on this day we did 85km, 4h51, avs 17,4, total 4972. at a cafe we had a funny photo shooting with some men from the village. later we met Antje and Wojtek from Leer (Germany, East-Friesland),member of the Tajik Ralley to Duschambe. we camped under a railway bridge with access to a channel with quite good water for cooking and washing.
29.08.
we started at 9 to go back on the main road and made autostop to Buchara; it was 25 km to cycle on an acceptable road. Astrid was not feeling very well due to a coming cold. we crossed a big bridge with many policemen. seemed to be a strategical object. no problems at all they were very friendly.after arriving on the main road we looked for some trucks but they were sealed. there was the new road under construction, closed for all, but possible for cyclists. we cycled 2 km then we went back to a truckstop at the old road. the second trucker we asked from UZ was willing to take us with to Buchara.he transported carpets from Khiva to Navoy and had some space for all our stuff. Big luck ! it was the same bad road as in KAZ, now along the border to Turkmenistan. for five hours only an average speed of 15. we were glad not to cycle this rubbish.
we noticed another cyclist. he was from Japan, on the way to Aschkabad in Turkmenistan. small talk on the highway. delicious dinner at a truckstop. 100 km later he stopped at a hotel and we were glad to had such a good taxi,then a shower and then bed.now time to do some sight-seeing in a famous city at the Silk Road
30.08.
we left the hotel at the highway and cycled to the city centre, looking for the Hotel "Amulet" which is recommended by "Reise-know-how"- . a German publishing company.
what a beautiful city! we were more impressed than in Khiva.
and I did now 5000km by bicycle !!
we did not find it immediatly so we had to ask. well, do not believe
any information about distances they are mostly wrong. what a pitty: the hotel had a room for only one night and we do not wanted to move our stuff every day. there were many other hotels and b&b guesthouses and we find one. cheap, friendly, with Wifi :-). there were two other cyclists from
GB, Helen and Joe, who had the same way as us. they met Laura and Ash from AUS, too; small world :-). we had some lunch, I slepted a little bit, Astrid repaired a puncture at her bike, wrote her diary and in the evening we wanted to have dinner.
what a surprise: on our way looking for a restaurant we noticed two FIAT "Panda" from Austria (Graz and Steyr) member of the Tajik Ralley 2012, same as Wojtek and Antje from Germany, we have met three days before. Just in this moment I told Astrid "look! there are cars from Austria" a young woman came behind us, from Austria, too. Petra did not belong to the Tajik Ralley, she is a photographer, coming with her partner Juergen (www.autonomaden.at) from Iran. after this small talk we bought some bread, cheese, sausages and beer, went back to the guesthouse and had dinner there.
31.08.
The trip by truck exhausted me more than cycling. all my bones were aching due to the bumpy road. we started our sightseeing-tour but after half an hour we stopped at a cafe; Gertrud from Mannheim (Germany) runs this cafe, offering delicious coffee and German cake. I lived for twenty years in Mannheim and around and there was much to tell:-). two German couples entered the cafe. we came into contact and the two men were professors for sociology at the University of Magdeburg. they manage a project in Kazachstan and Kirgistan which studies the households with their rural and familiar structure. they told us some details and we were really impressed. we stayed longer in the cafe than planned but it was really great to met them all. we did a little bit sightseeing and then went to a internet cafe to make some reports and backups. in the evening we had dinner at our guesthouse and had a conversation with a couple from Spain, cycling through the world , too.
01.09.
in the morning we had a guided tour through Buchara. much better than walking on your own.
we met Juergen again from Austria. he told us some details about Kirgistan, which are very important for us.
in the afternoon I checked my bike
and Astrid and me wrote some postcards. we wanted to have German cake again so we walked to Getruds "Cafe Wishbone" and had a delicious "Marmorkuchen". so yummy :-)). Heiko, the professor from Magdeburg and his wife, Cordula arrived, too. again a funny meeting. well, you remember, that more than a month ago, Astrid had an accident and needed to be stitched at her left hand and knee. she had splinters of glas in her wounds, but the doctor assured that there is nothing more. four days ago Astrid removed a 5mm glass splinter out of her hand. really no reason to be amused! now, Cordula, she is a doctor inspected the scar and there is no more problem. thank you very much, Cordula !
at 5 pm we had our wellness-programm: visiting a hammam from the 16th century. how relaxing!! all the stress from the desert disappeared.
in the evening we met Tim and Sharyn from Down Under and Elisa from the US. we had our supper with them and they told us important things about Kirgistan. we keep in touch!
02.09.
Astrid became ill, vomiting, riding the porcelain god and fever. I went to a internet cafe and did some research, in the afternoon coffee at Cafe Wishbone
and in the evening supper and some beers with Sharyn and Tim from Broken Hill in Australia and Eliza from New York. I met Andrew from Melbourne, travelling from Australia to Berlin by motobike (BMW)
03.09. Astrid was still ill... Dasom from South Korea arrived at our guesthouse
and she was not feeling very well, same sypmtoms as Astrid.
04.09.
I woke up in the early morning with vomiting, fever,diarrhoe and heavy
pain in my stomach. whole day ill. Dasom was ill, too.. bad day. we heard that there were many people in Samarkand who had the same problems. seemed to be a epidemic.
05.09.
we had breakfast :-) well we felt much better but were still not fit. I checked the possibility to go by train to Samarkand and in the afternoon we again had a coffee and cheesecake. one adventure on this days was bringing a package to the local postoffice. it contains several parts of our equipment and should arrive in Germany. we packed it very carefully and put a lot of tape around, but at the postoffice it was reopenend again, then different forms and the very friendly woman stitched a bed linen around, I had to write the adress on it. then she sealed it. amazing :-)
one important information :
Guenter our inner pig dog is not alone anymore!
Camilla, the flying camel will join him. he is really happy :-)
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