But another 20 km down the road, the pureed track of mud that some optimist had marked as a road on my map turned into what I can only describe as a complete and utter quagmire. The mud was way too soft, and stuck to my tires in inch-thick layers of paste that would then accumulate on my front forks and rear seat stays until the tires would not move anymore. This required me to scrape and clear the clearance every couple of rotations. Then the mud started dropping down into the spokes, like frosting on the beater, as you can see in the top of the frame here. The mud had also fouled my chain and rear cassette so that the gears were popping when I turned the cranks. I started pushing the bike off the road, hoping that I could cycle on the unchurned ground, but that was even worse in terms of the mud factor. I walked back to a rig to see if there was any hope of hitting passable road conditions ahead where I could clean the bike an continue on. But the response was a "nyeto asphalt" the rest of the way. He indicated that he was waiting for the sun to bake the road dry - an iffy proposition given that the skies were already clouded over for a shower that started about half an hour later. I asked if there was any possibility of exchanging dollars to som at the border - again, Nyet - the next bank was Nukus. So basically, I was out of luck, stuck in the gunk. (6-07-05)
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Stuck in the Gunk |
