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GlobeRiders has it’s own BLOG “Silk Road Adventure 2015 LiveJournal!” There is a complete description of the excursion, rider bios, updates of the ride, and an active satellite location link. | ||
Apologies! I’m now only a couple days behind. There was very poor internet or no internet past Ashkhabad. Samarkand & Khujan, Tajikistan. I’m now in Dushanbe, Tajikistan trying to catch up.
Day 29 – Sun, 31 May – Samarkand, Uzbekistan |
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Bibi Khanum Mosque | ||
Chorsu Domed Market | ||
Samarkand The Registan Square | ||
Gur-Emir Mausoleum Tamerlane | ||
Day 30 – Mon 01, June – Tajikistan Border Crossing | ||
Border crossing are now just another days ride. They are typically short mileage days. No one can predict what kind of delays can happen. Sometime an important piece of paper is lost.
Plus the fact there are 18 riders and 2 staff to clear. |
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Day 31 – Tue 02, June
301 km (187 miles) Khujand to Dushanbe |
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Today is the first mountain passes day. | ||
We just arrived in in Dushanbe, Tanikistan after negotiating the 5km infamous Anzob Tunnel, aka “the tunnel of terror!” It’s a 2-lane, no lights, water raining from ceiling, huge potholes and patches and no ventilation, exhaust fumes are overpowering. The lane on our side is blocked every ~100-200 meters (single lane for both directions) with broken down vehicles, tunnel scaffolding, & equipment. Among the potholes, patches, the original road’s steel rebar lay exposed clanging as we ride over them. Traffic is helter-skelter sometime coming at you from both lanes. Average speed was 15-25 mph.
The Strompasourus takes a tunnel nap! We’re in stop-n-go, bumper-to-bumper traffic in the tunnel. I rode into a 5-6″ deep water filled pothole. The front wheel drops in and climbs out the other side. When the rear drop in, the engine stalls and my foot is over the 6” deep pothole. I’m at a dead stop, with nowhere to put my foot, the Strompasours slowly leans to the right and over it goes. I step off standing. Luckily there were 2 construction workers 5 meters away! I was up and riding in 30 seconds. No harm-no foul! Fellow GlobeRider Joe Hutt comes to my rescues and helps light the road and blocking traffic from behind. |
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I was the only SilkRoad rider to take a tunnel nap! | ||
The Serena Hotel is a 5 star. Great rooms, food, comforts. This is to prepare us for the next 5 days. No internet! | ||
Now the riding gets interesting. We have 359 km (223 miles) to Kalaikhumb. There is one high pass and several stretches of gravel roads. | ||
Good stuff, Dean, thanks for taking us along.
We drove “Adolf Hitler’s” pass today from Bolsterlang, Germany into Austria before heading into Switzerland on our way to St. Moritz. Lots of windy roads through Alpine passes with motos everywhere. Luckily none took a nap around us. Tom
sure —- you are so interesting that the ladies want to take a picture with you. You realize, of course, that you are being reverse “stalked”. At one of the boarder crossings there is going to be a picture of you hanging on the wall ….. with the lady not in it. With a reward amount in Rials — like 4 bazillion. which is about 75 cents american. You will be held hostage in lieu of the reward money because the rest of the crew couldn’t come up with the 3 quarters to buy you out of hock.
Nice knowing you Deano…… I’ve got a dollar for bail if you need it. Actually — maybe I’ll just send you a letter with an extra stamp. You could probably buy a car with it.
Thanks so much! really enjoying your interesting posts