Our highest point

Today we crossed what we believe will be our highest point on this years journey, Ak-Baital Pass at 4655 meters (15,272 feet). But equally we spent almost the entire day traveling at over 4000 meters (13,125 ft). Only at the end of the day as we neared the town of Murghab did our GPS register an elevation below 4000 m. Todays scenery was stark and spectacular. For most of our way the road ran through one river valley or another. Typically the valleys were very wide and filled with grey gravel, and surrounded by barren mountains of many colors, and then the bigger mountains topped off with snow and glaciers. The road was a mix of old pavement and stretches of gravel, but really surprisingly good considering where we were. Though like yesterday there were periodic signs that nature was fighting back and from time to time we encountered road sections that had washed away or were being eaten away by river flow. There were also signs of recent road works so we guessed some effort is made to keep this road open.

The first leg of todays journey brought us to Lake Karakol and the nearby village of the same name. The waters of the lake were a vivid blue splash set amongst the brown/grey mountains. We spent a little while walking around the village looking to buy bread and eventually got a single round loaf from one of the families. We thought the village with its white buildings, numerous Home stay signs, was very tidy but seemingly almost deserted.

The village has a small army detachment and there was an army checkpoint as we left the village. The soldier there simply took details of us and the vehicle before letting us on our way.

For much of the day the road ran beside a very elaborate barbed-wire fence. We read in one of our guides that this fence marked the boundary of the no-mans land that protects the Tajik-Chinese border.

There were few vehicles on the road today and we estimated that most vehicles were either tourists, or local tour companies carrying tourists. We passed a number of bicyclists - you have to admire anyone that will ride a bike through this kind of country. Not only is it high, but the wind was strong today, and there is almost no shelter anywhere.

We stopped and talked to a couple of guys from Argentina driving a Toyotal Landcruiser. Can you believe it they shipped their vehicle from Chile to Japan, caught a ferry from Japan to Vladivostok and like us they on their way to Istanbul.

As we stopped for lunch a Tajik tour company vehicle stopped to check that we were not having trouble. They had just taken some tourist clients to the border post where a Kyrgyz tour company picked up those tourists. While at the post they had been approached by some other tourists on bicycles, they needed a ride to Dushanbe as one of their bikes had broken. They were very friendly people.

Today also provided an interesting data point for those of us interested in or owning diesel vehicles and who use those vehicles at high altitude or in low temperatures.

This morning when I went to start the truck the temperature was 39°F, the altitude was 4060 meters (13,350ft).

The truck would not start; great clouds of black smoke but only while I was cranking. So I decided to try and warm the engine by turning on our Webasto Thermo 90 diesel fired block heater. It also failed to start.

Next I fired up my Onan diesel generator. While I eventually got it going it took 7 or 8 tried before it would run and then ran rough for a considerable time. With the generator running I plugged in my electric block heater and left it heating for a while until I could see some rise in the engine temperature.

I probably did not give the block heater enough time, but never the less when I tried the engine again, no joy -- it still would not start. More black smoke.

So finally I turned on the air intake heater that runs from the truck batteries. After running this heater for 60 seconds the truck engine fired up and almost immediately ran smoothly.