31/01/2026
Dark clouds gathered in the distance as I wiped mud caked on my goggles, blurring my view.
'Surely the rain won't come until the evening', I reassured myself... knowing that was absolute nonsense. Despite years of guiding in the mountains, I have a tendency to ignore my own advice when I'm determined to do something.
The day's mission? Ride up and across Son Kul Lake, one of Kyrgyzstan's crown jewels and a place I once visited almost 10 years before.
By the time I climbed the pass and reached the lake's edge, nature was already punishing my stubborn decision-making.
Pouring rain, bordering on freezing, battered my helmet and soaked through my many layers. My bike sputtered, struggling with the cold and 3,000m elevation. My hands ceased to function.
A girl from a nearby yurt camp ran over to me, beckoning me inside one of their tents. Over tea and biscuits, she and her mother slowly warmed up to me. They were equally hungry for a bit of business on a rainy day, and curious to know why a solo woman biker was waterlogged on their land that day.
Their father/husband soon made an appearance, eventually ignoring me after I resisted his attempts to feed me kymyz, alchoholic horse milk.
Warm as their tent was, fantasies of still-warmer temperatures of the lowlands drew me out the door when the rain's beat slowed.
I struck back out onto muddy washboard as the downpour resumed, dodging pothole puddles and cursing the very existence of Son Kul.
As I climbed the final pass to leave the lake's depression, the many cups of tea caught up with me. Parking my bike on the side of the dirt road—it spluttered to a stop by itself—I waddled over to a hillside to relieve myself.
I was soon reminded that opening motorcycle clothes with frozen hands is easy, but closing them requires a little more dexterity. To add insult to injury, as I fumbled with my trousers, the pouring rain transformed into thick, fluffy snow.
And that is how I ended up pantsless, defeated, frozen, and wet in the middle of nowhere in Kyrgyzstan.
Lesson learned? Of course not.
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Bike bits and gear from:
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Solo female travel, women bikers
