Blog 5 6th – 9th April Turkistan to Kyzylorda Distance: 323km Total Distance: 1199km Day 14 (6th April) – 119km In Turkistan, our guide Islam was afflicted with a health issue and after much discussion with his family and the team, sadly he decided to return to his home city of Shymkent to get some […]
Breaking the Cycle Central Asia
Life along the Syr Darya
Blog 4 30th March – 5th April Kazakhstan Border to Turkistan Distance: 406km Total Distance: 871km The border crossing between Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan was even more chaotic than the Tajikistan-Uzbekistan crossing a few days earlier. We had to walk my bike and lug all our baggage through passport control and security screens for both countries, a […]
A dam collapse and the accidental lake
27-29 March 2025 Total distance: 408km From Tashkent the plan was to drive back to Buka, the town that we stayed in on our first night in Uzbekistan, as I didn’t need to cycle the same road twice and rejoin the line of my journey there. Rather than heading straight for the Kazakhstan border, I […]
BREAKING THE CYCLE CENTRAL ASIA – A chilly start
DUSHANBE The first six days on the road have been very hectic and I haven’t found time to publish this blog until now. I decided to make Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan the expedition base as it is most central to the expedition, roughly half way between the Syr Darya and Amu Darya (rivers) that […]
BREAKING THE CYCLE CENTRAL ASIA – Introduction
Welcome to the first blog for what’s going to be an epic journey through the heart of Central Asia. I’m writing from my room in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, soon to travel 300km north across the Fann Mountains and down to the ancient city of Khujand, a 2500 year old city founded by Alexander the Great, where I […]