This is the 4th instalment of my Kyrgyzstan Diaries.

I was there from August 13th-21st, riding alongside the ever-awesome Robert Astromsky and fine local guide Alex Mata. We rode for 6 days, and wow did we have a trip.It was luscious, delicious, decadent even, in its beauty. It’s unlike anywhere I’ve been before, almost constantly and massively magnificent. It’s unrelenting.

On top of this, the food was great, very surprising, and the people were very welcoming and kind, another pleasant surprise. The gravel roads, well, we rode over 500km and must have done no more than 35k on tarmac. We camped too, high up in the mountains, slept in yurts, and finished thw whole thing with a swim in the lake with the coolest name in the world, Issyk Kul. We will be going back here for a full on tour, in 2026, August 15th-25th.

Head to KOJO COLLECTIVE to see this tour and all the rest of our tantalising offerings.

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Day 4 saw us leave the camp and ride up to the top of Moldoo Ashu Pass, which sits at 3,346m, which, when you think that the top of the Stelvio is 2,700m, is pretty high.

This day was a very good one, and the highlight of a lot of good stuff, by far, was this pass. There’s two kilometres of long and winding road just before the summit that offers a stunning view of the valley into which we were headed.

We stopped there for some photos and to take in the pass below. It’s called the Stelvio of Kyrgyzstan for good reason – but it’s even better than the Stelvio!

First off, it’s longer, it’s higher, it’s 100% no frills in-yer-face gravel, there’s no one there (I had to pass one car at the bottom, that was all), and it’s in goddamn-exotic-as-hell-edge-of-the-edge Kyrgyzstan.

The pass was a ball, about 17 switchbacks, each corner filled with a thick sandy dust, the landscape going from true Alpine to evergreen forest, then you get spat out at the bottom onto a long winding dirt road that straightens after a few foothills – and still no vehicles to be seen. Alex and Robert had gone ahead as I stopped at the top of the pass to get some drone footage, so I was all alone here, powering along, blissful at the mill, grinding as much from my legs as they could muster, hitting 42km/hr along the flat straight road, and isn’t it amazing what a strong tailwind will do for your mood!

Finally we regrouped, then had a tough 20km along a 2% straight-as-a-die rise up a massive wide valley, similar to yesterday.

We stopped at a village at the end of the valley and went into a little store for some soda pop and ice lollies. As we sat outside to refresh, the locals started coming out of their abodes to say hello and chat with us. I got my phone out and asked a guy with his young daughter if I could take a photo.Their eyes lit up.

Note to travellers – get over that shy feeling you may have when meeting locals, and get the phone out – it’s a beautiful and simple way to let them know that the experience of meeting them is something you want to remember.

I showed them the image and the guys says: ‘Instagram?’

IG is now the international language, it seems…

Robert Astromsky: ‘I’d give today a 10 out of 10. Even the tough valley we had to go through was manageable. We stopped at a village to get a drink and it seemed that the whole village came out to say hi to us. After that we rode and had our lunch under a tree that provided some shade and was in a perfect spot. We stuffed ourselves, again, then had an amazing descent, we kind of flipped and kicked down through these hills that looked like little mushrooms, or maybe cheese bread, dotted with orangey-brown shrubs on beige sandy soil. That was a whole lotta fun…’.

Dirty, dusty, stinky, happy as lambs.