CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: planning record, not independently verified geometry.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distances and riding times are planning figures. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
The stops in between: Besh-Aral State Nature Reserve - Shandalas, Aksu-Jabagly State Nature Reserve - main p and back through Besh-Aral State Nature Reserve - Shandalas. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 3,250 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It crosses from Kyrgyzstan into Kazakhstan - carry ID and check the toll rules. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
In the far west of Kyrgyzstan, where the Chatkal range runs along the edge of the Fergana valley and the border with Uzbekistan, a steep, forested set of mountains shelters the Padysha-Ata reserve. It is a strictly protected nature area, one of several state reserves in the country, and its purpose is the plain business of keeping a piece of the western Tian Shan as it was. The slopes carry forest and mountain meadow, rivers rush down from snowfields, and the peaks above are high enough to carry glaciers.
Read the complete Padysha-Ata State Nature Reserve write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Padysha-Ata State Nature Reserve is where the day begins. Next is Besh-Aral State Nature Reserve - Shandalas.
This is a remote place, and I should say so plainly.
Read the complete Besh-Aral State Nature Reserve - Shandalas write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Besh-Aral State Nature Reserve - Shandalas comes up about 243 km into the recorded legs. Next is Aksu-Jabagly State Nature Reserve - main p.
Kazakhstan's oldest nature reserve sits where the western end of the Tien Shan meets the steppe, in the Talas Alatau range, and it was set aside as early as 1926. Aksu-Jabagly is a country of steep limestone gorges, high meadows and snowy ridges that climb above three thousand metres, and it forms part of the UNESCO listing for the Western Tien-Shan. The Aksu canyon cuts through the heart of it, with walls hung with juniper, and on some rock faces you can find petroglyphs left by herders and hunters thousands of years ago.
Read the complete Aksu-Jabagly State Nature Reserve - main p write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 547 km into the recorded legs you reach Aksu-Jabagly State Nature Reserve - main p. Next is back through Besh-Aral State Nature Reserve - Shandalas.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Besh-Aral State Nature Reserve - Shandalas write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Besh-Aral State Nature Reserve - Shandalas, late in the day. Next is Padysha-Ata State Nature Reserve.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Padysha-Ata State Nature Reserve write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Padysha-Ata State Nature Reserve. That is the ride.
Padysha-Ata State Nature Reserve → Besh-Aral State Nature Reserve - Shandalas is 243 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Besh-Aral State Nature Reserve - Shandalas → Aksu-Jabagly State Nature Reserve - main p is 303 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Aksu-Jabagly State Nature Reserve - main p → back through Besh-Aral State Nature Reserve - Shandalas is 303 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Besh-Aral State Nature Reserve - Shandalas → Padysha-Ata State Nature Reserve is 243 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.