Day 144 (Uzbekistan): nowhereland after Mobarak - Chorvador (this bike is way too big for the kid …)

daily distance: 112km
total distance: 9109km
riding time: 6h

The wind was against me again. Not strongly, but clearly perceptible. I could feel it during the early hours before getting out of bed. Turning to the east meant putting my face into the wind.

Not sure how long the trip would be I set out. Yesterday I had been given various distances, ranging from 118km to only 60km only 10km later. What to make of this I don’t know. The ride was bit grueling, turned out to be 50km from where I was (meaning the 60km sign was on the mark) and found me arriving in Quarshi at 11am - exhausted and not feeling well. The previous day had taken its toll.

I knew that a former student in my hometown had arranged for me to stay with a friend of his. Given my early arrival, I wanted to move on to Samarkand. I called Islam and soon enough his friend tracked me down in a place that let me use their fast (1 MB/s - which is lightning speed to me right now) internet connection for a couple of hours. It was a place to pay the mobile bills and the owner and I tagged off for a few hours on the billing site and my website.

Food and sightseeing done, I headed out uphill from Quarshi. It was dry country, some oil wells here and there and it was slightly warm at 4pm. I cycled until 7pm when I tried to find a place to pitch.

The first farm turned me away rather rudely (no expectation on my side to be allowed to pitch, but the way this went was a bit on the different side), another taking me into their place in a rather friendly manner. One of the kids even seemed to take a liking to my bike I think.