Sunrise over the lake, where I woke up in Panjakent After Panjakent, it started to get steep. I climbed 60 miles, as the road began to offer me extra steep grades as I rode into the mountains. So far, this was the most stunning ride of the tour, visually. The cliffs rose up over the river valley as I got deeper into the mountains, the temperature was also not so incredibly hot in the middle of the day. A man in traditional clothes who was painting a fence I stopped at a village to eat some somsa and found a place on the side of the road in the shade to take a nap. It probably wasn’t the most appropriate place, as I woke 20 minutes later to a bunch of little kids admiring my bike and staring at me. All testing out their “Hello” like broken records all vying for a reaction. I was a bit groggy, and also a bit annoyed. They couldn’t say anything else and none of them spoke Russian. I put on some sunscreen and kept riding. Climbing higher into the mountains along the Zarafshon riv...
I took off from Samarqand, a little sad to leave such a magical city, but my final leg of the trip was waiting for me. I had a relatively short ride today, only 40 miles. On the way, I passed the first bike tourer I had seen this entire trip, he had ridden from his hometown in China and was also headed to Dushanbe - we rode a few minutes together, but he was much slower than me and also spoke almost no English, so we said goodbye. First bike tourer I ran into the entire trip I rode on to the Tajikistan border. Although I would rate this border quite low on the sketchiness scale - it also scored rather low on thoroughness. Man riding close to the border wearing a traditional Uzbek/Tajik hat The Uzbek side of the border was typical - my passport and visa were scrutinized, checked several times and I got my stamp. I walked over to the Tajik side and passed several windows, some had people in them but waved me through, others were closed. I couldn’t...
I was exhausted getting up in the morning after the long ride the day before. But I wanted to get to Samarqand, where I was planning to rest for a couple of days - so that alone was motivation enough to get over the hills which started early in the ride. Morning sunrise in the middle of the hills It was already in the upper 90’s by 7:00 and my legs were feeling tired. I had only gone 20 miles but I left Jizzax before the town had woken up, so I needed to put some calories in me. I already knew I would struggle to start again, the last couple of days of riding had been fairly intense - I was between fatigue and needing to avoid the increasing heat. I drank an energy drink and had some eggs and sausage. Once I got to the top of the climb - another 20 miles, it was a merciful 20 mile descent into Samarqand (with one last kicker before the town). A typical breakfast “zavtrak” of eggs and various types of sausages. But finally, I was there. I rented an Airbnb directly in the cent...
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