Category: hiking and mountaineering

A 50 meters high flame, Samarkand, and a jungle in Uzbekistan (May, June 2025)

We left our camp spot near the last lake in Tajikistan and searched for a spot with good internet in a small town near the border to Uzbekistan.
This mission turned out to be pretty difficult. After almost two hours of searching, we gave up and decided to cross the border to Uzbekistan and drove to Samarkand.
Samarkand was beautiful. It was Rackis and my anniversary and we had a nice dinner. After weeks in remote places, it’s nice to have some city life. We visited the most famous places in the city.
We are not so much interested in city sight seeing, but the light show on the most famous historical buildings was nice and beautiful.
This place was interesting as well. A center of self made, local workshops where you can even do workshops.
In Samarkand we met some other travelers. It had been a while. But for me most of the talks with them were not that interesting: where are you from… , where are you going… , oh, you are traveling for so long already…,  the locals don’t know how to handle trash…, do you have Instagram…
After some days in the city, we went up some low mountains to have it colder and to do a pretty long hike.
Our camp spot was beautiful.
The weather was not so clear, but still the hike and the views were awesome!
And we did some climbing to reach the top most part of our trek.
This is one of the summer camps the local shepherds and their families are using. Sometimes the men stay up in the mountains alone and sometimes their families are joining them.
Here’s our tour on komoot.
An original Snikkers cake in one of the many mini markets. It’s funny what stuff they have.
We went on and found a pretty nice, remote spot near a pretty touristic area. There we did another hike. These pavilions on the photo were very new and had a great view but not accessible for cars because the track leading there was closed. Here’s our tour on komoot.
We continued and cleaned Rosinante in a small car wash. A nice guy came by and gifted us some cola. He loved Germany and was so happy to meet us.
For us coming from Germany has never been a problem so far. Most locals even love Germany because they often see an opportunity to earn more money in it. Sometimes we tell them that the work mentality and demands could be quite different, sometimes we just nod and tell them that life in Germany is more expensive.
Some maintenance work in our next spot. It took us some years to recognize that we could sharpen our axe with the grinding pads on our electric driller instead of using our sharpening stone.
Racki continued making wonderful bracelets. This one was especially amazing.
She made it for a friend and it had so many beautiful details.
Our next spot was in a jungle near an offroad track leading to a waterfall. On our way there, we recovered an offroad taxi which had slipped in  the muddy ditch in a small village.
This is one of the offroad taxis. Most of them are old Russian jeeps. If these are the only cars you encounter and there are no ordinary limousines on a road or track, you know that the track will get serious.
The view from the jungle. Pretty rare in the stan countries.
From our jungle place we did a short hike to the beautiful waterfall.
Next stop in a small town called Shahrisabz and some sightseeing.
Old guy out of stone.
From there we went to the next water reservoir/ lake and found a nice spot.
It was pretty hot and everybody was looking for some shade or a refreshing swim.
As nearly always, a donkey rider came along and we had a conversation about this and that with Google Translate, arms, and hands.
From the reservoir, we went to a beautiful canyon.
We found a beautiful camp spot on a hill with a nice view.
And beautiful visitors.
One day, we took a longer hike. See it on komoot.
In the canyon, we found a lot of beautiful stones for Racki’s next macrame creations.
At our next spot, Racki made me this little alien friend called Helmut. We love him and since then, he’s been hanging around in our cabin.
The place we found, was located on a hill with a nice view to the mountains on one side and to the next city in the other. The approach was pretty offroady.
When we were driving on the road, we saw a pretty big flame in the distance and joked about that maybe the locals did something a bit stupid and that this might be the reason for the flame. But quickly we thought that the flame was just an ordinary flame of some gas mining or refinery.
But when we saw how high this flame was from our camp spot, we googled. Turned out that a year ago, there was an accident while drilling new boreholes in one of the gas fields. The closest villagers had needed to be evacuated and the flame had been ignited to prevent gases from injuring the locals living in that area.
This flame was huge. Especially at night, it looked crazy! We don’t know how high it was, but it must have been around 50 meters.
Our next spot, you can see Rosinante at the bottom of the photo, was pretty close to a settlement. We had a lot of visitors and short talks about Rosinante etc.
We did a nice hike to a waterfall we had found on the map. But there was no waterfall (anymore). But still the hike was nice. We met a lot of goats, sheep and their shepherds.
Instead of a waterfall there were only small springs. Here is our tour on komoot.
We went on and found another beautiful camp spot. The view was amazing.

Uzbekistan and back to Dushanbe for an urgent repair (May 2025)

My diarrhea was still ongoing but we had to leave Tajikistan because our visa days were almost finished.
The border crossing west of Dushanbe was the most ridiculous so far. The Tajik Side went easy and fast but the Uzbek customs officers saw a need in “investigating” a lot of our stuff. Still feeling weak, I had to unload and unpack a lot of stuff.
The officers did just have brief looks at the stuff. For me this whole process made no sense at all.
So I got frustrated and a bit pissed. But I did not complain or refuse the process.
After the crossing we found a nice camp spot at a big water reservoir.
The reservoir was a famous attraction for the locals and a lot of people came by and had a chat with us.
Especially with a group of young Uzbek guys we spent a bit more time talking about differences in German and Uzbek lives, cultures etc.
Some of them could speak fair English and indeed they were English teachers and so the communication was more fun than work.
As always they could not believe that Racki and I were not married and had no kids. Especially the kids topic was almost disturbing to them. We described how a romantic teenager Young adult love life may be in Germany and they were astonished.
After some days we met one of the guys at his place. We talked more and his mother and sisters did our laundry. We wanted to do it on our own but this was not possible and at some point it felt insulting not to let them do it
We visited another famous attraction.
A beautiful waterfall.
Not far from the waterfall, we found a nice relaxed camp spot and did a nice hike. See it on komoot.
When we came back to Rosinante, some new friends chilled in the shadows of our tent.
The squeaking noises did not stop and at the camp spot with the cows, I investigated it again and found the reason: one of the bushings on the front suspension was destroyed.
We tried to get it repaired in Uzbekistan but it was not possible. Mostly because of the Chevrolet monopoly. So we decided to go back to Dushanbe, to the car garage we had been to before.
There, our guess got confirmed: the bushing was gone. We felt bad about it because it was so obvious. But even mechanics we had check Rosinante for the squeaking noise did not recognize the destroyed bushing.
But it felt good that we found the reason for the squeaking noise and that nothing on Rosinante got several damage.
And the day at the garage was pretty fun as well. We met our mechanic friends again and got to know a nice couple from Spain.
From Dushanbe we went back into the mountains and found an awesome spot at the Alauddin Lake.
This place was really nice.
And the lake was beautiful as well.
This waterfall was quite special because the water was just running on the stone until it fell down.
The lake at the highest point of our hike was very different than the lower one.
It was a nice hike. See it on komoot.
From the Alauddin Lake we drove close to the Kuli Kalon. The hike there was beautiful as well.
In the first part of the hike went a big group with a guide. But on the mountain pass, we met nobody.
It was a beautiful and interesting hike, see it on komoot.
With serious gravel and rock parts and some small rockfall.

Beautiful and lovely Tajikistan, stolen ear buds, and our windshield got smashed (April, May 2025)

We entered Tajikistan for the second time after we did the Pamir Highway in summer 2024 and found a camp spot at a lake in the first bigger town after the border to Uzbekistan.
Soon three kids joint us. Because of the language barrier, we exchanged only some basic communication. We played on my cajon and soon some more children joint us. So we had a whole gang around us. But it was fun.
After the children a younger couple came around and after them came the police.
The police officers were interested in Rosinante and our nomad life and the leader of the group could speak some German and gave us his phone number to call him if we need help or something else.
So for us meeting the police was fun. For the younger couple who came along before it was not so much fun because they had to pay a fine for “romantic behavior in public”. Different cultures, different rules…
We went into the mountains and took a pretty high mountain pass to get into north/ central Tajikistan.
Finding a camp spot was not so easy that time. It took us about two hours of searching. But in the process we got in contact with a lot of villagers and finally we found a spot with a nice view.
On our hike we found interesting alien plant.
And this crazy happy puppy who pissed herself so happy she was to see us. It was a really crazy and absolutely cute on.
After following us for a while her parents persuaded her to join them again. It was pretty funny.
Here you can see our hike on Komoot.
Our next destination was Dushanbe. It was a nice and slow paced city. We liked it.
I think this photo looks like it could be from the 70s or 80s. Because of the old bus.
We did some sight seeing, went to a restaurant for dinner and enjoyed some city life stuff.
After trying two iOverlander camp spots, we found our own one. This one was pretty wired and located in a small area that got used for parking and dumping building materials and trash.
But it was pretty green and mostly silent.
The traffic lights in Tajikistan make the impossible possible: green and red at the same time.
They seemed to like it.
Racki’s macrame skills reached a professional level and she got super fast and enjoyed it a lot.
I got my own custom made bracelet with alien eyes!
And we started to give the locals bracelets as presents when we spent more time with them or they had gifted us something.
They all loved the bracelets.
After climbing for a couple of days (you can read about it in this post), we found another nice spot at a river and went for a waterfall hike.
We only took our “hiking flip flops” and soon our tour escalated into some climbing. Like always.
I would always recommend to take proper shoes and hiking poles on every hike in the stan countries because you really never know what will happen.
The waterfall was amazing! We guessed it was about 60 meters high.
Here is our tour on Komoot.
We continued our way on the ordinary Tajik roads.
And found a nice spot at a big reservoir and had some chilled days.
Soon we got two new dog friends. Racki played a lot with them and we cooked a big portion of rice with dog food for them because they looked quite hungry.
They were barking all night but fortunately not right next to Rosinante but a couple of hundred meters away.
We continued our way and found a nice spot in the greens close to a small town.
Soon everyone in the town seem to know that someone interesting had arrived and so we met a whole lot of locals.
Especially the kids were very interested and sometimes just sit in front of us and examined what we were doing for hours.
We played with the cajon, fixed a bike, and mostly had fun with them.
Some of the locals spoke a bit of German and some a bit of English.
Especially one young man impressed us: Abudakha. He had been learning English a lot and loved to talk and practice with us. We talked a lot about the differences of Tajik and German culture and life and learned a lot.
On May the 4th we did the Wings For Life Run. Last year, we did it in Armenia and this time we run through the hills and farming area of Tajikistan with our friend Abudakha.
Another evening Abudakha showed us the local museum and recreation site and explained a lot of the historical stuff there.
After coming back home to Rosinante, I realized that my ear buds were missing. I searched everything more than once but could not find there. I got pissed and suspected the kids with whom we had spend some time before.
The next day some of the kids came visiting us again but trying to ask them about the ear buds did not work.
Later Abudakha came around and I asked him to ask the kids if they know who took the ear buds.
They knew something and quickly went off. Half an hour later they came back with my ear buds. They had got them from two of the kids who had been around the day before.
I was super happy that I got my ear buds back. Not only because I felt stupid that I had let some kids steal my stuff, but because getting these special ear buds in the stan countries would have been pretty much impossible.
We left Abudakha and the village and went to a place they had recommended us. It was a beautiful place!
The translation of its name was something like “40 girls” and witch that the absolutely beautiful stone formations are meant.
We took a nice hike around the main rocks and they were astonishing from all sites.
I’d say it was one of the most beautiful hikes. See it on Komoot.
And our camp spot was very nice as well.
And as always the locals tried to go as far as they could with there cars, regardless the scratching, rubber and clutch smell.
The situation at the border between India and Pakistan escalated and so we were stuck in the stans. Nobody was allowed to cross the border between Pakistan and India and there were fights going on in the border area.
So we decided not to go to Afghanistan and then to Pakistan and India.
After evaluating some options, we decided to stay in the stans for a couple of weeks and check how the border situation would develop.
So we went to visit the small town of Kulob. Again I liked the old stuff the most. Like this small fairy wheel.
And of course the president’s photos were everywhere. Most likely he is the politician I’d recognize the easiest.
On the way to Uzbekistan, we parked near some fields and a small canal. Everything was like always. Some locals passed by, we greeted each other, had a short talk etc.
But later in the night, this changed. Around two in the morning someone was shaking Rosinante and started laughing. We woke up but thought that some kids were just pranking us. But a couple of minutes later, we got woken up by a loud smash and noise.
We went outside with our head lights and checked the situation. We did not find anybody but we found our windshield smashed. It was not just a crack like from a small stone while driving. It was broken by a real heavy impact. And what is more, Rosinante’s hood was damaged as well.
We were shocked and started searching for someone who did it further away from Rosinante, but we could not find anybody. We did not even find a stone or something that could have done that damage…
So we decided to leave that place immediately because I could not have continued sleeping there and we did not want that who or whatever had damaged Rosinante, would damage her even more.
And we were not feeling good about this situation. In over three years of traveling never something like that had happened. Not even something that came close. We were meeting barely unfriendly people not to say any hostile ones…
So we packed and went off to another place in the direction of Dushanbe because we could not think of another place nearby where we could get a new windshield.
The next morning, we researched for a mechanic in Dushanbe on Google Maps and iOverlander. We found a promising one and started messaging on Whats App. He could speak German and English and so the communication was easy. We made an appointment for the next day.
At our nice green camp spot in Dushanbe, we met nice and lovely family who gifted us food. Racki gave them some of her beautiful bracelets in return.
Unfortunately I got a heavy diarrhea in the evening. Most of the night I spent shitting and in the morning, I even had to puke. I didn’t know what caused it, but I was pretty much fucked.
But we needed to go to the mechanic because we had only two visa days left in Tajikistan and we did not know if the repair would run smoothly. And what is more the area where we wanted to go in Uzbekistan looked pretty rural on the maps and so there was very little hope to find a new windshield over there.
At the mechanic I was barely surviving. But Racki talked to the mechanics and managed everything. They were super nice and we felt very good about what they would do.
We briefly searched for the reason of a squeaking noise we had in the front of Rosinante, but I felt to tired and weak to investigate it thoroughly. And so we left into the direction of Uzbekistan once the windshield got repaired.