Story and photo by Jeanette Knudson
Imagine a clear blue sky, the atmosphere perfectly still and the weather amazing.
Mountain peaks upon mountain peaks covered with pristine white snow disappear into the distance. A gravel road runs across the plateau, strewn with melting snow; the road has been recently graded, the snow piled back into banks along the sides. If we could see 1200km to the south east we might view the Himalayans and Mt Everest. We are at nearly 3000 metres above sea level, where it’s possible to get altitude sickness if you’re there long enough.
We are in the Pamir Mountains, the roof of the world, just four sixty-plus New Zealanders and our young Kyrgyz guide, Talent. There’s not another person or vehicle around. We park the Nissans which have been coughing in the thin air, and get out, surveying the spectacular scenery. The border post is a few kilometres behind us. We’ve left China and are now in Kyrgyzstan.
Our journey takes in the Silk Road and traverses 16,000 kilometres from Hong Kong to Poland, crossing eight borders with 10 or 12 different guides.
Nearly two years prior to crossing the Pamir Mountains, our friends Maurice and Anne O’Reilly told us they would like to drive the Silk Road and invited us to join them. We agreed. Both couples owned a pre-millennium 4WD Nissan Terrano, ideal for the journey because they were not too computerized.
Preparing to go
But there was a massive amount of preparation – educating ourselves about the countries, the route to take, spare vehicle parts, communication radios between the vehicles, visas, inoculations like rabies, what to take with us like emergency food and a full medical kit, and everything else from spades to wet wipes.
Our route
We determined our route before we left home. We flew to Hong Kong and collected the vehicles in Shenzhen across the harbour from Hong Kong. We then drove north through the limestone karst country around Guilin and up to Xi’an, where we biked on the massive city walls and visited the renowned terracotta soldiers.
After Xi’an we joined the Silk Road, turning west through the oasis cities that skirt the north of the Taklamakan desert. It was a very different China – less people and traffic, open modern leafy-green cities, clear blue skies, many of the people Moslem Uyghurs rather than Chinese Han.
After a month of driving in China we arrived at Kashgar near the border, with its distinctive Middle Eastern culture. Then it was over the Pamir Mountains via the Irkeshtam Pass into Kyrgyzstan, then after two days we spent two weeks travelling through Uzbekistan.
Our journey together finished in Krakow, Poland where we visited the very sobering Nazi death camp of Auschwitz – over one million Jews died there. The O’Reillys went on to race at the Nurburg Ring in Germany, and Martin and I travelled to Denmark and Norway for another month and a half.
Would we do it all again? Without a doubt. I came home looking for my next adventure, remembering with pleasure the many people and events we met on the Silk Road.
Writing up the adventure
Martin and Jeanette Knudsen, together with Maurice and Anne O’Reilly, have tackled a number of 4WD adventures, including in New Zealand, Australia and Africa. In 2011 they drove 16,000 kilometres from Hong Kong to Krakow. Both Maurice and Jeanette wrote diaries and blogs as they journeyed and took hundreds of photos. Back home, Jeanette decided to turn the adventure into a book. “Four Kiwis on the Silk Road” was published in November 2017. The aim was to relive the journey, as well as share it with a wider audience of both armchair travellers and actual adventurers on the Silk Road. The book provides a very readable and interesting account, with route maps and 40 colour photos.
Helpful travel companies and web sites:
Overland Journeys – www.rallytours.co.nz/item/silk-road-2019
Silk Road Adventures – www.silkroad.co.nz Murray and Pat Reedy of Silk Road Adventures (NZ) Ltd were excellent in their organisation of our Central Asia travel.
“Four Kiwis on the Silk Road” is available for purchase at $29.95 from selected bookshops or DayStar Books www.daystarbooks.org
To read the full story in the December 2018 issue of NZ4WD go to Zinio.com (November 17) or purchase your own hard copy at the Adrenalin store.
