BackOnTrack – reports

Heading currently to east again!7880 km, Kashgar (CN)After a long but deserved rest in Kashgar we are now on our way further east. At the northern silk road to Korla, Turpan and Xining.........

kyrgystan (bine)Sept 8, 2008 - Sept 11 20087869 km, kashgar (CN)border tajikistan - sary tash - border china after the tajik border the road turned really bad and we could just cycle about 10 km/h, but at least it was going downhill. we met some german overlander with their cars and could change our tajik somani in kyrgyz som. the last few kilometers to the kyrgyz border were paved and we had a nice tailwind. the landscape had changed dramatically: everything was greener, a bit like scotland with green hills. despite the high snow capped mountains. at the border we had no problems. but there were real stone made houses and no container like the ones at the tajik border. the last 25 kilemeters to sary tash, the first small village after the border were really easy. as we had expected ......

We reached Kashgar in China!!7869 km, Kashgar (CN)Bine and Uli reached their first big destination - Kashgar in "real asia", in China. Now we are resting and planning our next steps towards east.........

Tadjikistan II (Uli)Aug 8, 2008 - Sept 8, 20087543 km, Sary Tash (KS)Khorog - Alichur - Murghab - Karakol - kyrgyz border After cycling more than 500 kilometers, 8000 meters in altitude and 10 days we finally arrived in Khorog - in the western part of the south-eastern corner of Tadjikistan. We take a simple but cheap 10-USD room in the Pamir Lodge, do our laundry and clean the bicycles, and enjoy the nice atmosphere and the shady garden of the lodge. There is a great bazar in Khorog, where we stock up food for the oncoming Pamir Highway. Many cyclists stay here. Most of them are “normal” ones, who spend their vaccation to cycle the Pamir Highway or explore some small valleys in the surroundings. Because many of them finish in Khorog in order to take a minibus or taxi back to Dushanbe, ......

Tadjikistan I (Uli)Aug 8, 2008 - Aug 27, 20086958 km, Khorog (TJ)uzbek border - Penjinkent - Anji - Dushanbe - Kalaikhum - Khorog The border between Tadjikistan and Uzbekistan not only is a political border, but also a topographic one. While cycling the last kilometers in Uzbekistan we see diffuse silouettes of mountain ranges on both sides of the road. The closer we get to the border, the more obvious these silouettes appear. When we reach the border post, I clearly recognize a valley, which we will follow. At this stage, we could not imagine that – 30 days later – we will have cycled 20.000 meters in altitude. Luckily crossing the border is completely hassle free. Registrations are not checked by the Uzbek officials – theoretically all travellers have to proof a hotel registration fo......

In the middle of the Pamir!6953 km, Khorog (TJ)After cycling some very rough 500 kilometers from dushanbe to khorog - at the afghan border - we ar now in khorog. the mountains, the campsites - stunning!!!!......

We are in Tadjikistan!6387 km, Dushanbe (TJ)From Samarkand we entered Tadjikistan and are cycling through stunning Fan Mountains to Dushanbe......

uzbekistan (bine)Jul 18, 2008 - Aug 10, 20085899 km, dushanbe (TJ)Kungrad - Nukus - Tortkul - Bukhara - Samarqand we had to cover the 300 kilometers from the kazak border to the first uzbek town by train. our uzbek visa was already running because we had to wait such a long time at the harbour in aktau and because of the little dog shetpe. the train should leave beyneu at 06.30 and because we were worried about the carriage of our bikes we have been there one hour before. but the train was already waiting and a lot of people were at the platform. they were entering and leaving the train, things were sold and it was a real chaos. it took us a while to find the right waggon and even longer to get all our luggage in the already full train. we were already sweating when we sat down after al......

The Red Sand Desert is done!5776 km, Bukhara (UZ)Cycling the road down from Kungrad, Nukus and the desert road to Bukhara......

Enormous heat in Uzbekistan5296 km, Nukus (UZ)After cycling though but successful 600 km from Aktau (KZ) to the Uzbek border, we took the train from Berneau (KZ) to Kungrad (UZ). Now we are in Nukus, heading to Bukhara.......

We are in Baku4495 km, Baku (AZ)After some hot days through nice but mountainous area we are now in the Capital of Azerbaijan.......

On the way to Baku4248 km, Goeycay (AZ)Azerbaijan is a great Country to travel! We are heading to Baku.........

Tbilisi - heading to Azerbaidschan3833 km, Tbilisi (GE)After cyling to the Capital of Georgia we are - after getting the Visa - now soon heading to Azerbaischan border.......

New Country - Georgia!3412 km, Batumi (GE)We survived awful russian bureaucracy - now we managed to get to Georgia!......

End of Russia3406 km, Sochi (RUS)Before Border to Georgia......