.
“take some time off, relax, refresh and then go on.”
Maybe it was just something wrong to eat. Until tonight we will know better and make a decision.
This morning (3.7.2012) we left our little island in the icy waters of the Toktogul reservoir. The heat today is more than ever and the cold lake, now lying a few hundred feet below us, is like a mirage, unreachable. But the distance to the lake is also a good sign. The continuous ups and downs, which the street makes through the mountains, make it difficult to tell wether the little amount of kilometers we made today are to be explained by our condition or by the ascending road. The lake is an equal level we can measure with.
I look back and don’t see Paul. Again I think there must be something wrong with his bike. He is so slow today, maybe because we changed his brakes recently. Or it is because he stood up earlier to prepare everything while I could still relax and get healthy? I wait until he arrives.
“I am through” he said to me. ” next cafe we have to stop until this heat is over”.
I agree . We pass the tunnel which is leading through the reservoir-dam. and that’s where we are. Waiting for the sun to have mercy with us.
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