Category — Uzbekistan

daily distance: 113km
total distance: 9325km
riding time: 9h

My body wanted to stay in Samarkand and I could have stayed without any problems, but visa issues are waiting and I got an invite for a wedding in Tashkent later this month. All of this meant that I thought I should move along. I am choosing a long detour (don’t ask why) as opposed to simply heading into Tajikistan from here. This way I may also get around the impending border closure that the Uzbek government may be having in mind. Or so I heard. It’s independence day on September 1, and for some this is a good reason to close a border. What a bunch of !@#$. I am sorry, this makes no sense to me.

At any rate, I set out and things were good for 20km out of the entire day. The rest was … wind. An angry, feisty, nasty wind. My stomach wasn’t happy either. I had to stop all over. I schlepped myself into Jizzax more than anything else.

What made the day special though was the reception at the friends of Islam. He is organizing most of the trip it seems and has friends all over the place (and if not, he asks friends of friends it seems). They were extremely kind and generous and we had a great time after I had come back from the dead. Thanks so much!!!

It was my day off and I was shot still. I felt woozy and tired, had a hard time getting up. Everything was catching up with me and swirled around me. Mostly exhaustion. First though, breakfast …

This is the time when giving your bike some love is a good idea. It absolutely deserved it too. Take a look for yourself.

That done, I took care of the bags while I was at it.

The bazar provided some really good foto ops …

We set out to get some other stuff and tour some sites … can’t be in Samarkand without doing some touristy things.

On the way back we wondered past a cemetery with moving tombstones and engravings.

More internet happiness (meaning fast uploads) followed and another delicious meal at the family’s home. This time it was mantis, steamed dumplings.

daily distance: 103km
total distance: 9212km
riding time: 6h

The sunrise was extraordinary and given that I had been sleeping outside, I enjoyed it as I was packing up. It made for some good foto ops too.

The wind had been OK the day before, but now it was back where it had been for days on end. I cycled right into it - while at the same time going uphill. I had been promised a long uphill, with a long downhill to Samarkand to follow. That one never came and so I kept slugging along into the wind until I turned a corner where things became a bit more pleasant. All the while feeling pretty exhausted and not well at all.

When I got to Samarkand, I was already stacked out with Islam’s relatives who were waiting for me there. We met at the Registan and took the necessary picture before heading to eat something. I should maybe say that I have been here a couple of times, so the usual tourist thingy didn’t really apply. But here is one of the welcome comittee with my bike at the Registan …

I was also pretty exhausted overall and just wanted a day off and not much inbetween. What I did want to do was upload some pictures and update the website (I am woefully behind in posting, I know). The first two internet cafes were no good. They allowed nothing, the third one was also restrictive, but has what I consider lightning speed. I haven’t seen anything like it anywhere. The uploads were blazingly fast and that’s why you have been and will be inundated with pictures from Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan until Samarkand.

Islam’s relatives were simply great, they received me in their home with open arms - and plov, slightly different from the one I had enjoyed with Feruz’s family, but likewise delicious. A big thanks to Eljor and Fedya who - both in their own ways - made Samarkand a great stopover on my trip.

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.

daily distance: 118km
total distance: 8997km
riding time: 5-6h

I woke up in Feruz’s family home and felt at ease. I had slept sort unpeacefully though. I had dreamed about being in Germany and leaving for the trip. Everything had been a mess, the bike functioned only so-so and I remember the lens of my camera being completely smeared.

Waking up, the world was different. I continued sleeping in the fresh morning air outside of the house, being one of the first risers. At some point, Feruz’s father put a blanket on me, brought tea out and I fell back asleep with the smell of fresh green tea and a warm blanket around me.

We set out after a wonderful family breakfast and it of course took much longer than anticipated. But thanks to Feruz, we managed pretty much everything and he even went to Buchara with me despite him going into a different direction to be back with his wife and children in Tashkent. Thanks so much for everything Feruz, you made the days in Buchara so much more memorable than they would have been otherwise. Having been in Feruz’s hands also meant that I was loaded down with a lot of extra food weight, about 4kg of it plus a lot of water. Fresh and dried grapes, nuts, apricot seeds and tons of other goodies. This one - that’s a negative.

Leaving at just after noon I was smack in the middle of the hot period of the day. Buchara also happens to be a bit of an oasis, meaning I was in desert climate pretty soon and the temperatures reached 50C in the shade pretty quickly. I moved on making use of the tailwind that I finally caught on my road to Quarshi. I am choosing this detour deliberately, had hoped to not battle the wind for a day or so and that’s exactly what happened. The ride is longer and goes over some mountains, but I was dreading riding into the wind again and gave the longer way a shot.

The terrain was uneventful, I was able to cover miles and miles through calm-inducing areas (safe for the power plant and other not so pretty habitations). When it was time to find a place to sleep I found a shepherd who was more than happy to have me over. Together with some other farm workers we slept under the stars after a very light dinner. I was simply too spent to eat a lot and it would have been somewhat inappropriate to do so given the food that the others had available (dry bread soaked in water to make it eatable and water melon). This isn’t the right diet and it was too long a day to begin with, so we’ll see what happens.

I would like to say that I am roughing it on such days, but given that people like today’s hosts are doing this every day “roughing it” seems a bit out of place.