The upper pastures were bright green, and in almost every valley you could see at least one summer residence for shepherds. The Kyrgyzstan people are nomadic and during the summer they move their flocks to the upper pastures. During the winter they return to the villages. The pastures were extremely productive and did not look heavily grazed. There was a vast expanse of valleys that were miles across with steep, young mountains in the background. We drove down through mountain roads, perhaps 20 miles, barely passable by automobile, but easily traversed by motorcycle. The shaking loosened the windscreen on my motorcycle (which I was able to fix by the end of the day). When we reached the hotel, our major focus was changing the oil and doing maintenance on our motorcycles. My skid plate and crash bars design required removal of both to change the oil – so much for German engineering.
It was a very memorable day and it made me think about my father and his novel. I was happy that I finally played the terrible game of ott, although less dramatically than as his son was to have played it in the novel.
Marge and Mary leave tonight. They were a great addition to the group and will be missed. We leave at 7:00 am and ride to Almaty, back to Kazakhstan. We’ll be riding through mountain passes on dirt roads – it should be a gas.
That’s all for now.