Total distance: 3008 km
Samarkand - Jizzax - Sardaba - Chinaz - Tashkent
On last Monday morning we left for Tashkent. We were happy to be back on our bikes again after one week of break. Lucky as we were, it had rained during the night and thus it had cooled down about 10°C, perfect for cycling!! When we left Samarkand, immediately a strong wind started, and of course it was headwind. So although it was flat, cycling wasn't easy. We had cycled just about 2 hours when suddenly two other cyclists were coming from behind. We stopped for a chat, decided to continue together as we were going in the same direction and stopped for a longer lunch break a short time later.
Cat and Adam were going to Tajikistan via Khojand, so we had about one day cycling together before the routes parted. After being only the two of us for such a long time, it was nice cycling with some other people and we had really a good time. As they have been on the road for over a year already, they were cycling quite fast. Peter and me had to give everything to keep up with them. In the evening we found a nice camping spot, hidden in a small valley and cooked a really good dinner - rice with vegetables Chinese style. The next morning we rode through Jizzax, the biggest town on the way and had to say goodbye to
Cat and Adam shortly after. Hey guys, if you read this: we hope you found the right road in the end! Was nice cycling with you!
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| Breakfast with Cat & Adam |
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| Melon, melon ... more melon |
The next day the fierce wind had slowed down a bit and the road was all flat. The land wasn't changing a lot during the day. We rode through many melon and cotton fields, not many villages and the land was rather dry here. Every time we stopped people came up to us and offered us melons. In the end of the day we had eaten so much melon, we had to refuse many more offers. We spent that night next to a cotton field, with Uzbek students. The students here are all sent to work on the cotton fields during the summer vacation by the government. It was quite nice, even if we could not communicate a lot, it was fun: specially trying to convince them that people speak Spanish and Portuguese in South America and not Latin as they believed (because it is called Latin America) and I'm not sure the believed us in the end.
From the cotton field it was another 140km to Tashkent and we decided to split that up in two shorter days. So we spent the next night at a roadside restaurant, before cycling into Tashkent the next morning. When cycling in or out of big cities, the traffic is always frightening. So I was really happy when we arrived at the guesthouse we had planned to stay. But when Peter went inside they told him that it was full and turned us away. I was devastated. Luckily when they saw that we had bikes they felt pity with us and let us stay in the common room on a mattress on the floor. I was happy again! Specially after having had the first shower after 4 days of cycling.
Today we applied for the Chinese visa, which we should have tonight and then we will leave Tashkent directly tomorrow morning again. The city is not very nice and above all really expensive. Then we will be heading to Almaty - Kazakhstan, which we should reach in about 12 days.
Oh, and we reached the 3000 km mark! I know we are slower than most other cyclists and 1000 km per month is not a lot, but hey, we are not trying to win the Tour de France and this is just the pace we are enjoying ourselves and the ride!
