Uzbek Wrap Up

Km cycled: 228km

Days spent cycling 3

Hottest day whilst cycling: 41deg C

Camping days: 1

Days in Tajik family backyard: 1

Number of bikes that arrived with us from Milan: 0

GAStronomy - a campstove cooking tour: Uzbekistan

I thought I’d leave Uzbekistan with the words I most feared hearing being “can I see your passports”. Yet as the police presence proved to be more part of the architecture rather than an annoyance I learned to detest a new phrase, “sorry, plov finish”.

The national dish of Uzbekistan is ubiquitous across this double land-locked nation. The traditional ingredients lining up alongside rice are mutton and carrot. It is flavoured with onion and some of various spices sold by the handful in the colourful marketplaces. Yet this hearty meal, as we have noted first hand, can be found right across the Central Asian region and through to the Middle East where it becomes pilaf. (read below for Plov Recipe)

Last stop, BYXOPO (Bukhara)

‘For lust of knowing what should not be known,
We take the Golden Road to Samarkand…
What would ye, ladies? It was ever thus.
Men are unwise and curiously planned’

James Elroy Flecker.

While Samarkand has its poetic place in the history of Empire, Bukhara– just down that golden road and a famous Silk Road trading post – has its own bloodthirsty tales of political intrigue. The language of colonial imaginings and tales of derring-do coloured distinctly my notions of this stretch of our cycling odyssey. My prereading (thankyou, Peter Hopkirk) did nothing to dispel the idea that traveling to Bukhara was best done in a caravan of camel traders, in the 19th century and incognito.

A Silk Road Fantasy

As a child my mum unfortunately felt I was forging a few unhealthy relationships. This resulted in the infamous early 90’s Neal Household Purges. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles…banned. Monkey Magic…banned. Simpsons…banned, albeit temporarily. To my delight (and amazement) Indiana Jones and Prince of Persia escaped the wrath of my mum’s stern maternal censorship committee. It is a stretch to say that these phenomena of my youth led to my current resting place being along the Silk Road in Uzbekistan. Yet they did foster some the romantic notions I keep for this corner of the world.

Turning Point

In a few hours we fly to Istanbul, hence arriving in Turkey not – as the blog title states – by bike, but courtesy of the airline that recently ‘misplaced’ them. Packed full of people, bazaars, arts, food and coffee, it’s going to be busy, bustling and exciting. But to explain our new path, let me take you back to the plains of Tajikistan.

Sleepover in Tajikistan

It has taken a few months and several thousand kilometers, but we have now sampled Central Asian hospitality in the form of an invitation back to someone’s home. Actually, two invitations in the same day. 

If you are familiar with travel writing from Central Asia and the Middle East or at least flicked through a few cycling blogs from the region (www.crazyguyonabike.com) you will be well aware of the following regularly dropped phrase: ‘The people are incredibly friendly and welcoming. Everyone says hello. We would often be stopped in the street and invited back to a family’s home for tea.’

…and FOUND!

Yesterday, soon after Ali had penned the previous ‘LOST’ blog piece, Igor (our couchsurfing host) got a call from Tashkent airport. The Surlys were in the country. This was also soon after we called Air Baltic who confirmed that our bikes had not left Milan yet. Don’t get too used to our patronage, Air Baltic.

LOST!

 What is a cycle tourist without a bicycle?

How flimsy is the architecture of comfort that we construct around ourselves while traveling. Remove one or two elements and it collapses around you. For a cycle tourist, though, the bike is like a supporting wall without which movement is impossible.

Baita to Como

Cycling Summary:
Baita to Colico - 85km
Colico to Como - 50km

Text to follow

Baita to Lake Como

The Wedding

Steve and Ingrid are both from Melbourne, so it was a given that they would get married in Soglio in the Swiss alps. 

Soglio is an almost saccharine mountain village. It is just over the Italian border, down the road from St. Moritz. Perched over above the Engadine Valley, it is an organized mess of cobbled winding streets, flower-pots and surreal centuries old homes. There’s a general store that runs on an honour system (pick your loaf or bundle of chestnuts and pay your Swiss Francs into the box). There are perfect green grassy meadows that one is forbidden to walk upon in order to preserve the fodder for the cattle. There’s daily fresh milk and bread available in the local store. Oh, and there’s a wedding.

Holiday within a holiday

OK, we haven’t blogged for a while. We were afraid that our cycle-touring cred may have taken a bit of a dive during our recent exploits.

Here’s a little snapshot of our oh-so-indulgent, side trip to the Alps.

The setting

Italy: Milan, Aprica and ‘La Baita’ (a renovated stone farmhouse in the mountains where shepherds once lived while their flocks grazed on the summer pastures)

Switzerland: Soglio, a quaint mountain village where shepherds still graze their herds and a mini industry of chestnut based products flourishes

Kazakh wrap-up

Total distance: 805km

Distance on unsealed roads: 85km

Nights spent camping: 12

Number of consecutive nights camping: 11

Days spent cycling: 11 (not including in and around Almaty)

Rest days in the tent: 3

Average distance per day: 57.4km (owing to our offroad jaunt in around the Asy Plateau)

Longest day: 106km

Shortest day: 20km

Maximum number of consecutive days without showering: 13 (although this did include several river washes)

Tips for travelers

This is just a quick overview of accommodation, food, bike shops, cafes and visa registration tips.

The Asy Plateau

28th – 31st July 2010, 125km

It honestly looked a lot flatter on paper. Jump over a few contour lines at the start, sail over the plateau, coast down the valley on the other side. I reasoned with Ali, that ‘if jeeps can do it, so can our bikes, it’s going to be beautiful and it means we don’t have to go back on the highway!’

Coincidental Harmony

From Almaty to Sharyn Canyon

Cycling through strange lands brings you into close contact with passing humanity. Our brightly coloured, high-tech presence prompts a variety of reactions. A gentle smile and nod. Enthusiastic, often drunken enquiries as to our origins. Indecipherable attempts to either sell us something or ask us to do something. Most times we return the wave and move on, but sometimes an instinct leads us to follow the opportunity that presents itself on the roadside.

One afternoon while riding in the vicinity of Shelek, we chose to bypass the town centre with the usual combination of vague maps and gut feeling. A few hundred metres down the road we noticed a couple of whistles and yells from a roadside yurt behind us. Being hot, hungry and heading for a lunch stop, we were a bit disinclined to turn around and investigate the friendly locals.

How to get a job while cycle-touring

Footloose and fancy free? Need to eventually earn some cash to pay for your gallivanting? Here is a practical guide to jobseeking at a distance (based on a actual events).

1. Make contacts with potential employee/influential people/potential referees before departure and express desire for gainful employment.

2. Meet up with one of those people and realize afterward that your ‘casual chat’ was actually an interview.

3. Hope that you weren’t too casual.

4. Depart on adventurous mission across unknown lands with electronic CV ready to go.

5. Submit applications online from small town in western Mongolia.

6. Beg widely via email for referees to submit references whilst in small towns in Russia.