NATURAL HIGH

I am sitting in a stone hut, 1.8m x 0.9m. It is steaming hot and an old bloke is stoking a fire to heat it from the small room outside. I am at 3200m and the small room has four other sweaty people in it. It is getting cold outside. We pour water over our overheating heads and wonder at the amazing day that has led us to this place. Being in this traditional Russian banya (sauna) is an experience within itself, but after an amazing day of riding through remote Kyrgyzstan it is almost surreal.

Tash Rabat is known for its stone, 12th-century, Silk Road caravanserai that is still in remarkable condition for being at altitude and subject to the deepest Kyrgyzstan winters and burning summer sun. We have ridden from our very odd but comfortable lodgings in Naryn, about 200km away, via a couple of spectacular mountain passes on twisting dirt roads. The