Each time I return home from an extended time abroad, I am engulfed with a mixture of emotions and impressions. And each time it is different. Last time, it was the shock at the pace of life so many live in the UK. The Rat Race. I hated it. I had gone straight back into [...]
I am back in the UK! Yes, that happened fast you say. Indeed, I’d been keeping my return quiet so I could surprise my mum for her birthday. But now I can tell you about the last days of the journey… Having cycled back to Moynaq, I hopped in a taxi and left a pool [...]
Rather than retrace the direct route to the main road via Urgench, cycled along the smaller roads for a short cut towards Nukus. Riding through small towns and farmland. Uninspiring. But I was quite happy just pootling along. No particular rush. I thought again how this countryside reminded me of Norfolk. Dusk arrived too fast. [...]
I pushed on towards Khiva, rather than camp – it would have been the crap kind of camping. Where you have to hide and make no noise and try not to be seen. There were simply too many houses and people from the main road to Khiva. Nothing like the desert the day before. Besides, [...]
Because it had taken three hours for the taxi driver to find 3 other passengers, it was well after dark when I arrived in Tortkul. So rather than cycling out of town and camping, I found a place to stay. From here I was going to start a mini tour of the crumbling ruins of [...]
After Samarkand, came Bukhara. On the route I’m cycling west, at least. It was the same for those merchants from the East trading along the Silk Road so many centuries ago, millennia even. Another central Asian city that has changed hands almost as often as I wash my clothes. First it was a vassal state [...]
Samarkand was founded around 700BC by the Sogdians. It became one of the greatest cities in the world at the time due to it’s central location on the Silk Road, connecting China with the East. Later it became a centre of learning for Islam. In 1220, Chinggis Khan swept through and destroyed much of the [...]
Time is flying by. I have so much I could write about, but too little time to do it justice. That has been the trouble with this trip… not enough time to simply sit back and relax. Now I’m in Central Asia and no longer need to rush against the wintery weather, the 30 day [...]
So this was the plan… cycle through the Pamirs and on to Dushanbe, pick up my Uzbek visa and be on my way to Uzbekistan to see the Silk Road cities, make a brief detour to the remains of the Aral Sea and cycle on into Kazakhstan and fly home in time for Christmas. It [...]
It was a struggle leaving Langar. After a night in a bed (=mattress on floor), I was more tired than usual. Not much energy either (soup and bread for dinner is not enough calories for a cycle-tourer, even after you wake in the night and eat a Snickers bar). So I lingered over breakfast and [...]
