Why Worry?

Chris & Jane doing a great job of not looking worried at Oskemen airport, east Kazakhstan

While I’m smiling, my brain is spinning in little circles. There are an infinite number of reasons to worry when cycling touring (a microcosm of life in general). And even more than normal when you are in a new country where you don’t speak the language and are headed somewhere reasonably remote and deliberately challenging.

We have just started cycling from Oskemen (east Kazakhstan) through Xinjiang China to Khovd (western Mongolia) on the blue route in the picture above (the red routes are part of our Pamirs trip in Kyrgyzstan in 2015 and our Xinjiang trip through the Tien Shai mountains in 2011 and the purple is last year’s trip in Mongolia) and here’s what I’m trying not to worry about:

Heat: the temperature forecast in east Kazakhstan is for highs around 30C. In our recent European cycling, maximum temperatures have been the mid 20s. Once you hit the the thirties everything gets harder and you need a lot more water. How far will we be able to cycle each day? Far enough that we don’t have to carry too much food and water between towns?
And while I’m thinking about food and water, how plentiful will it be? Will every Kazakh village have a supermarket? The internet doesn’t make it clear. In Mongolia, every small town has multiple supermarkets but every country is different. What will the Kazakh water sources be like? In Mongolia, some weren’t drinkable even with treatment (or even touchable, as we approached Ulan Bataar!). On our route through China, the map doesn’t suggest any water sources between towns which are 100km apart. And it’s the desert…no shade…heat.
And will we even get to China? Our plan is to go through a route called. The Old Austrian Road in the Kazakh Altai. During WWI, Austrian prisoners were made to build this road which continually falls into disrepair because spring floods take out the bridges. The last report I can find is of a bridge out in 2024. Will it have been fixed? Will the snow have already melted so it is possible to cross the braided river descending from 3000m peaks? Okay, it’s still possible to reach China if we have to turn back on the Old Austrian Road. It’s just a few 100km extra…in the heat!
And if we make it to China will we get in? Or be turned back at the border? Theoretically we can get a 30 day visa at the Jeminay border port (NZ is one of the 30 days visa on entry countries for China) but hardly any westerners go through Jeminay so will the officers know we can?
And will our WeChat and AliPay apps actually work when we get there so we don’t starve? Because, if they don’t, apparently no one uses cash now in China and our western credit cards won’t work either.
And even if we get into China, how will we reach Ulan Bataar in Mongolia, where we have a flight scheduled to leave 28 July? I’ve just read about a foot and mouth disease outbreak in western Mongolia. Towns are being quarantined which means no access to food or water over areas spanning up to 200km. Food we can carry but the water problem is a big one. If we can’t cycle through western Mongolia, from where we have a flight to UB, how will we connect with our outbound flight? Will we have to bus to Urumqi in China from if we make it into China and fly from there to UB?
And will I ever replace my tidy little cycling sewing kit the Kazakhs took from me in Astana after it travelled through many airports over the years? Needles as a dangerous item on a flight? Guess I’d better buy a roll of cotton and a couple of needles and stop worrying about that one.

And why didn’t I worry about all these things when I read the two reports of people cycling the Kazakh, Chinese and Mongolian Altai mountains (they also cycled the Russian Altai but the challenge of getting Russian visas at present was one step beyond what we wanted to attempt)? I didn’t worry because if you start worrying when planning an interesting trip you might never go at all. You have to believe if other people did it, you can figure it out too. Or, as the Queen apparently said to Jacinda Ardern (whose fantastic autobiography I have just listened to…and no, I’m not a one-eyed Jacinda acolyte, I’m just impressed by her abilities as a person), “Just get on with it.”…

…there are mountains on the horizon calling me…now I’m getting excited!