Samara, Russia to Tashkent, Uzbekistan

Dinner around camp

Leo and a new friend

Joe through traffic

Mick and Pat before take off from campsite.

Isaac giving kids from Kazakhstan a ride on his bike.

warm day turned into instant rain that lasted ten minutes. Quick, where's the rain gear!!!

Here we are in Tashkent, Uzbekistan (it has probably been close to a week since our last blog). We left Samara and headed toward the Kazakhstan border with trepidation. Mick, owner of Compass Expeditions, warned us that these border crossing from Russia on can be a bit dicey as oftentimes there are hours upon hours spent where they go through ALL of your luggage, personal effects and just plain hold ya up for no apparent reason. Yet, that was not the case for us. We arrived and had to wait for a bit of time to exit Russia and then enter Kazakhstan (I believe it was a total of approx 4-5 hrs. to do the entire exit and entry thing crossing customs with "troopie" aka support vehicle and our bikes). Once into Kazakhstan we had to purchase insurance which was sold just passed the gates. We said we would be here a month since we would be exiting into Uzbekistan but then re-entering again. Our first night was spent camping beside a small body of water next to a very small village but in the middle of nowhere. Kids came out to greet us by horseback, small dirtbike and walking accompanied by a herd of cows, horses, billie goats and sheep all walked past our camp in the early evening and first thing the next morning. It was a very peaceful setting yet there is a lot of work involved in camp setup. We received a crash course on our personal tent setup as well as having to setup our cook tent. We all have assumed our own personal duties. Carmen, Leo and Mick have assumed chef/cook details (Jacquie is the "go girl" for ingredients). Tazzy Mick is the loader and unloader of the "troopie" as well as dish washer/dryer on occasions as is the entire group such as Murray, Patrick and Joe. Isaac, Murray, Joe, Patrick, Mick and Mick are the cook tent builders as well as individual aides for my tent set up (thank god they don't charge as I need all the help I can get and it would be costly). Some of the pics are also of the road conditions. After we left the Kazakhstan border, we were expecting to hit gravel, sand and dirt within 50 kms or so however, that was not the case as they have done a lot of roadwork within the last 5 years and we had a very small patch of it here and there but nothing to speak of until after Aktobe. Once we left Aktobe and we were on our next three nights of camping, a lot of the roads changed and we were riding in sand, gravel, dirt which was similar to working a jack hammer all day long. A lot of this riding was done standing on our pegs which can get quite tiring after a long enough period of time but once again, "it was fun and what an experience". Our group slogan is "it's an adventure Mate!" as this is Mick MacDonald's favourite answer to any problems that may arise.

We camped 2 nights before hitting Aktobe where we spent a night and then have camped three more nights before crossing the border into Uzbekistan where we are spending 2 nights in Tashkent. When we left camp (after the 3rd night of camping) and we were headed to Tashkent (which was only to be 120 kms) we got all the way to the border to find out that the border was closed so we had to travel an hour and a half to another border where on our way there, the road was closed and we had to detour through back roads to find a major road once again. The Uzbekistan border took approx four hours to get through in total (again far better timing than when Mick did it 5 years ago) with really no hassles except for some declarations forms to complete through customs. We had heard that some bikers had been completely strip searched at the Uzbekistan border not even a month prior but this did not happen to us. Thank God as after three nights of camping, no one would have wanted to see any of our underwears I'm sure!!!! Once leaving the Uzbekistan border we had to ride back to Tashkent; retracking the hour and a half detour we had to take to go to the other border. The 120 kms (which should have only taken us until noon and we would have been in Tashkent took us all day). Again, "it's an adventure Mate!!!" We will be heading to Samarkand and then to Bukhara which is the heart of the Silk Road. We visited a mosque in Shymkent which is considered right up there with Mecca in that if one pilgrimmages there three times than that is suppose to count as an equivalent of attending Mecca once. It has been nice to get to Tashkent where we all desperately needed showers and sleep. We had dinner at the hotel restaurant where we had to remove our shoes and sit cross legged where you are sitting down and the table is only slightly raised (Japanese style). The camels along the roadway along with all the herds of cows, sheep, billie goats, horses, donkeys etc have been amazing.