26th of July - Our first taste of gravel road!

The combination of jet lag and local beer resulted in our early start becoming an 11:25 am start on our first day. So we stopped by a supermarket for the evenings camping dinner. The highlights of the supermarket included canned horse and 1litre cans of beer (which exploded on the back of the bike a few hours later).
Less than an hour on the road, we discovered our jerry can had worked loose and had grinded on the rear wheel, resulting in a fountain of petrol directed straight at the hot engine block. After a swift removal, and stop to admire a soviet mig fighter jet we were on our way again.
Next stop was issyk-kul lake where we stopped for lunch and tired local dumplings and got the restaurant owners to sign the bike with a sharpie pen.
Then we Begun our journey to Song kul lake our final destination for the day.
With 60 miles to go, the potholed tarmac turned to gravel track. With the sun decending fast we knew we were against the clock. The gravel track then turned to a 'wash board' surface (bike killer and nut loosener). And in the rush we had a few brown trouser moments in the sheer drop corners. Not helped by seeing a dead cow that had clearly fallen over the edge. Still in our summer bike gear we reached 3500 meters at the Kalmar ashu,  passing large ice formations. Our fingers went numb which did nothing to help Andy's clutch control over the rutted dirt/ gravel track.
Approaching the lake, the theory of a 'track' disappeared,  and we encountered a huge sense of freedom to roam the open plains (in the dark).
Unfortunately we got carried away and lost the direction we were supposed to travel in. After 4-5 miles passing through some surprised locals in their yurt camps,  we decided to pitch up.
Dinner would have been easy if Andy had not taken the rusty untested crappy lighter from the shed at home. 20 minutes of attempting to get the lighter to work, we did get to cook and eat our supermarket selection of pasta stuff.
The stars at night were amazing but our stove was obviously the only ambient light for miles, so we became a moth magnet!
Once we were tucked in the sleeping bags and turkish airline blankets, by accident we created magical and very surreal static crackles and light flashes in the tent when we moved around in the blankets. A bit alarming surreal but a good end to the day.