From Samarkand, Uzbekistan to Dushanbe, Tajikistan. July 6th – July 17th This is a sort of interim blog describing our journey from Samarkand in Uzbekistan to Dushanbe in Tajikistan as it may be a while before we can blog again. We hope to be writing again in Osh on the other side of the Pamir mountains. It was getting time for Pete and I to leave Samarkand but we were strangely reluctant. It could have been due to the 45c temperatures. It could have been the beauty and magic of the city itself. It could have been the fact that …
Category: Blog
The Golden Road to Samarkand
From Nukus, Uzbekistan to Samarkand, Uzbekistan June 14th – July 6th 2018 Our guide book had told us that Nukus had “a general sense of hopelessness and desolation” so our expectations were not high. Imagine our surprise then, when we found we really liked it. After the desert and our long and tiring train ride it was like an oasis with wide tree lined avenues, admittedly rather square ex Soviet buildings but they were all white and bright and clean, lots of greenery and flower beds, a very vibrant and colourful bazaar and Pete says the best coffee shop since …
Who wants to be a millionaire?
From Alat, Azerbaijan to Nukus, Uzbekistan June 1st – June 14th 2018 Chris ended the last blog saying we are now in Alat waiting for a ferry to cross the Caspian. Heady stuff! And all true. The word waiting can mean different things in different places… ‘Waiting’ for a ferry in Dover might mean an hours uncomfortable wait on a tarmac, white lined holding area. It wasn’t quite like that. We had been warned by fellow travelers about this part of our journey. The boat, in theory, leaves roughly every 3 days. We didn’t know exactly when it was due …
Mud, mud, glorious mud…
Tbilisi,Georgia to Baku, Azerbaijan. May 9th – June 1st 2018 Pete and I left Tbilisi feeling full of vim and vigour and the proud owners of two visas, one for China and one for Azerbaijan. We had 6 more days before we could enter Azerbaijan so decided to head for Kekheti the main wine growing region of Georgia which would take us towards the Azerbaijan border. We had heard that it was a beautiful and interesting route with lots of wine to sample along the way, which was, of course an added attraction. Once again we had to tackle the …
Breaking News
Tbilisi 9th May 2018 We were full of trepidation as we headed down to the Chinese Embassy in Tbilisi this morning. Memories of waiting for exam results; finding out whether you had passed your driving test; whether you had won first prize for your lemon curd in the Village Show- memories came flooding back of other anxious moments throughout our lives. Last night’s rain had cleared the air and we waited with a new set of people. Michael, a fellow cyclist, showed up and told us a French couple had been refused visas… The queue was quiet and no one …
“A road less travelled”
From Batumi to Tbilisi. 17th April – 7th May 2018 We prepared to say goodbye to Turkey. Georgia was ahead and it seemed to me as if we were stepping a little further outside our comfort zone. We put on our brave underpants, cycled past the 5km queue of waiting trucks and presented ourselves at the various windows to the officials. Sometimes they had a sense of humour – they wanted to know the registration numbers of our bicycles – sometimes they didn’t. ‘Passport’ was barked at us. But we got through and emerged on the other side of the …
Age is not important unless you’re a cheese
Sivas to Batumi (Georgia) April 4th – April 17th. We arrived in Sivas, hot, bothered, bruised and very tired. It was time for another break and as we had arranged to meet Michael, our friend Tricia Coombe’s brother, in 6 days time we had no choice, which was rather nice. We treated ourselves to a lovely hotel with swimming pool and spa proving that we have now overcome our fear of slippery surfaces. We made full use of all the facilities and felt the cleanest we had for a while. We thought the pillows were awfully chewy. It was great …
Turkish delight
Bodrum to Sivas. February 27th – April 3rd. A new country, new continent, a new language, currency, religion and a new writer! We’ve switched roles as in – this is me Pete – writing and Chris will be musing later. Just an hours ferry ride and everything has changed. We crossed from Kos in Greece to Bodrum in Turkey across a stretch of water that has seen thousands of refugees crammed into unsafe rubber boats coming the other way. That tide has now been stemmed by political agreements but I don’t think it’s gone away. It’s just been moved to …
With a Little Help from my Friends – Lennon and McCartney
BRINDISI TO ATHENS I think we saw Greece as a bit of a hop, skip and a jump before reaching Turkey. We didn’t have any great plans for this stretch of the journey and in our pre-country language training were finding Greek words and spellings baffling. As we weren’t planning to visit any of the well known attractions we just thought we would get our heads down and go. How wrong we were to feel like that. Greece has been one big friendly smile and we have seen beautiful sights, cycled along some smooth and lovely roads, eaten wonderful food, …
Oranges and Lemons…
PALERMO TO BRINDISI We left Cagliari behind and had a comfortable, uneventful ferry journey over to Sicily arriving at dawn to see this impressive city stretched along the coast. Palermo at dawn Despite Sicily being a similar size to Sardinia it has five times the population and we had been told that it would feel busier, livelier and more hectic. We embarked however to a city just waking up and all was quiet as we headed to the nearest cafe for breakfast. We spent a lovely day exploring in the sunshine, visiting street markets and impressive buildings including the cathedral …