May 2008

After our difficulties encountered when entering the Ferghana valley of Eastern Uzbekistan, my impression of the area (others may disagree) are quite positive: a very fertile agrarian area with large villages and short distances between them, farm houses decorated with traditional wood carvings, rose and vine arcades for kilometeres along village streets and a view of the mountains in the distance. Ferghana (region named after the town) could be the Bavaria of Uzbekistan. More correctly one should speak of the river plain of the Syrdarya - Oxus for the ancient Greeks - which has been settled ever since neolithic times. A look at the excavations of Kuva had to be skipped because of the time pressure. Anyway, an oasis on this side of the knot formed by the Tien-Shan and Pamir fold mountain systems, while to the east of it the Silk Road will continue through (or along) the vast desert of Taklimakan.

Crossing the Syrdarya

GPS track and photos: http://www.everytrail.com/view_trip.php?trip_id=25287

With the lost day we now try to increase the daily mileage to make it around the northern tip of Tajikistan as quickly as possible. On Friday Almalyk, Soviet coal mining and heavy industry centre, Angren and finally up the Ohongaron valley into the mountains that separate the Ferghana valley from the rest of Uzbekistan. Its good to be back in the mountains. It adds a third dimension to the view and the camera is reactivated after days in monotonous flat terrain.

Elevation profile Kamchik pass

More than us it is the lorries struggling uphill and after a camping nightstay near the bottom of the river gorge the journey continues up to the Kamchik pass marked with 2267 m on the map but shortcut by a new tunnel construction at slightly over 2000 m altitude. Passport checks by armed troops at the tunnel indicate the difficult situation of the Ferghana region in its relation to the central government. Destination on Saturday: Qoqand, one day behind time schedule.

Camping in the Ohangaron valley

Beating the trucks - and trying to escape their exhaust fumes

For GPS and photos around Tajikistan: http://www.everytrail.com/view_trip.php?trip_id=25284

Thursday May 15. Preparing to cross the border to Tajikistan and take the ultimate shortcut into the Ferghana valley in eastern Uzbekistan. Four-day visas for the tour along the the Syrdarya valley and the Tajik city of Khujand purchased months ago.
At 9 am at border checkpoint Bekobod. Border closed for citizens other than Uzbek or Tajik. Ex tempore rerouting to Chanak 50 km northwards along the Uzbek-Tajik border. Arrival at 12 am. All land borders with Tajikistan closed for two days for security reasons in connection with Tajik-Kirgyz summit meeting in Dushanbe. Phone calls to diplomatic missions. Special arrangements possible for group entry before evening? Waiting. More waiting. No satisfactory solution possible. At 6 pm tour management decides to continue travelling northwards along the border and go around Tajikistan.
One day and 70 EUR for Tajik visas lost. Detour necessary. Is it possible to catch up with the original time schedule and reach Kyrgizstan before Tuesday May 20 and then make it to the Chinese border before it closes for the weekend?

Waiting for news at Chanak border checkpoint Uzbekistan-Tajikistan

GPS and photos: http://www.everytrail.com/view_trip.php?trip_id=25292

Map meetings are part of the daily routine on our tour. Normally held early in the morning (the earliest on record so far at 5.30 am) to describe route, possible sights and meeting point(s), we can also have them in the evening to allow for more flexibility the following morning. Some people really are early birds, others prefer to sleep a little longer and spend more time on breakfast etc.
Yesterday's route would have been a really easy and straight one, but that is when things can go wrong terribly easily. Four of us (including me, the geographer) got out the wrong exit cycling out of Djizzak in the direction of Tashkent - and noticed only after 17 km! Well, with a detour of appr. 25 km we made it well in time to the meeting point, but sometimes orientation is really difficult when there is no (or little) signposting even along the main roads. Asking local people does not always help either. Occasionally two people (locals) get into an argument about the right way and very frequently we get contradicting information about the distances (32 km? No, 15!). And often people are not able to locate themselves on the map, do not know the name of the nearest town etc.
Anyway, a proper map and some language skill (including the skill to communicate with gestures) indispenible, but sometimes compass and GPS prove their usefullness.

Today is day 86, half time between Olympia and Beijing

GPS track and phtos Djizzak to Bekobod, including our little detour: http://www.everytrail.com/view_trip.php?trip_id=25302

I've had it all now during the last two weeks: vomitting, congestion, diarrhoea, but things are improving gradually, at least for me. Other people have been hit worse and hopefully all will be able to cross to China by bicycle in less than two weeks from now. East of Samarqand the fertile agricultural landscape continues and the valley of the river Sanzar adds to the aesthetical value of yesterdays and today's bike route (apart from taking us slowly downhill, making cycling very easy.
The entire area is clearly a nodal point on the silk route with a high population density, sizeable towns such as Djizzak and a comparatively modern railway transportation network.
According to the schedule we will pass the border to Tajikistan tomorrow. Tajiks belong to a different language family (Persian) than do most of the other countries that we have travelled. Uzbek is a Turkic language (like Turkish, Azeri, Turkmen): where in Turkey it was Hos Geldiniz for Welcome, in Uzbekistan it is Xus Kelibsiz. The X is borrowed from the Russian Cyrillic alphabet und would be transcribed and prounounced as kh in English. Still Cyrillic script (one tries to read Russian, but of course it mostly Uzbek) is quite common in commercials, but official signposting has largely been changed to Latin letters. Greetings from O'sbekiston!

Djizzak/Uzbekistan. Railway line connecting Samarqand and Tashkent. Photo taken Tue 13 May

GPS track from Samarqand to Tamerlan's Gates: http://www.everytrail.com/view_trip.php?trip_id=25304