Nukus to Bukhara

I had a look around the Karakalpakstan art gallery in Nukus. It's a bizarre location to have such a good art collection. A soviet artist called Igor Savitsky collected it all and set up the musuem. I particularly liked the crazy wood carvings of people's heads using the roots as the hair!

I left Nukus about midday and bumped into Marc and Camille on the way out. I directed them to my hotel, which was cheap, only smelt of mild urine and I didn't see a single cockroach, not bad for the price! The area around Nukus is irrigated and it was great to be cycling in fields and trees again. Lot of people were out and about and children were swimming in the irrigation channels.

I stopped at a market to buy some stuff for dinner and entertained a group of local people. They were unbelievably ugly (not a trait I can link to Uzbekistan in any way it was just this village)! For some reason the women drew monobrows onto their foreheads with makeup and I met a man with hair all over one half of his face! Anyway they were lovely people and I got some free fruit from them.

I carried on and went to a shop to buy the stuff I couldn't get from the market and they invited me to sleep there that night. I gratefully accepted and they showed me to a raised platform around the back where I could unroll my sleeping mat. They cooked me eggs and sausage for dinner (seems to be a staple here) and then the neighbors asked if I was still hungry and came back with a second meal of pilov, a rice dish (the other staple). I haven't been blown away by Uzbek food yet but it was great to be shown more hospitality.

The next day I got to Khiva by the early afternoon. It's an amazing place, an ancient Silk Road trading city but  it's in incredible condition due to a Soviet restoration programme. The buildings are stunning, amazing tiled mosaics, minarets, domes, huge city walls and archways. The atmosphere of the place has been sapped away though, its like a big musuem.

I had planned to spend another day there but its quite small and I didn't fancy wondering around the museums so I left the next day. After a morning ride I was back into the desert. This time the road was terrible though. It was sometimes tarmac that had been ripped up, sometimes melted tarmac and sometimes no tarmac at all. Sand had been blown across in drifts and it was really hard work. It was even hotter than the last desert, up to 44 degrees and there was absolutely no shade. It was also sandier and drier, my mouth was constantly parched no matter how much water I drank. I got into a routine of cycling 2.5 miles, taking a swig and then getting moving again because the only was to cool down was by moving so that I was creating a breeze. There were also loads of flies to make things worse, oh and a headwind for 3 days!

I met a Uzbek cyclist going from Tashkent to Nukus and back. He was in a bit of a rush! He stopped me for a photo, didn't speak then sped off mentioning something about an interview!

I got ill on the second full day after Khiva. I don't know if it was something I ate or drank or just exhaustion. There was lots of water available in Chaikanas (teashops) so I just drank as much as possible. I was still dehydrated though and there was nothing I could do about it. I was sick in the afternoon and was running on Coke cos I couldnt eat anything solid. I didn't eat that night and finished riding just before dark before collapsing into my tent.

Thankfully I felt better the next day and my appetite was back. Shame I only had stale bread and chocolate spread to eat! I had eggs and sausage and a soup and bread in the first Chaihana I found. I ate and drank so much that day and felt much better although absolutely shattered by the afternoon.

Finally the desert ended. It was a kind of mental torture for 3 and a half days. I didn't enjoy it at all but it was great to overcome the challenge. I get some satisfaction from putting myself through that sort of thing for some reason! I could have gone slower or stopped once I got ill but I'm determined to make it round the world only using a bike and I have to get a Tajik visa in Tashkent so time is ticking!

I arrived at Bukhara at around 5 and checked into the cheapest hostel in town. Only $5 a night and not bad at all. Looking forward to a day off tomorrow then I'm off to Samarkand and Tashkent to hopefully get some visas.

The Karakalpakstan Desert - Beyneu to Qongirat (Kungrad)

Marc, Camille and me left Beyneu at around 10. Marc had bought new Tyres in Beyneu but they were absolutely awful and ripped apart when Marc pumped them up. He had to put his worn out old ones back on.

We rode out of Beyneu on another appalling road. It was even worse than before! Corrugated with no dirt tracks to ride on and nowhere to escape the bumps. It was great to have some company though and we talked about our rides. Marc and Camille planned the same route as me except for the Pamir Highway. They will go straight from Uzbekistan to Kazakhstan. Coincidentally Marc is called Marc Beaumont, like the British world record breaking cyclists. He had some funny email exchanges with possible sponsors who originally seemed very interested until they realised it was a different Marc Beaumont! Their website iswww.lacaravaneapedales.com.

We cycled the 85 km to the Uzbek border, planning to cross it the next morning. I was feeling smug - I'd planned to get to the border on the 14th June in Istanbul when I got the visa. It was the 14th June!

We met some Russian motorcyclists and they confirmed what some Belgians told me in Beyneu - the road was all tarmac from now on! I couldn't believe it. At some point in the last few years they must have built a tarmac road for the 500 km across the desert.

We went and found somewhere to camp ready to get going early the next day. Unfortunately the next morning the 24 hour border was shut until 10 then a load of pointless waiting and filling in more forms took two hours. Every official wants to prove their power by meticulously checking passports. One, who couldn't speak English spent about 10 minutes looking at the page where I'd written my Nan's address for emergency contact details. Eventually he nodded and gave it back. I have no idea what he thought he was looking at!

Finally through the border we got going. Cycling with Marc and Camille was very pleasant. We rode at a good pace, sometimes in formation if there was a headwind. We took long afternoon breaks and finished early in the evening. It was nice to spend some time off the bike. I had enjoyed my dash across Kazakhstan, the physical challenge was rewarding but it was nice to read and chill out.

One night we were treated to an incredible moonrise. A huge, bright, orange moon appeared on the horizon and rose up into the sky.

A town in the middle of the desert, Jasliq provided a place to rest and buy water. The Chaihana there was incredibly busy. We arrived at lunchtime and the whole place was covered in sleeping bodies. We found a place to sit and got some food. When we went back outside, all three of us had rear punctures. It must have been the heat. After spending a long time fixing them in front of a crowd of about 25, we escaped!

The ride across the desert was hard, very hot, but amazing. The barren landscapes which haven't been touched by humans are great to be part of. I saw meercats, scorpians, hawks and loads of desert rat things!

Although there is a tarmac road, this stretch of desert was more isolated than in Kazakhstan. It took careful planning and we needed a lot of water. I plan to write an account of distances and water points on my website when I get a chance (www.tombrucecycling.com). The furthest distance without a water point was about 150 km, or a day and a half.

When we finaly got to Qongirat and saw green trees on the horizon it was a great moment. The three of us stopped and cheered then took some photos. It was great to be out of the desert and we celebrated in a Chaihana. I decided to carry on alone. It had been great to cycle with Marc and Camille but I needed to press on as I have a Tajikistan visa to get. I planned to get to Nukus that evening, the capital of the Karakalpakstan region. I hope to meet up with them again in Samarkand.

The Kazakh Steppe - Aktau to Beyneu

After 43 km, I turned off the road which followed the Caspian Sea and started heading East towards Shetpe, the next significant town. I cycled until late and found a little metal hut which I slept in. I was feeling ill with tummy problems but well enough to carry on tomorrow.

 The next day I got to a small village were the road to Shetpe turned off, it was another 63 km until I got there but I still had plenty of water. My tyre went down, I think the heat had heated the wheel rim so much it had melted a small hole in the inner tube!

Shetpe isn't anything to write home about but there's a decent bazaar so I restocked with bread, jam, cheese and a new inner tube. That night I slept in the desert on my foam mat without the tent, there was no chance of rain. The stars were absolutely beautiful, so much brighter than at home. It really struck me how far I'd ridden.

The next day I felt much better and had a huge breakfast. Surprisingly the road was still tarmac, I was expecting gravel by now. A guy in a big pickup truck pulled up to talk. He couldn't believe I was there on a bike. He said "where are you going", I said "Beyneu", he said "do you want to die out here! This road is like hell!" then drove off. Great, thanks for that I thought!

He was right though, after the small town of Zhatmysh the road deteriorates. There was still about 300 km to Beyneu and the road would be like this all the way. Its difficult to describe the road. I think if you tried your very best to make the worst road you could possibly think of then this road would be worse. The Kazakhs have succeeded in creating the worst road in the world! It was corrugated, with gravel on top and sand traps on the sides. Riding the bike was slow going, max speeds of 10 mph on good sections and usually around 7 mph.

I wobbled along constantly looking for the smoothest part of the road. Sometimes there were dirt tracks along the side of the road which were often better than the main road so I often swapped between the two.

This progress continued for 3 days. Temperatures in the afternoon reached 43 degrees c. I slept in pipes under the road in the afternoons when it was too hot to ride. They were big and there was room for the bike in there too. Chaihanas (tea shops) were a welcome relief whenever they popped up.

 I think the longest distance I had to ride between water points was about 70 km but water in the desert tea shops is overpriced. The lowest my  water supply got was 7 litres so I could have got away with 13 litres but it was better to have more to be safe. There is a lot of traffic on the road so I never felt unsafe and could have got help if I needed it. I was targeting 100 km per day and I managed to achieved this distance by getting up before sunrise and riding all day until sunset. I was putting in about 12 hours a day on the bike and it was tough. The hardest cycling I've ever done.

The landscapes were amazing. There were large rock formations from an ancient sea, gorges, white salt cliffs and endless horizons. The sunsets were the best yet and at night the desert had an amazing silence.

On the last day before Beyneu, there was a thunderstorm which reduced the dirt road to a quagmire. It was so muddy and I was walking through. 3 inch deep sticky layer of gloop. It got everywhere and jammed up my bike wheels every 100 meters or so. I had to push, straining my shoulders and arms, for 100 meters, stop to clear out the mud then carry on. This progress continued for about 2 hours where I covered 2 km! I was beginning to despair. I still had 40+ km until Beyneu and I wad shattered. Then miraculously the tarmac started again! I couldn't believe it. I stopped at a Chaihana and celebrated with a pot of tea. A little boy ran after me and gave me a note that two French cyclists had left for me. They had heard I was behind them and offered that we could cycle on from Beyneu together. Company would be great, especially in the next bit of desert, which I expected to be even tougher.

As I left the Chaihana, I noticed my little Nokia phone was missing with my Kazakh sim card in. I confronted the owner about it and he said it must have fallen out as I was ridings. I said that I definately had it at the table I'd been sitting at. He looked insulted I had suspected he'd taken it and I went back to the bike to have another look. Nope, not there so I went back in and sat down. I wasn't leaving until I got it back. He took me outside to 'help' me look for it then he spoke to his son who amazingly appeared with the phone a few minutes later. It was on the table apparently. I asked the owner where it had been found. He said on a ledge under the table. It didn't exist. They'd obviously taken it and hoped I wouldn't notice. Not a great end to West Kazakhstan!

I sped off to Beyneu and found the cheapest hotel. I found Marc and Camille, a French couple, cycling around the world on a similar route to me. They were easy to find. I asked a group of kids if they'd seen any other bikers and one made a sign of man with a beard and long hair. That would be them I thought. I was expecting Sebastian Chabal, the French caveman rugby player!

I was disappointed to find a short bearded and not very long haired Marc sitting with Camille in a cafe. I shared a beer with then and we arranged to meet the next morning so I disappeared for some much needed sleep!!

The Caspian Sea Ferry

I wasn't expecting it to be easy! I've heard nightmare stories of other travellers being stranded in Baku for a week or more waiting for a ferry to Aktau. I was expecting pointless waiting and sucking up to 'important' officials to get a ticket. It didn't disappoint!
I went to the old port near the center of Baku on the day I arrived to be told that the tickets for the Aktau ferry are sold at the new port 5 miles away even though the boat leaves from the old port. Makes sense! The ticket office was closed so I had to go back the next day. I did at 9 and was told yo come back at 12, I did and was told to come back at 3! In the meantime I managed to male friends with the guy who decides who's first in line for the next tickets. He assured me I'd get the next. I was also offered a bed for the night from a lovely guy called Arif.

At 3 I went back and the office, which opened at 4 and I finally got ny ticket. I was told the ferry was about to leave so I packed up my stuff and cycled as fast as I could back to the old port. They told me the ferry wasn't leaving until tomorrow and I should come back at 9 the next day!
I went back to Arif's and enjoyed a great evening with him and his family and managed to fix my bike using his large array of tools!
The next day I went back to the port and got on the ferry at about 12. It left at about 7 at night.
On board I had a great time though. The ferry was full if Kazakhs importing German cars from the Caucuses. The import laws are changing so there are loads of people buying old bmw's and mercs while its still cheap.
Needless to say there was a lot of alcohol on board the boat. I managed to avoid a lot of the drinking but not all! Luckily mý cabin mates were a guy who slept for almost the entire crossing and an Azeri called Rachmed who didn't drink much.

I was taught a game of cards which I never had any idea how to play but I bizzarely won both games I took part in! At night I went up to the deck and saw the stars above the sea. Amazing. There are also a lot of oil rigs, so many!

The next day we arrived at Aktau in the morning but stayed outside the port all day. I used the time to look at maps and read. Nobody on board thought I had a chance of making it across the desert on a bike!
At about 5 the captain announced we'd be spending another night on the boat. More drinking, which I completely avoided this time and inevitably some tensions. Rachmed was insulted by a drunk Kazakh guy, something about Azerbaijan and the Kazakh wanted to start a fight in the restaurant. He was very drunk. I escaped to the deck and read until it calmed down.

The next day we were finally let off the boat in the afternoon. I was on the boat for over 2 days instead of the 18 hours it was supposed to take. Clearing customs and persuading officials to prune back on the boat to get my bike took more time and I finaly got to a hotel that evening!
The time in Aktau was spent preparing for the desert. I had to register with the OVIR, a stupid ex soviet office which records where foreigners are in the country. I'd love to know what they do with the files of travellers passport details!

I was ready for the desert after 2 nights in Aktau and looking forward to getting moving again. Not really sure what to expect but lets see what happens!

Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan started off very hot and with lots of Mosquitoes. I got loads of attention at the border and then at the first town. I was shattered and really wanted to have a relaxing evening and an early night. As I passed a house I heard more people shouting after me but they beckoned me over and I decided to see what they wanted. Straight away they offered me a place to sleep and dinner so I accepted and enjoyed a Georgian meal on my first night in Azerbaijan. It was delicious, pork, cheese, fish and bread. We had a couple of beers but I managed to keep my vodka glass empty thankfully! An incredibly drunk guy drove off and came back with 3 girls. They went into an outhouse. An hour later he drove away again, I didn't ask what they were doing there!

I slept in the front room with the father (Islam) and his son. It was really hot in there and the window was shut to keep out the mosquitoes. Islam also left the TV on all night so I didn't get much sleep! I got going early the next day and cycled along some small country roads. I say roads - they were really just tracks. I had to ford a river because the bridge had collapsed. It was slow progress but I enjoyed it immensely. I stopped for yet another free cup of tea, which I didn't have to drink with sugar thank God! They also forced a shish kebab on me, which would have been welcome if I hadn't just had a massive lunch! I enjoyed it anyway though.The temperature reached 32 degrees, the hottest it had been, it was muggy and I was tired.

At Saka, I climbed up a huge hill to try and find a Khan's Palace. It took a while and a huge climb and was a bit disappointing so I whizzed back down and asked a shepherd if I could camp on his land. He said yes and his son turned up with a huge pot of tea. I was offered a place in a house but I really needed a good nights sleep so I turned it down and slept in the tent.

On the next day, the 1st of June, I felt much better both physically and mentally. I followed a great road through the steppe and everything was much drier. I saw loads of lizards and snakes, many of which are poisonous apparently so I gave them a lot of space when I rode past a sleeping one on the road. In the evening I reached a beautiful thick forest and was chased by two huge sheep dogs. Pretty standard except one of them stopped in the road and was hit by a car at about 40 mph. Incredibly the dog survived, and looked unhurt as it rushed off back to its master. I didn't feel too sorry for it as it would have bitten me if it had got the chance. The car was a mess though. The front of it had caved in and the headlight was smashed. Thankfully they didn't blame me at all and I had a chat with one of the passengers who spoke good English.

That night I asked another shepherd were to camp and he took me to a bit of land surrounded by a river on one side and a fence on the other which was accessible by a tiny thin bridge. I was safe from wolves here apparently! Eziz the shepherd told me about the Caucaus mountains he loved and the wildlife around. He showed me a new born lamb and brought a load of small kids over to see me. I let them have a go in my tent then had tea cooked on a fire before going to bed.

After that Azerbaijan really started to grow on me. The scenery was spectacular. That day I passed through forests, mountains, plains and desert. Azeris have no idea about distance though, I asked one how far to the next town, which I hoped to camp in and he said 2km. 15km later at dusk I turned up in Cegrankegmaz and was invited into a house to sleep. I gratefully accepted and was offered a shower and given a feast! Unbelievable hospitality again. I was only 40 miles from Baku so expected an easy day the next day.

It wasn't! I fought a gale force head wind for 9 hours to get to Baku in the early evening. The ride through the desert was beautiful though. I checked into the cheapest hotel I could find, which wasn't that cheap as Baku is expensive. That evening I went to the port to try to get a ferry ticket to get to Kazakhstan and was told to come back tomorrow.

I went back and had to go to the new port 5 km away. I waited for about an hour for the office to open and when it showed no sign of doing, the que of people retreated for a tea. I had one with them and made friends with the guy who was in charge of the order that people got tickets. He assured me I'd get first choice of the passenger tickets. I went into Baku and tried to get some replacement disc brake pads but no bike shop in Baku has them so I'm going to  have to get some posted out.

I got back to the port and after waiting about 3 hours and having a cup of tea at Arif's house I got my ticket for 110 dollars. I rushed to the other port as the ferry was apparently about to leave from there. When I arrived I was told the ferry wasn't even there yet and I had to come back tomorrow so I went back to Arif's house as he had already offered me a bed for the night.

Arif was the best host I've had so far. We had a great meal with some other stranded passengers and he is a mechanic so he let me use his tools to fix my bike. I switched the cog on my Rohloff hub round and changed the chain. I had a shower and his wife washed all of my clothes. He gave me an entire outfit to wear that night and when I tried to give it him back the next day he insisted I keep it. Amazing people!

At 9 the next morning I went to the ferry port again and was let on the boat about midday. The boat left at 5 and took 2 days instead of 18 hours to port in Aktau. I'll blog about my experiences on the boat soon. Next up is the desert so I've got to get my bike ready and find a way of carrying 20 litres of water and 5 days of food.

Will update soon, but I may disappear for a few days because I doubt I'll find the internet anywhere in the desert, which looks to be pretty remote. I hope I can make it across to Nukus, Uzbekistan, without having to take a train.

Georgia

I crossed a pretty chaotic border into Georgia at Sarp. It took ages cos they thought my passport was fake cos there are creases around the photo. Got through in the end though and into another country!

I liked Georgia straight away, the road wasn't a groomed dual carriageway but a smaller bumpy road which hadn't destroyed the scenery. There were waterfalls and statues and churches instead of mosques. I won't miss the morning call to prayer before sunrise! I got to Batumi that evening and was offered a cheap bed in someone's shed. I had a shower heated by a wood boiler and then went round to a guys house who could speak English. He was called Mareb and had a love for heavy metal music! Spent a great evening drinking coffee, Georgian cognac and Russian vodka and watching videos of Iron Maiden on his massive TV!

The next day I woke up at 9 with a hangover and there was a monsoon outside. I used it as an excuse to have a lie in and got going about 12. As I rode through Georgia I fell in love with it! The scenery was amazing, great people and incredible food. I decided not to rush through the country which is very small. I rode about 60 miles per day at a leisurely pace and stopped every time I was offered tea, wine or beer.

It's impossible to describe how beautiful the country is. The Georgians somehow manage to build fantastic old churches on top of mountains which make the scenery more spectacular. I visited a few and saw a lot of ancient frescos.

The highlight of Georgia was being invited into people's homes. I stayed in a small village with a history teacher. His wife was a fantastic cook and we had a huge meal with pork, cheese, fish, salad, bread and great home made sauces. An American guy called Sean joined us and told me about life in the villiage. He is spending a year there teaching English and is living with a local family. In the recent winter there was lot of snow and they often get snowed in because the road gets closed. Not a problem though because every house there grows grapes and makes wine which is stockpiled for winter! Breakfast was interesting! A cup of coffee and some cointreu! I managed to get away with only having a shot. My host however downed 3 full glasses before going off to school to teach - incredible!

The next day I climbed over a beautiful pass and got my first view of the Caucas mountains. The snow capped peaks were stunning. I descended to Gori, which is where Stalin was born. I met my uni mate, Henry Roe and we went to a restaurant to celebrate! We had a blow out meal with wine and it cost about a fiver each! After the meal we were invited to join a table of middle aged local men for a piss-up! Zaza offered me a place to stay in Gori for as long as I wanted. I was impressed with how much Georgian Henry had picked up in 7 weeks. He is also teaching in a school here.

The next day we met at the Stalin museum which is very interested but a bit surreal. There is no mention of Stalin's appalling treatment of his own people and he's portrayed as a God in the museum! There is a split view in Georgia about Stalin. Some people loved him because they had a job and a car and stability. They were able to ignore the huge number of people he killed - around 20 million, many of whom were Georgian - because they had a good life. Now unemployment is Georgia is high and the country is stuck in a rut, not really going anywhere. There are also a large number of people who detest Stalin though.

The museum included his death mask, outfits, letters, photos, a statue of him and a train carriage where he met Roosevelt and Churchill after WW2 to discuss governing the countries they had liberated. There is also Stalin's childhood home which is in its original place. The rest of the neighborhood was knocked down and a temple was built over his house so that it now resembles a shrine.
I left Zaza's and cycled towards Tbilisi. I wanted to stop at Mtsketa on the way which is the old capital and spiritual home of Georgia. I spent the afternoon there, looked around a very impressive old cathedral and relaxed in a park. I was invited to camp there and a spontaneous party started, inevitably involving large amounts of Russian Vodka! I cooked rice for everyone on my stove, which interested them as it runs in petrol. I played music from my phone and educated them in Pink Floyd and Bob Dylan!

The next day I met Henry again in Tbilisi, which is a fantastic city. It's beautiful, with loads of ancient churches,  hills, a bustling old town with great restaurants and bars, and a great atmosphere. Unfortunately I watched Man U get annihilated by Barcelona in the Champions League Final, but other than that we had a fantastic time.

The last part of Georgia was great, over some more mountains, then a long descent to a very hot, semi desert plain. I saw snakes on the road as I crossed the plain to the base of the Caucus mountains and the Azerbaijan border.

Georgia has been the most incredible country. It's beautiful, the people are unbelievably hospitable and the food is fantastic. Go there soon, Ryanair are going to start flying there I hear and I can't help thinking that the inclusion of Brits on stag do's on the streets of Tblisi won't improve the country much!