Getting crazy about a road in Uzbekistan and, sight-seeing and awesome nature (June, July 2024)

From Kazakhstan we took the border crossing to Uzbekistan. The road after the crossing was the worst we’ve ever experienced. This photo shows the new road which was still in construction. But we illegally crossed from the old, broken road to this one because the old one was so crazy. Before we tried to go next to the broken road through the dirt and dust but that worked not as good as well.
On iOverlander there are reports of travelers going ten kilometers per hour on 250km of distance. We could go much faster but still it was crazy. I got really mad about this. And it’s weird: on an off-road track I don’t mind going slow, but on this road… The potholes were so deep, big and there were so many. And there were trucks. A lot. They had to go really slow, nearly stopping. If the locals go like that, you know about the conditions of a road. We’ve never seen so many cars broken at the side of the road.
At some point I started just acceleration and braking hard because I just wanted to pass this road.
Didn’t make sense but… fuck it!
But of course the locals knew how to pack their stuff.
We skipped the Aral Sea because we didn’t want to make the detour and went to visit an old sand stone fortress.
It looked interesting how the sand stone “melted” over the years.
Some proper sight-seeing in Buchara.
I liked these wooden pillars.
Buchara is a crazy tourist town.
Racki got a new haircut.
We met again friends we got to know before in Georgia and had a great time together.
Together we did some maintenance on their bikes and we crafted some custom made spare parts. On the road we learn a lot about repairing and crafting.
These little vans are the most common cars in Uzbekistan. They are like ants. Thousands and everywhere.
We found an amazing camp spot.
And parked as accurate as ever.
Met a lot of super friendly people.
Racki crafted jewelry and other stuff.
We had our signature meal: selfmade Pampe (kind of spread) with Lavash (thin bread/ wraps).
We went there primarily because we wanted to try the climbing crag there but the crag was just a small rock and the routes were nothing like the climbing routes I did before.
The stone was loose, the distances between the bolts were huge and the positioning of the bolts did mostly not make any sense for me. When falling these bolts would not really do there job.
I did not really enjoy climbing there. It was more a practicing rock for alpinism.
But the scenery!
It was super beautiful and we went for a nice hike/ mountaineering tour.
At one point we had to climb a few meters high, very steep slope (not on the photo). The rock was loose and sometimes crumpling under our hands an shoes. I was not used to this and did not feel so good about it.
Under the slope were a few rocks and then a hundreds of meters long steep snow and ice covered slope. A nice place to fall, roll and slide like shit… But despite my worries, we made it easily. Still it was kind of a near death experience for me. Racki did it in proper Racki-style and did not fear anything.
The view and the colors!
At the summit.
🥳
🐎 Here is this tour in Komoot.