Shelter: Four-season tent will be our primary form of accommodation, due in part to necessity, especially in Mongolia and the Pamirs. Guesthouses, yurts and gers will give the tent-pegs a rest.
Water: A ceramic water filter will fill our 20L worth of vessels. May some deity reward saving plastic bottles by smiting some cryptosporidia.
Nutrition: Local fare or cooked with MSR Whisperlite International stove (capable of burning almost any fuel) when mutton and yak milk is hard to come by.
Coffee: Yes
Milk: The fermented rather than soy variety.
Distances: 10000km. Roughly 50km a day.
Temperatures: Thanks the to the Mongolian dzud, temperatures will soar from -30 to -10deg C overnight and -15 to 0deg C during the day. After riding out of the Pamirs down to sea level, the Uzbek summer will heat up to mid 40s during the day. So, doing the arithmetic, that's a temp range of up to 70deg C.
Winds: Head. Strong.
Some challenging (potential) highlights:
Mongolia: 1600km battle through Mongol snow and rubble will see us head through the one of the world’s highest countries, the least inhabited and currently one of the coldest
Kyrgyzstan: Skirting the glacially fed Lake Issyk-kul, one of the world’s deepest (700m) before riding alongside the towering Tian Shan mountain range (peak 7439m)
Pamir Highway: One of the least explored mountain ranges on earth. 800km plateau between 5000m to 7000m peaks, complete with altitude sickness, sparse civilization and painful westerly headwinds
Iran: Simply getting a visa.
Turkey: One very magical word....kebab.
