Day 166 (Tajikistan): somewhere behind Konibodom - Khujand (TV camera crews are waiting at the bird)

by markus

daily distance: 87km
total distance: 9963km
riding time: 4-5h

The wind was still there. And coming from the West. What happened? This is the wind I would have needed throughout Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. Now of course that I am turning West for a bit, it is coming from where I could have used it.

Riding in the rain … What you ask? Yes, this is the first rain for several months for me. Tajikistan greeted me with rain. Funny stuff. The last rain must have been somewhere in Turkey.

One of the German Agro Action staff was expecting me in Khujand and so I made my way there. Little did I know a) what would happen there and b) that I would spend the night there. Despite the heavy wind I got to Khujand before midday and was greeted by a camera crew. Not just one, but two in the end. One was local, the other from national TV.

It was fun … Nodir greeted me and introduced me and after a lot of camera posing and running and biking around and some interviews we found our way to some food after which I thought I would continue for some more mileage. But Nodir seemed concerned and in the end I decided to stay in Khujand, figuring that almost 90km wasn’t too bad. The road will still be there tomorrow.

I owe a big one to Nodir for inviting me to his house. His wife had chided him for allowing me to set out over the phone at which point I had decided to stay. It was a good decision and made for interesting conversations. One little factoid for Tajikistan is that the maximum number of people you can have at a wedding party is 150. The biggest celebrations had well over 1000 people, growing in size over time to show how whatever people were. Showing off a bit is part of it for sure. So, the government decided that 150 would be enough. Crowd control I guess …