Wrap up and go

We then delivered the bikes into Ibrahim’s hands, the guy managing our shipping affairs at the Aqaba Logistics Village. After all the effort, it now feels strange to give them away at the port - to abandon them ... they are still rolling, so why not riding them home? Didn't we always find a solution?

But it's alright. This time, the container ship would be our solution, and that's ok.

Heavenhell, this had been an adventure eh?

"The misty path leads fools to glory.
Run into the unknown, without closing the eyes."

From Bishkek to Aqaba it had been 23545 km, from taking the airplane and starting the trip until being back in Europe, (with interruptions) it had been 257 days on the road.

We went through several historical landmarks, from Turkic steppes up to high no-man's lands, followed Silk Roads, entered Persian empires, Alexander's gates, and the Arabian world, crossed a multitude of borders and skipped so many boundaries.

We had checked out Turkic bazaars, climbed Chinese lorries, ate sweets with Tajik soldiers, laughed with Afghan drivers, feared the Iranian police. We had made jokes with Iraqi security guards (all with mustaches), enjoyed hospitality of Gulf Arabs, chitchatted with Sudanese camel herders and explored Indian cuisine in the Peninsula.

We climbed 4565 m and went down to 427 m below sea level, all between ice and rocks and sand and mud, crossing rivers, coming down from the mountains, from the dust into the sunset.

We had giggled and laughed histerically, cried tears of pain and of joy, yelled of anger and ecstasy. We had thrown up, lost money, broke bones, collected scratches and bruises like coins of foreign currency. Way more than what we had lost we had been gifted, and way more than with food or shelter, with smiles and warmth.

Kismet had collected three or four punctures and three times the engine needed to be opened (with increasingly detrimental damage) - every single time both a headache and an opportunity for encounters with hilarious people.
Murghob had kept on kicking dust pretty well in turn - well, despite a crack in the rim, some broken spokes and a rough front suspension due to gnarly roads and omnipresent dust.

"Riding on fire,
Insanity has replaced the fear.
Black riders are cheating the death.
[...] United in joy and suffering."

For the heroes of flesh and blood in this story... They had been together in joy and suffering. They had had the great opportunity to see each other not only in the white robe of marriage but in the heavy motorcycle gear sullied with pain and anger. And along all those dusty roads, when one fell, they took each other’s hand to raise...

"[Their] fate follows the curves of a forgotten road."

[Asagaya - Intro]

And to quote ourselves:
Every day is a fucking adventure baby, so let's kick it.

See y'all ❤️Read more