From Almaty you can head to Esik, Turgen and into the Turgen gorges. Then on small trails you get to the Assy observatory and on to Jinishke until you reach the road Saty - Kolsay lake. From Saty it's good gravel road to the Charyn Canyon - Karkara (border) road.
In Kirghizstan, there's a bit of corrugated road, then tar until south of Issyk Kul lake (no alternative AFAIK). Then it's either Tosor Pass or up Barskoon pass and Arabel pass. Both will get you on the Kochkor - Naryn road. Best is then to go up to Song Kul, down to Kazarman and on to Jalalabad (good gravel, no alternative).
Finally, there's a bit of bad traffic on paved road to Osh, but if you don't need to go to Osh and are headed to Pamir, there's a better alternative from Uzgen to Gulcha.
All these roads are on OpenStreetmap, so that should be no big deal to follow (the Turgen - Saty stretch is maybe a bit difficult).
Happy riding,
Laurent
Overland Aventure – Partir – Découvrir – Raconter
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