Dushanbe, Tajikistan

Location:	Dushanbe
Mileage:	5,733

When Julia and I first rode to the Uzbek / Tajik border last year on the recce it was no problem. At the Azerbaijan border it had been cups of tea, “$5 please” and at the Tajik border, the request was “Any Sex DVD’s?” - but other than that and a US$10 payment for a missing “eco” certificate, all was fine. Not this time. It took six hours to get the group through. Every bag and item of clothing was searched and any cash over the amount declared was confiscated! With the first riders being searched the word spread and cash was counted and declarations changed, but for some it was too late. Having handed in his declaration one rider decided the best thing to do was to stuff a role of $1,000 between his arse cheeks. He gets strip searched! Down to his pants at the border, and if it is discovered then we can all look forward to the same. But they stop at his pants and he gets away with it!

Into Tajikistan still sore from our treatment. This is eased with a brief 5 star stopover in the capital and another day for the support crew to finish off work on the bikes for the next leg. By the time we leave here all bikes need to have the knobbly tyres on, change of oils and a thorough checking over. Most of the riders pitch in to help. It has to be said that the 1200s are holding up well, but the F800s are starting to feel the pace – we’ve got fork seals that have blown, an iffy fuel pump and one whose battery won’t hold its charge. To be fair one bike has 50,000 miles + on it (it did the Trans Am last year too).

In Dushanbe, we’ve heard it’s kicked off again in southern Kyrgyzstan and the town of Jalalabad (where we have booked the group in for the night) has just had a bit of a confrontation along the main street and shot a few more people dead. The FCO has flung out another travel warning and it looks a bit uncertain. It gets quite complicated as our Chinese permits allow us entry only via the Torugart Pass (and we would need to get ourselves through Jalalabad first). Back home Julia is back on the case, re-jigging all the arrangements with our Chinese agent and we find a solution that allows us to change our port of entry in just enough time. This means we cut short the stay in Kyrgyzstan to just one overnight stop in Sary Tash, then get into China 3 days early. It’s a good plan, do-able and brings certainty back into the journey, so we break the news to the team, who naturally are more happy about securing their entry into China than 3 days in Kyrgyzstan.

The next piece of news is that the southern road to Kailikum is closed. This is the road we are due to take tomorrow! The rains have been very bad this year and the road has collapsed. Our local Pamiri guide assures us the northern route remains open and the map shows a nice bright red line indicating main road.  Fingers crossed!

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.

Turkmenistan

Location:	Ashgabat
Mileage:	4,496

Turkmenistan is an oil rich nation still steeped in the old Soviet empire this is a proper police state. The locals are curious but nervous and so are the police. Is the group to be feared or trusted? It’s a long straight desert road from the port to the capital, Ashgabat. We narrowly avoid being wiped out by suicidal camels and then it rains (in the desert?!).

Max manages to snap his chain and then the rest of the F800 group end up taking the old road?!! How does that happen? So about 20 miles before the capital, we get an unrequested police escort. Maybe they have seen the mayhem! 

Ashgabat is a weird city, all clad in white marble, with gold roofs and golden statutes of the old leader Turkmenbashi. It’s artificial, lacks personality and its people look on at us cautiously. Ann’s ankle was still giving her gip (from the tumble on the river crossing in Turkey), so she had it checked out here and we find out she’s broken a small bone in her foot. She decides it’s best for her to go home and we’ll try and fly her out from Uzbekistan. It’s a real blow for Ann who last year broker her other ankle riding the Trans Labrador in Canada.

We set off the next day for Erbent and the burning gas crater of Darvaza. A few of the team seem to have got the squits, so they bung themselves up with Immodium, we all do a quick national TV interview outside the hotel and head north for our first spot of desert camping.

The crater is best seen in the middle of the night and as its located well into the dunes we take a couple of 4WDs, who are intent on racing against each other. The crater look as if a meteor has struck the earth but in reality it’s the result of incompetent Russian gas drilling. The locals call the place the “Mouth of Hell” and it’s an apt description; it certainly looks more impressive than its reason for being.

Is this the gateway to hell?  It feels like Hollywood have created this set!

Kevin Sanders

Across the Caspian Sea

Location:	Baku
Mileage:	4,122

In Sheki, I gave the team a comprehensive briefing about Baku, Azerbaijan’s capital, and the port where we would catch the ferry to Turkmenistan. I use the term “ferry” loosely. Let me try and create the right image for you. Remove every normal facility from a ferry, let it rust for sixty years, never replace any fixtures and fittings, leave maintenance to a bare minimum and chug across the Caspian each day, with only a handful of passengers, train freight and an aged crew. This is a ghost ship on a voyage of the damned.

I told the riders to stack up with drinks and nibbles – it wasn’t unheard of for the boat to stay out at sea for over 2 days – and to take their own sleeping bags as the mattresses were still the originals and very well used. As the support crew, we piled the van with rice and meat for the ship “chef” to cook plov and a reasonable quantity of vodka.

Arriving in Baku, we were in luck – a ferry was due in the next morning and we were down to the docks to secure our place on it. The next day, our bikes were lashed down in the belly of the ship, next to the massive train carriages, using our own straps, whilst a couple of deckhands smoked tabs, totally uninterested in our presence. We were joined on board by two other passengers - Azerbaijan Footballers who were going to play for a Turkmenistan team. They smoked and drank lots of Vodka so no different to back home then! Alcohol and arm wrestling was the evening’s entertainment. God Bless P&O!

A bleary eyed breakfast was courtesy of Cotswold Outdoor (http://www.cotswoldoutdoor.com/) who had provided us with a huge quantity of boil in the bag camp food – the “all day breakfasts” went down very well! It was a couple of hours wait for the Turkmen Immigration to visit us on the boat and check out we were all healthy enough to be allowed to enter the country and another 7 hours trying to complete formalities to get the bikes in. (At least we were only one night on the boat!)


What seems to take the time to enter is the little man who has to draw your intended route on the vehicle permit, then calculate the distance you are covering and charge you a fee to make up for the fact that you are not entitled to the cheap fuel in Turkmenistan (which is about 20p per litre). Oh and then there’s no computers and all documents have to be done in triplicate.

Kevin Sanders

Georgia & Azerbaijan

Location:	Sheki
Mileage:	3,942

We cross in and out of Georgia in only two days, with just one overnight stop in Tblisi. Georgia is a Christian tiny country surrounded by its Muslim neighbours and Russia to the north, with whom it had a big spat with in 2008.  The back roads are quiet until you start to get close to the capital.

Amidst kamikase Mercedes drivers and crater size potholes, there’s a lot of dodging about to be done getting in to Tbilisi.Our hotel is located with a spectacular view of the golden statue of George and the Dragon (yes, “our” St George – am I the only person who did not appreciate that St George was not English , but of Middle Eastern origin whose mother was Palestinian and father was Turkish?)

From here, it’s Azerbaijan; Azerbaijan is one of those countries that doesn’t appreciate getting visitors and makes it difficult. Their London Embassy refused to issue a visa to Jeff, our NZ driver. He had to fly to Berlin to get one! Even at the border, they won’t allow you more than a 3 days transit visa for the bike. On the plus, they got us through pretty quickly and it was a short ride onto Sheki for the night, staying at the 18th century caravanserai.

Eastern Turkey

Location: Kars
Mileage:  3,502

Along the route in Turkey, we get to see the weird and wonderful rock formations and cave dwellers in Cappadocia. 




It’s a 4am start to take a hot air balloon to silently drift over them as dawn rises. Serene and breathtaking views.   From here it’s the Fish Springs – where we all soak in big warn tanks as small fish eat away our dead skin . . .

Then it’s our practice river crossing day. I’ve stuck this in the route as I know there’s going to be some bigger river stuff waiting in Tajikistan, so let’s get the group to try out something basic first. Tackled successfully by all, except Max on his F800GS, who both go for a quick dive. (Look at www.youtube.com/globebusters). Luckily Max bounces and rolls well and so does the bike. 

We finish of the day, in a local restaurant and the speciality of the areas – “testes”! It would be easy to think these belong to the undercarriage of a bull, but luckily for us, it’s a way of cooking kebab in a clay pot that is then broken to eat the food. Phew!

Across Europe in 7 days

Location:	Istanbul
Mileage:	2184

Just 350 miles and the Euro Tunnel got us to Bouillon, Belgium and the first night of this epic ride. From here, we followed in the footsteps Godfrey and the first Crusaders, to Istanbul, although with less drunkenness and pillage en route – maybe!

We’ve taken the back roads in Northern Croatia and Serbia, still lined with bullet ridden homes, and explored tiny Greek mountain roads. More than 2,000 miles and five days later, Istanbul is already looming. Here we’ll meet up with some Turkish riders, who previously supported our Guinness World Record ride back in 2001. The true start of our Asian adventure awaits! (See www.youtube.com/globebusters)

We arrive in the shadow of the Blue Mosque. Spices and souks scream Asia and the journey proper begins with the call to prayer, or for us infidels, the call to ride, ringing in our ears.  We are joined by local rider, Kazim, on his KTM. I’ve known Kazim since our first Guinness World Record in 2002, as he was one of the riders who met us at the Turkish border and rode with us.

Turkey is a fascinating country of modern and medieval. Package holiday makers will only know the Mediterranean beach resorts. We are inland through the central and eastern regions, taking some of the small, single track, off the beaten track roads which take us through tiny Ottoman villages, ancient wooden houses; its donkey and cart territory. (See www.youtube.com/globebusters)

Photos: 
1) Max celebrating Turkey
2) Taking a moment respite