CHASING THE
S on I a L bike K that R hated
O A us!
D
T
he little Yamaha pants and
sweats as it climbs a nev-
er-ending staircase of moun-
tain passes. Narrow gravel
tracks wind their way round
crumbling cliff edges, along
skinny ridges and beside raging
rivers slicing their way through
deep valleys. Mountains burst out
of the earth, climbing into the sky
and there’s nothing to do but chase
the roads that wind their way round
them.
We pull over, take our sweaty hel-
mets off and slump down by the bike.
Our feet dangle over a steep drop as
stones roll down into the River Panj
- the only thing separating Tajiki-
stan from Afghanistan. We stare at
Afghanistan’s beautiful explosion of
yellow, green and blue mountains
and plot our route.
We’ll cross the border soon and
continue chasing the Silk Road into
Afghanistan’s Wakhan Corridor,
following in the footsteps of Marco
TRAVERSE 67
Polo, along a route which has lured
travellers, merchants and adventurers
for over two thousand years.
As the XT bakes under the hot Tajik
sun, threatening to burst with boiling
hot coolant, I can’t help but wonder
what it must have been like for those
pioneers all that time ago when the
legendary Silk Road began. Probably
much the same, just with reliable
camels instead of motorbikes and less
breakdowns.
Chasing the Silk Road through its
heart in Central Asia has got to be the
most fun you can have on a motorcy-
cle. Back then, men traversed these
rugged lands to sell silk and spices
and make their fortunes in foreign
lands. But today it’s an adventure
rider’s paradise.
Life is easy now we’re slap bang in
the middle of the Silk Road; we ride
epic single-track paths during the
day and pitch our tent under a bil-
lion stars at night. But it wasn’t easy
getting here, and it wasn’t easy getting