Uzbekistan

Location:	Samarkand
Mileage:	5,381

Another border crossing – we exit Turkmenistan and enter Uzbekistan. It’s relatively painless and with only 10 miles to get to the hotel in Khiva, it turns out to be more straight forward than expected. In Uzbekistan we have to change money – their largest note is 1,000 som – worth 50p. We all end up with stacks of the stuff! Khiva is the first of the Silk Road cities.

It’s the smallest but impressive surrounded by a huge ancient wall and filled with mosques and minarets all explored through tiny narrow streets. It’s also warm (at last!) and we have a rest day over a festival week-end. There’s lots of traditional music, dancing and animal fights (eek) As national TV is covering the event, we get to be interviewed again about our amazing journey.

It’s more desert to get to Bukhara – pretty uneventful. Lots of tea, even more sand and one puncture. On the road, some of our team get to meet a couple of French riders on Honda Varadero 125s – they don’t have a full bike licence and fawn over the GS bikes. Maybe one day, eh?


The police showed out in force for some of the riders the next day to Samarkand – the boys avoiding tickets by showing the police pictures of themselves being interviewed on national TV back in Khiva!

We’ve got another day off in Samarkand – there’s loads of Silk Road World Heritage stuff to see and we need to work on the bikes. We’re getting close to the half way point and we need to start changing tyres here and finish off in Dushanbe (two days away with another rest day). Most of the team head out to do the tourist bit, exploring the ancient centre – the Registan, packed with bright turquoise tiled mausoleums, mosques and medressas.

Today, we’ve got a short day’s ride to get us within easy reach of the Tajik border, stopping in a small town with a big local wedding on at our hotel. Ah yes! We get to be the guests and entertainment for all, together with the two fully clothed belly dancers who grab the team to have a bit of a gyrate! Some were a little more reluctant than others, but it’s amazing what a drop of vodka can do! We’re off to enter Tajikistan tomorrow.