ASIA RAID 2008
ISLAMABAD TO ITALY
Still not completely returned from previous journey that already I have to prepare the motor-bike for what I am about to begin. Madness? Exaggerated wish to show that I am able to complete another deed? I do not know, the knee destroyed in Botswana due to a fall in the previous journey, was "repaired" in record time; the road book is already mapped out and the motor-bike in the garage seems looking to me wondering when it is time to leave.
And then the casual contact with Andrea that like me desired Asia.
A sign of destiny, a magical coincidence that very quickly makes me feel ready for the new Raid. So it was born ISLAMABAD TO ITALY. A journey in the heart of Asia, with the dispatch of the motorbike in Lahore in Pakistan, then going up the Karakoram Highway and overcome the khunjerab Pass 4793 MT, the highest practicable pass in the world, even if in memory I remember the Condor PASA in Bolivia over 5000 MT, but dispense with heights!
It will be the turn of China along the chain of Pamir, personally a return; on the road to Beijing I transited in these parts two years ago.
Kasghar and its varied and picturesque Sunday market, overcoming the Irkestan Pass, we will enter in Kyrgyzstan and arrived to Sary Tash - with the Comunist and Lenin peak as frame - perhaps I will meet again the little woman with a moustache who was selling gasoline by litres with maniacal precision. We will turn left towards the Tajik border and we will enter on M41, better known as Highway of Pamir. If there will be a possibility we will take the road that travels along the Afghani border: we are under the peaks of Pamir. It is the second highest international Highway in the world after Karakorum.
Although it is designated as highway (therefore main road), it is very neglected and in some points it is seriously damaged by erosion, earthquakes, landslides and avalanches.
It has not, however, any interruptions and it serves all the autonomous region of Gorno-Badakhshan.
The path of this road is crossed since millennia, being part of the silk route.
Once in Dushanbè, the Tajik capital, we have to go down towards Samarkand or Marakanda for the Greeks; for the third time I will be face to face with the Ragiastan, majestic building built by Tamerlane; then Bukkara, 90 km from there to the Turkmen border.
We will overcome the Amudarja, the river that is born in Afghanistan by the chain of Pamir, with a length of 2540 KM it was an obstacle to Alexander the Great In his conquest towards the East.
Leaving the Turkmenistan we will enter in Iran with a stop in Mashad in order to visit the Imam Shiite complex then we will go to Theran.
With the capital behind us, we will go to north towards the Caspian Sea with a stop in Arbabil, the Iranian Cappadocia. After passing the border of Gorbalak, it only remais for us to cut across Turkey and to stop at Istanbul to greet our friend Zizì and, why not to pop over Azzurra Mosque? At that point Andrea will bend towards the north to Edirne, I will go to Greece with a stop in Parga to greet some friends; after that I will embark at Igumenitza towards Italy.
The numbers of travel are 10500 Km, many inaccessible roads, 10 Country to cross, always with her, my travelling companion, the KTM 690 Enduro, the last born in the House KTM.
It will be an hard test for both but I trust to the reliability of the means; it is not a small thing.
Andrea will leave by the shyne reliable KTM 990's motorbike, the same model I used last year during the travel "Cape Town to EICMA Milan". Of course, as I have the opportunity, I will send reports of the journey.
Partners of this adventure, KTM, Acerbis and Motorex. 